We centre our operations around the sporting calendar and divide the maintenance requirements into three term times
and wanting, to help out with many of the sports pitch maintenance operations. Currently we have a team of five, complemented by some seasonal staff:
• Richard Barnett (Deputy Head Groundsman) who joined in September 2005; Richard was previously Head Groundsman for Shrewsbury Town Football Club.
• David Hinks (Groundsman) Joined in 1999. He looks after all the amenity areas, gardens and Headmaster’s garden.
• Mark Carsley (Groundsman). Second longest serving member of staff having been at here since 1989. Mark assists with all sports maintenance works.
•Colin Broadbent started in 2000. He is our aboricultralist, mechanic and also helps out on mowing duties.
• Scott Bright (Modern Apprentice) our newest recruit under our new mentoring scheme, starting in July 2006.
• David Strange (Seasonal Worker) Trained at Reaseheath NVQ Level 2 Greenkeeping. Started March 2007.
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• Heather Batterson (Seasonal Worker) Started April 2007.
Currently completing an HNC in Horticulture at The Welsh College, Northrop.
LIKE many other independent schools and colleges, we centre our operations around the sporting calendar and divide the maintenance requirements into three term times.
Lent Term: January - March
Sports played: girls
netball, cross country, boys soccer, rugby sevens and hockey. We host a cross country event for local primary schools, setting out various courses around the grounds and ensuring they are safe and properly fenced for different age groups. The boys hockey is played on our grass
hockey pitches which are maintained at a cutting height of 18 mm using Allett 36” mowers. We brush/drag matt, mow and mark for every game. We also regularly spike the hockey pitches using a SISIS 4” solid tine spiker towed by our 21hp Kioti compact tractor. Goalmouths and worn areas are top dressed with Bathgate M60 using a Trilo spreader. We now also have to maintain a training area that is used five times a week by TNS, a Welsh football club, and recent winners of the Football Association Wales Cup.
A lot of soccer and rugby sevens tournaments are played in this term which demands a lot of pitches to be prepared and marked. We utilise portable goal posts for the soccer, allowing us to rotate the pitches to reduce wear. Again, all pitches are drag brushed, spiked, mown and marked for each game. We also have to begin preparing our
cricket tables and outfields ready for the coming season. A programme of rolling and fertilising is carried out on winter sports areas that double up as cricket outfields. An application of 12.6.6 fertiliser is applied to stimulate and aid early spring growth. This year I hired in contractors to overseed our outfields that had suffered from the previous summer’s hot weather; overseeding with Advanta Action Replay at a rate of nine bags per pitch. Rolling of our squares and net areas began in early March using the Allett 36” mowers before gradually increasing the weight using ballast and then finally getting out our dedicated Autoroller cricket roller.
The college closes for a three-week Easter holiday break, and we have to use this time to prepare and change over the pitches to accommodate our Summer Term.
Summer Term: April- July
Sports played: cricket, athletics including softball / rounders and golf. We have three cricket squares, two are 14 strip squares and the other provides 6 strips. We also have 15 practice wickets. All are maintained identically. The squares are kept at a cutting
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