C
arrow Road football stadium, the home of Norwich City, was opened in 1935 after ‘The
Canaries’ flew ‘The Nest’, their fittingly named previous ground. It became their third ground since the club’s formation in 1902. The current stadium consists of four stands - The ‘Barclay’ and ‘Norwich and Peterborough’ (aka The River End) which lie behind the goals, and the ‘Geoffrey Watling’ and ‘Jarrold’ (aka The South Stand) along the touch lines. The current crowd capacity is 26,018. The record attendance for a home game at Carrow Road was 43,984 in 1963 when Norwich lost 2-0 to Leicester City in the sixth round of the FA Cup. The record attendance for an all-seated crowd at Carrow Road is 25,522 for the Premiership match against Manchester United on 9th April 2005, a match Norwich won 2-0. Like most modern stadiums the stands create shade problems on the pitch, particularly during the winter months when the sun is low in the sky. When I caught up with Head Groundsman, Gary Kemp, at the end of October the extent of the problem was immediately evident with well over two thirds of the pitch lying in shade throughout the day. Soil temperatures vary by up to four degrees between the shaded and non-shaded areas and frost will, therefore, take longer to disappear from these areas. With the construction of a new Desso pitch in 2004 the problem has lessened
because the total sand rootzone warms up quicker than the old soil based pitch. At the same time an under soil heating system was fitted which is used as and an when required. It is usually put on before matches when a very heavy frost is forecast but, with a running cost of £1700 per day, it is used sparingly.
Gary has been with the club for twenty years starting at the training ground. Eight years ago he was appointed Head Groundsman overseeing a staff of four. Russell Allison is Gary’s assistant at the stadium - his father was previously Head Groundsman at Carrow Road for forty years.
Sean Claxton, Adrian Gooch and Chris Reynolds work at the Colney Training ground which is set in twenty- six acres and includes four senior size grass pitches, one junior pitch, training grid areas and two artificial training areas.
The Stadium Pitch
The Desso pitch was installed for Nowich City’s return ito the Premiership. It has 3% of artificial fibres sown into the pitch playing area using 20,000,000 stiches. These fibres help to stabilise the pitch and reduce the amount of divot repairs required after matches.
Hewitts installed the pitch that comprises a gravel drainage raft overlaid with an under soil heating system and 300mm deep sand rootzone.
The pitch was then oversown with an Advanta MM60 ryegrass blended seed. It has a seventeen head, fully automated, pop up watering sytem that is fed from a borehole, with the option to extract seventy cubic metres a day, not that Gary ever requires that much! Whilst it is important to keep the sand based pitch watered, the frequency of use is driven by the weather. Watering helps to maintain plant health, pitch stability and provides the required playing surface for the players. The pitch has an old Redgra, all weather, surround which, whilst providing an adequate run off area, does require extra labour time to keep clean and tidy and free from contamination. In addition Gary has to be careful when using a weedkiller as people and machinery moving across it could easily transfer the chemical onto the playing surface, especially in wet conditions.
Gary would like to see it replaced with either a new artificial grass product or, better still, a wet pore rubber infill. This would allow him to utilise the area for turning mowers when cutting the pitch. At the moment Gary has to use boards to avoid wear and contamination on the pitch. Match preparation begins immediately after the last game has finished. Divoting is ongoing after training and warm up routines, half time and at the end of the match.
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