“The best defence against playing field closures is high usage. If you can make fields attractive and of good quality, they will be well utilised. Only when standards slip does the community lose interest”
opinion.” Football and cricket both enjoy 95-100% usage throughout the season, the centre catering largely for schools and university fixtures mid-week, and a busy programme of club matches at weekends. That leaves just Friday for Paul and Billy to repair any damage and bring the pitches up to the standard that participants have grown to expect. When the LPFF embarked on the
programme of investment at the centre, it was recognised that reliable equipment was essential to achieve the standards the Foundation expected. “With our close links with Essex CCC,
we asked their head groundsman, Stuart Kerrison, to draw up a wish list of machines he would choose if he could have anything,” explains Alex. “John Deere was the manufacturer that was named most often, so we made arrangements to test some equipment and eventually settled on a five-unit gang mower, a JD 466 tractor and a two-tonne Auto-roller, all of which we are still happily running ten years later. Before that, we had a horse and a plough,” he quips.
Alongside the John Deere items, the team has two Ransomes walk behind wicket mowers, an Allett Regal, a Sisis Autorake, a Sisis manual rake, sand slitter and a Vertidrain that are shared among the seven locations. As a charity, with little if any additional funding able to be pumped into grounds maintenance, the Foundation have to place machinery and equipment replacement on the back burner, and ensure that regular servicing and a make do and mend approach preserves the lifetime of the fleet. “To prepare a good cricket pitch costs in the region of £300 a game, in manpower and supplies, so a big chunk of our budget goes on that,” explains Alex. “The end user generally has no idea of the costs involved to deliver high standards. Fine turf surfaces require time and tender loving care, something that has not always been recognised by those controlling sport’s purse-strings,” he continues. “At all LPFF grounds, our staff are the public’s first point of contact, and it is critical that they develop a rapport with our users and partners, who have to be adaptable and buy into the philosophy of intensive use.” Alex believes that this philosophy has
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been dealt a massive blow with the introduction of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT), which he insists “ravaged groundsmanship”. “It was hugely detrimental to
professional turfcare, and led to poorly written maintenance contracts where work on a cricket square would be done in a matter of minutes, not hours.” Years of poor maintenance created a generation of bad wickets that became a health and safety issue, he insists, signalling the downfall of many urban green spaces. “As the wickets worsened, they were used less and provided local authorities with a great excuse to get rid of them or sell off the land altogether.”
The efforts of bodies such as LPFF too often pass unnoticed, Alex believes. He dubs the Foundation “London’s best kept secret” because of the huge amount of work it puts into ensuring the capital keeps hold of as many of its playing fields as it can.
“Playing fields play a crucial role in sports development. Remember that all professional players started out at their local fields,” Alex argues. “We need to not only make people more aware of their value but also of the importance of well- maintained playing surfaces to the future livelihood of grass-roots sport. ”There needs to be a massive investment to train a new generation of full-time, part-time and voluntary groundstaff. Thankfully, the sports governing bodies and associations are addressing this issue.” As I prepare to head home amidst the
throng of youngsters teeming into the Peter May Sports Centre, Alex leaves me with his most poignant reminder of the potentially parlous state of turfgrass sports facilities, one that will strike a chord with all who recognise the huge social value that playing fields bring to communities everywhere. “Next time you’re in a new supermarket, or retail outlet, remember that, once upon a time, you might have been standing in the centre circle of a football pitch or on a cricket wicket.
”Once a playing fields is lost, it is lost for ever.”
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