Last year Ransomes Jacobsen teamed up with their local football club, Ipswich Town to sponsor a year’s work placement scheme for an aspiring
Groundsman. Seventeen year old Marcus Fuller was the beneficiary of the scholarship and Kevin Marks caught up with him on a match day before the ‘Tractor Boys’ game against Barnsley
FULLER Potential!
Ransomes Marcus! M
arcus Fuller lives in Elmswell about 20 miles west of Ipswich and attended Stowupland
High School. All Year 10 students had to undertake a two-week work experience placement and a fortnight at Ipswich Town Football Club, a club he supports, was the main factor in his decision to investigate what it would be like to be a groundsman. Was it a love of working on the land, being outside or following a family tradition? No, nothing so idealistic. “The main draw was football,
Setting out temporary goals
really” he said. “Yes, I love football and the thought of being around professional players was very appealing. When the opportunity came for work experience I had a go and found that I really loved it.” After leaving school he enrolled on an amenity horticulture and garden landscaping course at Otley College, which included day release to the football club, working at the training ground as well as the Portman Road stadium. After meeting Marcus for just a short time, it is obvious that he loves the job and, after more or less drifting into it, he is determined to make it a career. My next question was to ask about typical match day preparations and his part in them.
Setting out for line marking
“We come in at 7.30am but, if the weather is really bad, we’ll be in earlier. We then cut the pitch, normally two angles, mark it out, set up the goals and nets including the temporary goals to one side of the pitch, sort out any banners and anything like that, and then give it a little water before the game, just so it is nice and wet, because the manager likes it that way.” “This morning, however, we only cut once, across the pitch to really highlight the striping effect, because of the amount of rain we’d had overnight. It takes about 2¼ hours and we’re finished by 10.30am. We have a short break and then we’re out again to mark all the lines and set up the goals and nets. We have lunch around midday with a lot of the other staff and match-day stewards who are beginning to arrive by then. After that we have a bit of waiting around until the players come out for their pre- match warm up.” “Head Groundsman, Alan Ferguson, is very particular about where the players conduct their warm up and he consults with the manager to ensure that it has a minimal effect on the pitch. After they have finished, we go out and replace all the divots and do any necessary repairs.” “After that we go to our seats, which
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