Summer Sports - Tennis
Marking out, as described by one of the Wimbledon groundstaff
Centre Court
well. The hours are usually very long, especially during The Championships, often coming in at 6.00am and not leaving much before midnight. Having the extra three staff this year also allows me to programme in some days off.” Even with the threat of hosepipe bans,
Wimbledon will be allowed to use hosepipes and sprinklers on their famous grass courts; “but we will be reducing the amount of plants around the courts to help cut back on water usage,” explained Neil. “A large number of hanging baskets have been replaced with tubs and beds, planted with more drought-tolerant varieties such as lavenders, salvias, grasses and agapanthus, replacing the traditional hydrangeas and petunias.” Eddie and Neil have spent the last two years conducting trials, in conjunction with the STRI, to find the best renovation techniques for repairing the courts within a twenty day window. The trials consisted of twelve different formulations of seeding and feeding regimes using both granular and liquid feeds, with some being mixed with PrimoMaxx.
“It was an interesting exercise,” said
Neil. “We saw a marked difference between pre-germinated and normal seed, and also noticed that granular
fertiliser, whilst delaying initial establishment, drove growth better towards the end, whilst liquid feeds aided early establishment, but only for limited duration. We found neither benefit nor harm from PrimoMaxx in this situation.” The end result is that, as soon as those courts required for the Olympics come out of play towards the end of the Wimbledon fortnight, Neil will begin the renovation technique they identified as being the best. “Basically, the courts will be flooded up, the base lines lightly gradened, topdressed, luted and oversown with pre-chitted grass seed, covered with germination sheets and fed to encourage rapid establishment.” “The weather will play an enormous part in the success of these renovations,” said Neil. “But, our trial runs have given us excellent results, and Eddie and I are confident we will be able to deliver the courts at their best for the Olympics event.”
The double header events are the perfect way for Eddie to draw a line under such a distinguished career in our industry, and for Neil to take over the reins at one of the world’s finest sports venues.
Start with your two post sockets. The distance between them is 42ft. Measure between them and mark the middle - that is the centre of the court.
Measuring from the centre in each direction, mark out the outer box of the court with string (the Wimbledon groundsmen use a special orange one). The width is 36ft, so insert two pegs - A and B - 18ft either side of the centre mark. Measure 53’1” from A along the diagonal, and 39ft as the length, pulling both tapes taught - these will meet at C, the corner of the court. Reverse to find point D. The length between C and D should be 36ft. You now have one half of the box. Repeat on the other side. Wimbledon groundsmen always double and triple check!
You can now paint the lines of the box. But, and here’s another thing you might not have known, it’s not actually paint! We use a transfer wheel marker (or roller) to apply a white compound that contains titanium dioxide to make it durable. All the lines are 50mm wide, except the baseline, which is 100mm. As you can imagine, we get through a lot of this stuff - about 500 gallons each year!
Depending on personal preference, we use the string as a guide, walking along with the wheel marker, slowly and carefully, either to the left or right of the string. Each line is rolled just once, we don’t go over and over.
Then it’s time to measure and mark the singles tramlines - 13’6” from the centre. We then measure and mark the service lines, then mark the centre line (18’ from the centre), and the ‘toe’ - the funny jutty out bit where you serve from. And that’s it! Phew.
Some areas have been ‘turfed’ with artificial grass
Neil on Centre Court - his new charge JUNE/JULY 2012 PC 51
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148