GREG SMITH, Head Groundsman at Meadow Lane, home of Notts County FC, is having to cope with dual sports while Nottingham Rugby Club await the completion of their new stadium. He is finding it an interesting challenge
LIKE many Groundsmen, we all continue to face the challenges put in front of us, what with the weather and the ever demanding fixture list we endure each season. If that’s not enough, the trend to bring together two different winter sports at one arena seems to be gaining momentum. For me this has been a new experience. This season we are currently hosting a number of Nottingham Rugby Club fixtures. They are in transition, having sold off their old ground, and are waiting for their new pitch to be ready at the old Boots Ground, where I previously managed for twelve years.
Knowing that we would be catering for dual sports this year it was even more important to carry out a successful end of season renovation. Last year we had the pitch completely Koroed off, a full 50mm, remixed and resown. However this year, knowing full well we would be catering for rugby, I decided it would be best to keep some stability in the pitch. So we employed Simon Hutton from Fineturf to come in and fraise mow off 3mm of unwanted vegetation, thereby cleaning up the surface ready for reseeding. We then vertidrained the pitch with 220mm deep tines. Once completed we top-dressed with 60 tonnes of Mansfield sand. The pitch was then over sown using our Sisis auto seeder, in three passes, the first two delivering 18 x 25kg
bags of MM60 seed and the final pass empty to help re-firm the seed. A Scotts pre-seeding fertiliser 8/12/8 was then applied to initiate an early response. We managed to get all the renovations completed in two days with the work finished by 25th May. The seed was up within seven days. Trevor, my assistant, and I were soon into the daily mowing regime using our Allett mowers. We have one Regal and one Buffalo that are kept solely for the main pitch. We kept the sward at 28mm
throughout the closed season and then reduced the height to 26mm for our pre- season matches that began on the 28th July.
Our feeding regime started with a Scotts granular 9/7/7, a liquid 14/ 3/10 and an iron 23/0/0. Then every 4 weeks we applied another dose of Scotts 9/7/7. As for aeration we used our Sisis barrel
spiker at 6” depth on a fortnightly basis, ensuring we always completed the work a week before any matches. Watering has been ongoing. During the hot spell we were watering twice a day applying about five minutes of water on each watering cycle. However, the hot summer weather did take its toll on our goal mouths so, in August, and for the first time since I took up my post five years ago, we made the decision to returf our 6 yard boxes.
Inturf supplied us with 38mm thick reinforced turf on big rolls. The results
have been fantastic; you cannot even see any evidence of the turf being used. We are very pleased with the way the pitch is holding up. The mild weather is certainly helping prolong grass growth and still allowing us the opportunity to keep adding new seed during divoting. Since the start of the season we have had five football matches, four rugby games and regular football training sessions on the pitch. To date the change overs between football and rugby have gone well. It usually takes two days to complete a change over; the rugby post sockets are situated on the 6-yard lines, we overmark the lines with green paint using a transfer wheel marker. As for disease we have only seen a slight attack of fusarium and red thread. An application of Daconil and increased cultural regimes (aeration and feeding) have helped clean it up. It will be interesting to see how the pitch holds up once we get into the back end of our playing season November- February. Also, we have a few back-to- back fixtures that see football and rugby games within two days of one another. Interesting times ahead, I guess. Dual sports provision is certainly an eye opener, I have respect for all the lads who face similar challenges. I just hope we can keep both codes pleased for the rest of the season, and ensure they continue to play on quality, safe and consistent surfaces.
New Challenges at NOTTS COUNTY
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