One of a new breed of young groundsmen, Leicester City’s Ed Mowe is taking some unusual action to ensure the players have the best possible surface to play on.


Laurence Gale MSc report


CRISP THINKING! T


he Walkers Stadium is the home of Leicester City Football Club. Completed in 2002, it is a stone’s


throw from the club’s long time home, Filbert Street, and has a capacity of 32,500.


Leicester City spawned two of England’s greatest footballers, Peter Shilton and Gary Lineker and, if that wasn’t enough, also nurtured the talents of a young Gordon Banks. Head Groundsman is Ed Mowe, one of


a group of young and talented groundsmen making their way in the industry. Ed has overall responsibility for the stadium pitch and the training ground and is supported by a team of


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four; Simon Gibson, Paul Billington, Andy Oakes and Tom Rowley. The stadium’s ‘wrap around’ design


creates the usual problems of light and shade but there is plenty of space around the edge of the pitch allowing easy access for machinery and personnel. Ed has been Head Groundsman since 2002 having previously worked at the old Filbert Street stadium. He oversaw the installation and growing in of the new pitch, constructed by Hewitts, which is sand based with under soil heating and a fully automated pop up watering system comprising of three sprinkler heads on the pitch and a further ten around the perimeter.


Due to late fixtures and corporate events, Ed did not begin his end of season renovation until the first week in June. This involved koroing down to a depth of 40mm, importing 500 tonnes of MM35 sand and ameliorating into the top 100mm. 200 tonnes of Fibresand was imported and mixed down to 75mm. The pitch was then relevelled, decompacted using a vertidrain and overseeded and fertilised using 400kg of Advanta MM25 seed and 400 kg NPK 12:3:9.


All the work was completed within ten days.The pitch was then covered with germination sheets with the first signs of grass showing within four days. The


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