big in terms of scale of machinery and acreage managed. For Julian, the scope of the task is almost agricultural, so vast is the complex of playing surfaces he and his staff maintain.
The club runs 14 main lawns, each measuring 300 yards long by 160 yards wide, across two sites separated by Sussex farmland.
A polo pitch can look something akin to a battlefield after play - a state that must be addressed with minimal delay
Six pitches make up the Lawns complex by the main village entrance of the club, while a further eight are sited at the Ambersham complex, two miles away, on what was once an old World War Two airfield that suffered at the hands of wartime bombing. Polo pitches receive more of a hammering than perhaps any other sportsturf. Polo ponies are carefully selected and bred for explosive acceleration and speed, as well as stamina, agility and manoeuvrability - all factors vital for the excitement of the sport but ones that take their toll on turf. And, to limit the likelihood of these equine dynamos careering into the crowds, a ten yards deep safety zone surrounds the pitch, keeping spectators out of harm’s way of heavily braking horsepower. “Accidents are few and far between,” Julian confirms reassuringly. “Our grass needs to be extremely durable and able to recover well,” he continues. “I use a mix of perennial ryegrass supplied by British Seed Houses (BSH) and go through 800 x 20kg bags a year. “BSH produces a really good seed at a very reasonable price,” he adds. “When I joined we were looking to change a few things with the turf so decided to go out to tender. BSH gave us the best price for what we thought was a superior seed.” As much for sporting dynamism, polo is known for the countless numbers of divots
that ponies hurtling at top speeds inevitably create.
The deepest ones - up to three inches - materialise when ponies dig their hooves in. A polo pitch can look something akin to a battlefield after play - a state that Julian knows must be addressed with minimal delay. Repairing the lawns begins immediately after a match - good time management is a crucial part of the mending process, he emphasises. “It’s vital to get straight on it and is even more pressing after heavy rain, my worst nightmare in the job. The pitch can end up in a pretty terrible state, so we get straight out after chukkas and start on the repairs. The earlier it’s done, the more successfully the pitch will recover.” Repair is so critical that Cowdray pays an agency (JFD Associates) to bus in a team of mainly Eastern European treaders-in to walk over the pitch, filling in divots using a sand, seed and green waste mix. “There’s usually about fifteen workers, but we can employ anything up to twenty-five depending on the match and the state of the pitch,” adds Julian. These latterday journeymen follow the calendar of polo events and, for obvious reasons, are much in demand. The more general maintenance involves
topdressing twice a year with sand in March and June, using more than 4,500 tonnes across the fourteen lawns, applying a minimum of 250 tonnes of sand per lawn. “We are lucky to have a natural sandy loam-based soil here,” Julian explains, “which means drainage has never been a problem. That’s a blessing considering the size of the estate.” Taking on a new post as head
groundsman can often be a fraught one, as ideas on how best to run a maintenance programme, preferred choice of seed and makes of machinery thought most suited for the task can all be highly personal ones and result in a major overhaul by the new incumbent. For Julian though, the transition was
largely a smooth one. “Fortunately, I inherited grounds in great condition, which needed little changing, but was met with an ageing fleet of machinery. The pitches were in fantastic nick but the machinery needed replacing and updating. I was lucky to be given a generous budget for renewing our fleet.” Julian set about replacing all the tractors with a new fleet of New Holland units, introducing all new cutting equipment, new towing machines, two vertidrainers and a Weidenmann Terra Spike - used for deep spiking and aeration.
”I specified hydraulically folding cutters. 14
There are very few currently on the market, but Kesmac gang mowers were the best for the job. With winding country roads separating the Ambersham and Lawns complexes, it was vital that we had a machine that could travel back and forth without any problems,” he says. One machine few and far between in the industry, but one Julian and his team swear by is the Bowcom Trike motorised line marker. “Few clubs in the UK have one, possibly because, at £3,500, it’s not a cheap piece of kit,” says Julian. “You really
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