“It is my role to examine existing practices and see how we can improve our efficiencies”


little higher too. At the beginning of


the drought period in June I arranged for the hire of a Charterhouse seed drill to come in at beginning of August. As the summer wore on, I began to think I had made a bad choice in my timing. However, on the


Friday before the seeder was due in on the Monday, the heavens opened and the spell of hot weather broke. We got the seed in and over sowed pretty much most of the field.


Helped by the


Above: Ben Able drawing the line.


Below (l-r) Matthew Parry, Paul Knape, Malcolm Gardner and Ben Able


inclement weather that followed, the seed was up in four days and people were starting to look at me as though I were a rain god. The fortuitous timing helped us provide an excellent presentation for our President’s XI cricket match in mid August. I spent the rest of the summer working on, and getting to know, the cricket squares, as this is


an area of groundsmanship that I have always loved. Soon after starting on the preparations I found that the squares were extremely dry and nothing like those I have


been used to in the past. Taking a look at a soil


profile of the squares I soon discovered what I was inheriting. Both squares were extremely dry down most of the profile, with the top 25mm only showing signs of having adequate moisture. Under the top 25mm the rest was very dry, very crumbly and lacking suitable consolidation. We spent a lot of time watering during the evenings and nights in order to get moisture back into the profile. The main part of the square was cut to 15mm with final pitch preparation seeing the height of cut reduced to 4mm or even down to 3mm. The bowls green was cut consistently throughout the summer at a height of around 4.5 to 5.5mm. The green is tucked away in the corner of the site and regularly suffers from poor air movement which, during the right conditions, increases the incidence of disease attacks; we are currently suffering some fusarium and have recently sprayed with Heritage to control the disease, Other than those early inputs I have spent the remainder of my time evaluating existing working practices and the culture of the club and how it ticks. The pitches seem to stand up to the wear and tear of a heavy fixture list. Records show that there has not been a lost fixture for well over six years at the club. I am keen to introduce


new regimes when the time is right; as with most grounds they all have there own way of working. It is my role to examine these existing practices and see how we can improve our


efficiencies and services to our members.


I have found the staff to be very


accommodating and they seem to have the relevant experience and potential skills to take this ground to a new level. We can achieve this


by implementing and improving the frequency of operations along with choosing the right products and machinery to be more efficient.


As for our end of season


renovations, we have recently completed them on both our cricket squares and tennis courts, scarifying in several directions, aerating, topdressing and over seeding with Rigby Taylors R9; a mix of 40% Ace Perennial Ryegrass, 20% Tucson Perennial Ryegrass, 20% Greenflash Perennial Ryegrass, 20% Greenway Perennial Ryegrass. The areas were then fertilised with RT Organic 8/0/6 winter granular fertilizer. We have also just completed


a programme of scarifying four of our football pitches, reseeding, fertilising and topdressing them for which we used Rigby Taylors R14 seed mix and RT’s Organic 8/0/6 winter granular fertilizer. We applied topdressing in two parts with both 25 tonnes of 60/40 and 25 tonnes of an organic green spread to each pitch. I have to say that, at the time of writing, I am impressed with the early results.


One of the major differences between this facility and the schools I worked at previously is the different operating times. Schools are in use every day and we had clearly defined term times for set sports. At the BA Club we are influenced by the bookings and the traditional winter and summer sports calendar, with most of the sports provision mainly being held during weekends and evenings. Therefore, we tend to have a clear period during the days to get things done.


The members get to use the facilities free, however, we do operate a pay and play policy on some of our facilities such as the rugby and football pitches, charging between £75- £140 for the hire of a pitch per game.


As for the amount of fixtures played in any one season we often see well over 280 football games played along with 40


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