POLICEMAN BUS DRIVER PUB LANDLORD STORE MANAGER The perfect CV for a Groundsman!
TONY BOLTON explains how his interesting career path has led him to work at two high quality sports venues in Lancashire; Sedgley Park RUFC and Rawtenstall Cricket Club.
’m nearer 60 than 50. I was born and brought up in Blackpool, and I hate the place - garish and cheap - and what about those trippers and holidaymakers! I always liked sport and started playing rugby at grammar school. I left school and joined the Police Service, and was subsequently posted to Bury in Lancashire, which then became part of the Greater Manchester Force. I served in uniform and on the C.I.D., but continued to play rugby at Sedgley Park RUFC in Whitefield, North Manchester. Unfortunately, I seriously damaged two vertebrae in my back - hooking can be a precarious business - and, as a result, I was forced to retire on ill health grounds. I did various jobs including pub landlord, bus driver, agricultural work and ended up as a security officer with Asda. I progressed my career within Asda on the retailing side until, some seven or eight years ago I was the Deputy Store Manager at their flagship Trafford Park Store in Manchester. Further problems with my back and three operations later Asda offered a retirement settlement I couldn’t refuse.
I
Not wanting to lie idle, I returned to Sedgley Park RUFC. In my playing days I had often helped out on the ground, mowing, marking out etc., so I offered to help out on the pitches. Within weeks I was asked to become the sole groundsman.
The equipment at the club was very limited, a 70hp David Brown Selectamatic on agricultural tyres, the biggest Sisis threepenny bit style spiker I had ever seen and a set of three Lloyds trailed gangs, all in pretty poor condition. When driving the tractor you had to decide which gear was needed before you started, as changing gear in motion was out of the question. If the spiker was lifted on the hydraulics 95% of steering was lost and the gangs chewed rather than mowed!
At the end of my first season an
external contractor was brought in to do renovations on the club’s three full size pitches and a smaller junior pitch. The standard of work and results were very poor and very expensive. The pitches remained partially devoid of grass cover and, although well constructed only a few years earlier, were compacted and poor draining. There followed a meeting with the
President and Treasurer where I explained that “I could do a better job if I had some decent equipment”. Initially, we purchased a new Iseki 21hp compact, a much smaller Sisis slitter and a set of three Hayter Beaver hydraulic gangs. We also got a pedestrian spreader for seed and fertiliser. I swear that little Iseki had more power than the David Brown. A regime of slitting, seeding, top dressing (levelled with a towed aluminium yard
gate)
began to improve the playing surfaces. The club’s first team had just been promoted into National Legue Three North, and were to become a semi pro outfit. Concerned about the over use of the club’s main pitch - four or five games a week plus training and pre-match warm ups - I had a meeting with the Chairman, a former playing colleague, and a set of ground rules were drawn up. Limited matches at my discretion, no training and no pre-match warm ups. The playing surface showed real signs of improvement.
In my second season at the club I was
asked to assist with the management of the first team, not on the playing or coaching side, but logistics and looking after kit etc. I accepted this offer and now travel all over with the team. The team gained two further promotions and have been playing in National League One for the past three seasons. It’s quite an achievement as we are now one of the top thirty or so clubs in the country,
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