“I often think ‘I might only be a groundsman, but at least I have common sense’!”


Kevin Whorley, Head Groundsman, Ashville College


the clippings fly to add nutrients. They are then cut once a week after September, but this depends on the weather and ground conditions. Long term, we are looking into getting the first team square fraise mown and the outfield scarified and overseeded with a dwarf rye grass seed. We use Scotts 14:5:10 spring/summer fertiliser and Scotts 6:0:27 for our autumn feed. We also use Boughton County Loam and Johnsons grass seed, which has cultivars of Jessica, Evita and Sauvignon. On the rugby pitches we overseed with Johnsons J Premier pitch + Gromax plus. This gives us excellent grass coverage. We get outstanding results from applying Scotts Sierrablen 28:5:5. Rugby pitch preparation work begins in July when we start to top the pitches to 3”, and that’s when we erect the Harrods rugby posts. We contract out the broadleaf weed


control spraying and fertiliser applications, which are undertaken by


Alan Chappelow Sports Ground Contractors, in conjunction with Simon Hardcastle of Scotts. The team has recently been retrained on the Cricket Foundation 1 and 2 courses. This has given us an insight into new techniques, and it was also useful to get ‘refreshed’ in the basics. We intend to do similar with the basic winter pitch and linemarking courses.


Our six tennis courts and five netball courts have recently been resurfaced. They are surrounded by trees so the maintenance of these is done weekly, when we brush the leaves and other debris off the areas. Then we spray for moss and algae build up during the October half term, and when required as fixtures allow. The previously mentioned


Wiedenmann Terra Spike was purchased in 2009 to complement the Kubota 9540 loader tractor, which is now the workhorse of the department. We were unsure of which machine would be best suited to break up the clay structure but,


after seeing demonstrations of the Wiedenmann, in conjunction with the Kubota 9540, we were more than convinced that we would break up the clay compaction. We purchased the machinery from K&M Mowers. Pitches are overmarked weekly, usually


on a Friday, for the weekend rugby fixtures. For the athletics track, summer field events and rounders, we overmark on a Monday or, if we have an athletics meeting, we do it on the day. We are also nominated contractors for the local High School, where we carry out all the ground works. We generally cut and overmark their three football pitches, one rugby pitch on a weekly basis. In the summer, the 400 metre athletics track and field events are overmarked weekly.


Other duties the team perform on the campus include flag paving, tarmac renovations, fencing and hard landscaping, as well as maintaining the flower and shrub borders. We also assist other departments with


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