Yet. it wasn’t until 1983 that wholesale change started to unfold on the estate, which saw the scaling down of the farmland, the construction of more playing fields and a nine hole golf course - a move that was largely unprecedented for a boys preparatory school. With the clear move towards upping the game on sports provision, spearheaded by the desire of former headmaster and keen golfer and cricketer Talbot Rice, there was born the need to bolster the turfcare team and recruit the staff necessary to realise the dream of bringing the pitches up to the standard desired. The man spearheading that drive was Graham Person (pronounced Pear son) who had joined the groundstaff fresh from school at seventeen and was promoted to Head Groundsman in 1983.


Now fifty-seven, and with forty years’


service behind him, Graham still has a twinkle in his eye and the thirst for the job that he must have felt as a teenager tending the grounds.


The construction of the golf course was one of his first major tasks, turning what was basically worked farmland on sandy soils into the fairways and greens on show today.


Golf has always been a focus at the school and, before the bespoke course


came into use in 1988, boys would practise on nine small greens clustered around the main house under the tuition of the then master in charge of golf, Charles Churchill.


The spirit of achievement in the sport


remains evident today, with Summer Fields having helped nurture the talents of one talented golfer who has, this year, won a Sport Exhibition to Wellington College and who recently won the school’s annual ‘Father and Son Open’.


Golf is only one of a host of outdoor sports that Graham and his three assistants provide for, including first team, Colts and Junior Colts football and rugby pitches and four cricket squares.


Much has changed in forty years, says Graham, who still relishes the continuing programme of improvements under way at Summer Fields. “Things are so much different now: the grounds are huge and, because of that, our workload has expanded out of all recognition.” With seventy acres to manage, sticking to a rigid routine can be hard, Graham acknowledges so, to some degree, matters “have to be left to the elements”, which is arguably what he prefers, given that he is, by his own admission, “an organic man”. “I’ve always been a strong advocate of


a fully organic programme, long before such things were seen as fashionable,” he states. Given the crackdown on pesticides in recent years, and impending EU law emerging later in 2011, his stance carries added credibility.


His commitment to green practices may well be manifest in the estate’s freedom from weeds and fungal infections. “If you’ve been in the business as long as I have, you soon pick up a thing or two and, for me, the most important thing has been to always remain organic but, also, not to be too intensive with your practices,” he explains. “We’re lucky here that, while we pride ourselves on having good quality surfaces, we are not under the same pressures to keep the sward very short, so have been less likely to develop the diseases associated with keeping it that way.”


A combination of bespoke and specialist machines has also helped his programme maintain its integrity over the years. “My custom-made gang mower is the most well used in our fleet, as it’s been specially set up to meet our needs.”


“It’s set to a very high setting, so


there’s little chance of us damaging the turf, and we’ve learnt to use it at the right times to make it as effective as


now: the grounds are huge and, because of that, our workload has expanded out of all recognition”


“Things are so much different Graham Person, Head Groudsman, Summer Fields School


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