IRB Sevens invade BA Concorde Club
THE International Rugby Boards Sevens descended on Twickenham over the May Bank Holiday period for a damp weekend of competition, after a week of frantic training by ten of the competing teams at the British Airways Concorde Club, Cranford.
April was a trying month, dry as we all know and, in the lead up to the arrival of the IRB Sevens teams for a week of training at the BAC Club, I wasn’t looking forward to presenting them with hard
pitches to practice on. The speedy train irrigator was at the ready to at least try and soften the by now rapidly hardening surface, but the heavens opened just in time, to help us out. With the forecasts showing the
possibility of further rain over the next few days we decided to make use of it and apply a spring
“We had some very good
comments back from the IRB teams which is testament to the excellent team of groundsmen we have at the club”
MALCOLM GARDNER Head Groundsman
SURFING? An exceptional result!
TURF
fertiliser to the winter pitches. Most of them had already received an end of season overseeding and tonic, with repairs also carried out to the goal mouths. Whilst the dry weather had held back the expected growth, some signs of movement were starting to show through with each cycle of rain and sunshine. We normally only provide one rugby pitch for our members during the winter season and, at a pinch, set out a second by utilising the rugby posts and sockets left from the time that the London Broncos were based at the club. For the IRB training week we were asked to provide four pitches! Not all of them had posts at both ends but then the training didn’t really include much kicking practice, so they weren’t totally necessary. On one of the pitches we weren't able to provide posts at all, just the marked out pitch. The marking out was completed the week before the teams arrived, but the posts couldn’t go up until the Monday morning of their arrival. This was due to cricket fixtures being played on Saturday and a Kids fun day on Sunday. The setting out of which made for an interesting time, particularly as I had arranged a sabbatical working week for one of my team at a
had even turned up to train here when they were
supposed to have been down the road at the other site the RFU had booked for them! Throughout the week we were able to complete a cutting and marking programme that kept the pitches looking their best right through to the last training session on Friday evening - which was the Georgians who turned up for an unscheduled late session at 5pm. They must have thought they needed it but, as it happens, it didn’t help them much!
The week ended, but we were in no rush
to take down the posts on the first pitch as, the following week, we were expecting Ireland A and the New Zealand Maoris for a couple of days of training before the Churchill cup final at Twickenham.
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notable nearby venue. With a lot of hard work by the team we managed to get it all done on time and the pitches were looking very presentable. We had some very good comments back from the IRB teams which, of course, is what we want, and testament to the excellent team of groundsmen we have at the club. It was very good to see so many teams using the facilities, and amusing to note that some
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