The FA award is the result of cumulative match-by- match scores given by the match referees
Remnants of the 1950s speedway track in front of the main stand
of the trade, like his Scotts spreader. I’m always just a phone call away, as Simon puts it. He used Headland Amenity’s Blaukorn 15:3:20+2MgO+10S plus micronutrients, which has a high potassium content for spring or autumn usage. He had recently applied the company’s Multigreen 28:3:15+2MgO and already had stored Multigreen 15:0:22 for application in Autumn. He reckons that, during the playing season, his average time spent on pitch work during a single week is about sixteen hours - and he does it all for love. Club Chairman Dave Walters did offer to pay him but, with his pecuniary interests in the club in mind, Simon said he’d rather know that if he really needed something to do a decent job on pitch upkeep, he’d get it. His FA award says it’s a deal that seems to be suiting all parties. Minimum outlay: maximum result. The irony is Simon’s business, Gardenworks, is a business partner of the club, so paying for advertising around the ground and the match programmes means he goes part way to paying for the pitch work he does himself for nothing. He assures me that he pays the full rate: no favours for being a director! The trophy for pitch excellence, which Simon was looking forward to receiving at the new season’s kick-off game against an Arsenal XI, is no freebie, no fluke. It is the result of cumulative match-by-
match scores awarded to the pitch over a whole season by the match referees. The top nominees in respective league sections are then visited by Premier League groundsmen and their pitches assessed. Simon says Tottenham and West Ham custodians came to the ground towards the end of March. They didn’t give much away, he says. He just hoped he might improve on the previous season’s third place.
A few weeks after this visit, a letter
from the FA advised him that he was number one in the Ryman League and second overall in levels 3 and 4 of the non-league game: that’s 200 or so clubs from nine separate divisions in the Southern, Northern and Isthmian Leagues.
Half way through last season a new manager, Jason Hopkinson, took over team matters. He had been a coach at Brighton and Hove Albion and, according to Simon, is the first man at the helm, in his time as director or groundsman, with a real appreciation and understanding of the importance of a decent pitch. In the past, no one from the playing side had given him the impression that they really cared about
affects grass cover near the corner flags
The cinder left-o
over from speedway days still
the pitch or how it was looked after. Simon thinks the coming season will be an interesting one. He’s optimistic that the team will improve on their get out of jail performance last season, but income from supporters and promotional partners has declined over the past twelve months due, he feels, to the effects of the recession. I put it to him that Hastings is a town on the up with a new university in the offing and more of an up beat buzz about its seaside status. He agreed that there were grounds to be optimistic of a spin off in time, but the director in him was putting a cautious veil over this for the time being.
This coming season will be tough financially, he told me, not least because there is no main sponsor in place. His FA award is sure to attract a lot of attention locally, and may just be a turning point in this particular Battle of Hastings.
season and when Simon was due to be presented with his FA Award 84
Not a regular fixture for Hastings, but a big kick-o
off to the 2011-2
2012
Hastings (in Hammers strip) against Margate last season
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