Schools & Colleges
“It must have done the trick because, after they’d asked me to go for a walk, they called me back and
offered me the position”
the Northfield outfield. It will be back next year, however, and Stuart says he can’t wait for the challenge. Stuart took up his appointment as Whitgift Head Groundsman in September 2010. He’d done his apprenticeship on the sports grounds at St John’s College, Oxford, achieving NVQ Level 3, followed by a time with Chelsea FC, at its Cobham training ground and at Stamford Bridge. He then returned to his native Oxfordshire as Head Groundsman at Cokethorpe School near Witney, also an independent establishment, which has 114 acres of grounds. “When the headmaster here, Christopher Barnett, interviewed me for the post, he felt I was too young to cope with the pressure of all the tasks. On his shortlist, I was up against a county cricket groundsman and a professional football club head groundsman. I tried to assure him I was used to pressure and dealing with pitch work at top level. As well as the experience I’d gained at Chelsea, I’d handled minor county cricket during my time at Oxford University. Most of all I tried to impress on him, and the School Bursar James Stremes, that I had experience of and relished the ever changing, constant pressure of school grounds work. It must have done the
Stuart with his two ‘Find me a job’ colleagues; Andy Smith (left) and Peter Harsun (right). In the background, Northfield, which is the Surrey outground
trick because, after they’d asked me to go for a walk, they called me back and offered me the position.” Stuart gives the impression of being very much a 21st century groundsman. When he arrived at Whitgift things were ticking over, but only just. Staff levels were too small for the work to do and the kit was tired, as were the pitches. In 2010, the pitches were dry and worn, according to Stuart, principally because of the chalk underlying them. The real problem, he said, was that no one had been in charge for quite a while. There was no overall plan. Things were done piecemeal. He was determined to do something about all of this and lead from the front. “There was, and is, some brilliant knowledge here,” says Stuart. “However, the overall picture had fallen apart. Individuals, not unnaturally, were just getting on with their own tasks. Tunnel vision had set in.”
He now manages a team of eighteen, not only working on the sports pitches, but also looking after the gardens and a burgeoning wildlife facility at the school.
The team includes two experienced men who joined the school as part of Pitchcare’s ‘Find a Job’ campaign last year. Andy Smith, who’d been made redundant from the staff at Millwall FC, and Peter Harsun, redundant from golf course greenkeeping, are now key seniors at Whitgift.
When he took over, Stuart was puzzled how aeration had been carried out, because there was no spiker at all amongst the equipment! He rectified this by purchasing a deep tine Soil Reliever, which, with all the spring rain this year, is already paying dividends.
The school has six rugby pitches, one football pitch, five cricket squares, plus grass cricket nets and an artificial pitch for hockey and tennis, which is soon to be upgraded with a new Tiger Turf surface, apparently coloured blue in keeping with the Olympic colour code for hockey. Work on this was due to begin at the end of June and be completed just two weeks into the autumn term. It has to be a pretty adaptable site, in line with most schools, with the first XV rugby pitch becoming two junior cricket
Olympic medal prospect Lawrence Okoye’s ‘personal’ discus training circle
84 PC JUNE/JULY 2012
Taking the covers off the first eleven pitch
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