To advertise in this section contact Classifieds
Peter Britton on 01747 855335 email:
peter@pitchcare.com
SPORTS TURF CONTRACTORS
Avonmore Associates sportsfield construction
25 year of experience in bowling greens, fine turf management, pitch design, sportsfield construction and irrigation
Tel: 01789 293439 email:
info@avonmore-associates.co.uk www.avonmore-associates.co.uk
A CONTRACTING
Vertidraining, Hollow Coring, Overseeding, Draining, Gravel Banding, Field Top Maker, Deep Scarifying
Mobile: 07860 259692
Tel: 01284 735105 Email:
peter@buryturfcare.com www.buryturfcare.com
Football
WEAR TODAY... gone tomorrow
Banyards Farm Etling Green Dereham
Norfolk NR20 3EY
Tel: 01362 851930 Mobile: 07879 495445
Sports field and amenity contractors
Blec Groundbreaker • Gravel Banding • Vertidraining • Overseeding Topdressing • Conventional and Hydro seeding Stone Burying • Harley Raking • Laser Grading All cultivations • Ad hoc machine and operator hire
Specialist stump grinding contractors for golf course applications
One of the key issues with schools and local authorities is the limited resources available to maintain sports pitches. This article looks at the all the issues involved with pitches and seeks to give ideas of how maintenance could be modified to maximise playability and minimise wear
By Steve Gingell, STRI Southern Area Manager Factors contributing to wear
Sports Ground Contractors Ltd
Before we can give suggestions for improved maintenance we need to identify the issues surrounding pitch wear. Apart from the agronomic composition, the key factors that will determine the level of wear a pitch can cope with, before significant grass loss occurs, are the soil type and drainage. A sandy soil will generally be
D W Clark DRAINAGE LTD
SPECIALIST SPORTSTURF CONSTRUCTION & DRAINAGE CONTRACTORS • Gravel Banding • Sand Slitting
• Top Dressing • Renovation • Irrigation Unit 7, Brailes Industrial Estate, Winderton Lane, Lower Brailes Banbury, Oxfordshire OX15 5JW
Tel: 01608 685800 Fax: 01608 685801 email:
jim@dwclarkdrainageltd.co.uk Web:
www.dwclarkdrainageltd.co.uk 122
able to cope with a higher level of play than a clay soil. It is very difficult to predict this level but, in the past, Sport England have indicated up to two hours adult play per week on an undrained clay pitch, rising to six hours for a fully drained or sandy pitch. Whatever the make-up of a
pitch, try and avoid use if the top 30mm is saturated or very wet - this is when the real damage is done. Groundsmen often talk about their pitch problems developing after a specific game played in atrocious conditions, after which it was an ongoing problem to present and sustain decent surfaces. Maintenance is also a key
factor, influencing the ability of a pitch to cope with wear. If the maintenance of a heavy soil only consists of marking out and
cutting, you can expect problems. The graph tries to demonstrate this. It shows that, from establishment, the level of wear a pitch will cope with is related to the level of maintenance provided. Maintenance could then remain constant or, as often occurs, decline as increased play occurs. The only way to hopefully reduce wear is to increase or change maintenance. There will, however, be limits regarding finance, opportunity or just excess play that prevent further improvements.
What’s wrong with the pitch?
To answer this question we need to know the soil type, maintenance and factors associated with wear. On heavier soils, if a pitch is wet with poor drainage then the contributory reasons need to be identified. Most common is that any installed drainage is either malfunctioning or is not sufficient to cope with the demands placed on it.
On an undrained pitch the first option, if the soils are very heavy, is to intensively drain the pitch. In terms of maintenance, the first stage to improve the situation is to develop an aeration and decompaction programme. The “Verti-Drain” is an important way of increasing percolation rates.
A
&
J
C
N
H
A
M
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132