“I have a great bunch of lads working alongside me. Each one knows what is expected of him and they just get on with it”
telephone is going. “That was reception letting me know that a delivery of sand has just arrived”. This is swiftly followed by his mobile ringing. “A belt has broken on one of the mowers that, unusually, they are struggling with”. After some toing and froing of technical questions, it seems Maurice has come up with the solution and the caller, one of his lads, goes away happy, leaving Maurice a few minutes peace and quiet. These are the bread and butter, often technical, problems of the job which, whilst may be vast in quantity and frustrating at times, Maurice clearly loves and thrives on. At the other, management, end of his job, the downside is that he is on call 24/7. Naturally, he can be seen as public enemy number one if the racecourse loses a meeting due to it being unfit, as that is a lot of lost revenue and bad PR in today’s cost conscious, corporate world. But, despite all his experience, even Maurice hasn’t yet found a way of being able to control the weather. Even though, like other racecourses, Haydock
pays a fee to a meteorologist to try to predict the weather, and we all know how accurate those forecasts can be! The composition of the soil at Haydock is black and loamy. It holds water. Great if you want to grow carrots but, for horse racing, has meant that the course has almost literally been bogged down by its predisposition for repeatedly, and quickly, turning the going to ‘heavy’, making any groundsman’s job very difficult. Ironically, it was an attempt to alleviate this situation that has given Maurice and his team one of the biggest challenges over and above the normal problems faced by any racing groundstaff. Regular racegoers may know that May 2007 saw the beginning of a four year track redevelopment programme costing a total of £2.5million. The aim was to completely overhaul the track, instead of repeatedly paying out for “patching up weaknesses”. “As as an example,” says Maurice “we spent £30k on temporary covers in advance of the Sprint Cup, but still lost
the meeting to the weather as the rain got underneath. With climate change and the weather generally getting wetter, we decided long term it would be a good investment to strip the old turf off, introduce sand, rotovate it in, redrain the track as well as returf it.” This would be a big enough project for
any grounds team. The relaying of a new course or pitch, whatever the sport, is a major undertaking giving rise to numerous headaches along the way. However, what makes the task at Haydock stand out as being of particularly seismic proportions, is the fact that Maurice and co have had to carry out the redevelopment without any interruption to the racing fixtures! They have not had the luxury to close down for a period and work behind closed doors, or even work in the ‘off season’. It has not been an option. It has brought immense problems but, if ever there was a right man for the job, Haydock Park have him. Even though Maurice has been stretched, he absorbs the stresses that the new project brings
Unit 11B, Hill Farm Estate, Irthlingborough Road, Little Addington, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN14 4AS, UK Ph: 01933 652235 Email:
info@trimaxmowers.co.uk
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