Investment in a full time groundsman and a committed, forward-looking turf maintenance firm is paying off as Swindon Town’s County Ground becomes one of the league’s top pitches, reports Penny Comerford
PREMIER RENOVATIONS! S
windon Town Football Club start this season with a new manager, new players and high hopes of
improving its standing in the First Division. If there’s any uncertainty in terms of the football, there will be none surrounding the performance of the pitch at the County Ground itself, the subject during the past two years of an extensive renovation and maintenance programme carried out by Ecosol Turfcare.
Historically, things hadn’t been particularly rosy on the pitch front. The former club owners did not employ a full time groundsman or see the need for pitch renovation. Nor did they have much of a budget. Groundsman Marcus Cassidy worked for an external groundscare contractor and tended the pitch sporadically as Acting Head Groundsman. “Maintenance was minimal and so was the budget,” Marcus recalls. Consequently, in early 2008, the
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current owners inherited a poor surface and longstanding drainage problems. One of the first actions of CEO Nick
Watkins and Chairman Andrew Fitton was to recruit Marcus as Head Groundsman on a full time, permanent basis. “They wanted a decent pitch and were prepared to support me financially to achieve that. What they actually had then was far from ideal. It was over-used from training sessions the previous year - not to mention rock concerts and other social events - it was compacted, poorly draining and full of meadow grass” says Marcus. The Directors’ brief was simple, “We expect it to become one of the best grounds in the league.” Ecosol Turfcare, who operate out of nearby Malmesbury, were asked to assess the pitch in March 2008 and provide a renovation specification that met the short and long term requirements of the Club. Bretton King, managing director, says, “The pitch was in a poor state and
it was very clear that in-season work had been restricted, with compaction meter readings being particularly high. My proposal to the club addressed the problems and also mapped out a more rigorous year-round maintenance schedule. When we were then asked to do the work in the knowledge of the short close-season window, we reacted quickly and got things underway.” Says Nick Watkins, “Moving from outsourced maintenance to a fulltime groundsman, in tandem with Ecosol, has made a tremendous difference. We now apply fertiliser and fungicide materials far more appropriately and work on the pitch at precise times, not just at the convenience of our previous external contractor. Now into our second season, we have already seen another marked improvement in pitch quality over the first.”
The first task, in May 2008, was to remove the top 20mm of the pitch with a
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