can’t wait to get up in the morning and get into
“When I go to bed at night, I
work, that’s how good this club is
concerts (all standing) or 44,000 when seated on the pitch. There are 218 floodlights producing 436,000 watts of power, 86 turnstiles and 35 sprinklers for irrigation. Dimensions of the pitch are 105 metres long and 68 metres wide giving a total playing area of 7,140 square metres and a total grass area of 9,430 square metres.
to work for.” Roy Rigby, Head Groundsman
The stadium has twice been highly commended for the standard of the pitch - 2003/4 and 2005/6. It also won the BALI award for pitch construction in 2004. All of this is fine testament to the dedication and skills of the builders and groundstaff. Head Groundsman, Roy Rigby, joined the club in 2001 from Blackburn Rovers where he had been in charge of the training ground for ten years. Prior to that he worked as a Groundsman for Blackburn council and has spent an impressive total of 34 years in the turfcare industry. Roy commutes each day from Clitheroe where he lives; he is married with two grown-up children. A keen Crown Green bowls player (when time used to allow) and ex county team member, Roy rises at 5.00am every morning to make the
journey by car to the stadium. “It’s no hardship” says Roy, adding “When I go to bed at night, I can’t wait to get up in the
morning and get into work, that’s how good this club is to work for.” Roy’s
Two views of the ‘Chelsea’ pitch on 5th April 16
enthusiasm is equally matched by his Deputy Head Groundsman, Lee Jackson. A Manchester lad born and bred, Lee has worked at the club since leaving school seventeen years ago. When asked about outside interests and hobbies, Lee
laughs: “I don’t have any time for that stuff, my work here is very demanding and we want everything just right. We owe it to the club and the players to make sure that they have the best possible surface to play on and ‘less than best’ is not in our vocabulary here.”
The enthusiasm of these guys is just amazing and infectious. By now, camera in hand, I am demanding to see the revered pitch! I am not disappointed either. The Desso specification grass sward is beautifully manicured and superbly presented.
The pitch is constructed over
approximately nine metres of indigenous clay supporting 100mm of stone capping, followed by (working upwards) 100mm gravel then 50mm blinding grit topped with 200mm medium fine sand and finished with 100mm 70/30 rootzone. The Desso Grass Master is 100% natural grass reinforced with Desso synthetic grass fibres. As a standard practice during construction the manufacturer specifies that over 20 million artificial grass fibres are injected 20cm deep into the pitch. This equates to 40,000km of fibre strands in a single playing area (the circumference of the world). The natural grass roots then entwine with the synthetic element to anchor the turf, making it substantially more durable and stable. Approximately 3% of the pitch is made up of these artificial fibres or ‘hairs’, giving the feeling and characteristics of playing on a conventional 100% natural grass surface, but with much increased strength. A normal natural pitch can take a maximum of 300 hours of play a season. A Desso pitch will take easily three times that with much less damage and, accordingly, over 250 of them have been installed worldwide. Lee Jackson explains.
“Maintenance of the Desso system is comparable to that of a conventional grass pitch in terms of mowing, scarifying, fertilising and re-seeding. Frequency of mowing depends greatly on temperature and humidity. As a rule of thumb at Manchester City, from end of season renovation to the start of new season 30mm mowing heights are maintained. From the start of the season to the end of October 22mm, from end of October to end of March 25mm, and from April to the end of season the height is gradually lowered from 22mm to 14mm. In the winter the pitch is cut when required depending on conditions and, in spring, usually twice a week, increasing to five times a week in the summer months.” The area on which the stadium is built was subjected to a series of minor earth tremors in 2003 due to subsidence of old industrial mine workings. Around one hundred were recorded with some measuring up to 4 on the Richter scale! Despite this
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