Winter Sports
“That route would have less impact on the club and, of equal importance, the shops, hotels, pubs and historic sites of this beautiful city”
the Long Barn, which will house changing and showering facilities, a strapping area, medical centre and rehabilitation space. Alongside the building works, the club has had constructed two full size natural turf pitches and one half size 3G artificial. The natural turf pitches were the result of some cut and fill works, ameliorating the local soil with sand and installing a primary and secondary drainage with fully automated watering system. One pitch was seeded, whilst the other was turfed. Bath Rugby’s Head Groundsman is
Darren Ball, who has been at the Rec since 2005. He was solely responsible for looking after both the Rec and their old training ground. However, with the building of the new training facility, and the fact that he cannot be in two places at the same time, the club has taken on Martin Hobbs as Darren’s assistant. Between them, they will look after both sites.
Martin is no stranger to the club, having
previously worked for Bath and North East Somerset Council at various parks, golf clubs and sports grounds, including the Rec. During his spell with the council, he gained qualifications in sports turf management.
The new training facility has required
A stately home and manicured gardens in a tranquil setting is the new headquarters of Bath Rugby Club
‘eyewear’ company Inspecs, whose brands include French Connection, carried out major renovations to the estate, including the restoration of the gardens by David Reed, brother of the late actor, Oliver. On 14th April 2010, a press
conference was held announcing Bath Rugby’s intention to create a dedicated training facility at the estate.
Since then, a lot of work has been
carried out to meet the planning requirements needed to convert a listed building into an elite training headquarters.
Construction work has seen the conversion of the old chapel into a state of the art gym, whilst the outbuildings are being converted into
The Rec at night, clearly showing its city centre location DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 PC 51
the purchase of a range of new machinery. For this, Darren has used his long time supplier and local John Deere dealers, BS Mowers. The equipment has been provided on a five year lease and service
agreement with John Deere Financial, and includes two JD 2653B triplex utility mowers (one for each facility), a JD 3320 compact tractor, a JD HPX Gator 4x4 utility vehicle, a JD TC125 core collector, and two JD R54RKB walk-behind, rear roller rotary mowers. In addition, specialist Charterhouse equipment will be used on the artificial pitch. The Gator, as well as being a general runabout and materials transporter, will also be used on the artificial pitch to tow the Charterhouse equipment. In addition, it can be fitted with a snow blade for clearing the approach roads and lanes surrounding the site, as and when necessary.
The walk-behind rotaries are used for cutting out pitch lines and tidying up after practice, as well as for topping the pitches after reseeding.
The training pitches are cut 2-3 times a week, maintaining a height of cut at around 35mm, using the triple cylinder mower, and allowing the clippings to fly. Darren also implements a regular feeding and aeration programme to help keep the sward in good condition. A combination of granular and liquid feeds are applied to maintain colour and vigour. The pitches are vertidrained on a monthly basis to keep them open and free draining.
Of the two pitches, the one that was seeded established really well, but the turfed one provided Darren with a few
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