King William’s College, Isle of Man
BUDGETS and VOLUNTEERS ...
B
udgets - the bane of every groundsman’s life. We are a proud bunch, from the local volunteers, right up to the lucky few who work at the world’s biggest stadiums. We all have a common goal regardless of what level we work at - to produce the best surfaces we can, and the quality of our surfaces is what we are judged upon. This is unfortunate, many fail to consider what we have to
machinery that they need - it amazes me how these clubs survive.
The very survival of these clubs often depends on the volunteer sector. How many other business’s survival is based on a volunteer workforce? It is a sad fact that the grass roots clubs are effectively run as a charity, whose very survival is dependent on a handful of people who give up their time for nothing. How can this happen in a multi-million pound industry, no not groundsmanship - sports?
The puzzle is that sports would not be complete without the surfaces on which they are played. A professional industry that is supported by charity? Sooner or later this phenomenon must come to an end.
I am one of the lucky ones, I get paid for doing the work which I love. My name is Michael Atherton (yes, I know!) and I am currently employed as the Deputy Head Groundsman at King William’s College, based in the Isle of Man. It is a position that I have treasured for almost six years now, previous to which I was introduced to sportsturf at my local golf club.
Michael Atherton (honest)
work with before passing comment. Groundsmanship only seems to be
recognised at the top level; people marvel over the patterns at Manchester City, but few will ever realise what goes in to producing such a surface. At the other end of the scale, people turn a blind eye to the quality of the work at a local club ground and it is often taken for granted. Many of these clubs can’t afford to pay for a groundsman, many can’t afford to buy the
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School groundsmanship has often been considered something of a Holy Grail for any groundsman. It is, sadly, one of the few stable positions within groundsmanship. Our employment is not dependent on the success of our team and it is not dependent on members ‘subs’. A position on the grounds at a school is often considered a job for life. There is a varied sports curriculum at the college, and it is our duty to prepare and maintain surfaces to allow our teachers to deliver their lessons. In addition to this, we also provide a home venue for two cricket clubs, one rugby club and one hockey club. The survival of these clubs depends on us providing them with a surface. Without the surfaces that we provide, these clubs would simply have nowhere to play. This leads me to the costs of providing these surfaces.
As cricket is our most labour intensive surface, I will focus on this area. We have four cricket squares and two sets of five bay practice nets. Last year, we had approximately 120 fixtures, in addition to daily lessons on the squares. The cricket nets are in daily use from the school, and one evening per week by one of the clubs. We have matches during school hours, evenings and weekends, it is not uncommon for us to have four matches over the course of a weekend. Approximately eighty percent of our fixtures are club matches, therefore, common logic would dictate that eighty percent of our maintenance budget should be derived from the cricket clubs. This is where our industry fails, there is often a significant difference between what is paid for the use of the facilities, and what it costs to deliver them. We can attribute our running costs to
three areas: Materials
There are numerous products on the market for us groundsmen to choose from. We can spend anywhere between £50 and £300 for a bag of grass seed. Loams from £3 up to £6, different pesticides, fertilisers etc. My point is that there is scope to fit almost every budget where materials are concerned. As groundsmen, we have opportunities
to make further savings. We can join together with other clubs and buy in bulk, we can shop around for the best prices - there are a number of suppliers out there and they all want to move their products. We can compost our clippings and dress the outfields. There are savings to be made if we look hard enough.
Machinery
Again, there are a number of manufacturers and dealers out there, all with a wide range of prices. There is also the second hand market where bargains
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