Winter Sports
Tented dome in operation ...
“In addition to the stadium pitch, there are seventeen rugby pitches to maintain on a daily basis at Sixways”
... and ‘slickly’ being taken off
within the hour. The service is usually provided based on a five to seven day weather forecast, with the objective to install prior to periods of weather that might threaten a fixture. This service has been in place for four years and has been deployed at over forty matches thus far. With the Tigers match due to be played on the evening of Friday 4th January, the system was erected on the pitch early on Wednesday morning, allowing it to work its magic for close to three days. The tent comes in several sections and is kept inflated by fans and gas powered heaters. All this activity had taken place prior to my arrival at the ground on Friday lunchtime, when I found Martin and Stuart having lunch with the Sports & Stadia staff prior to taking down the system so that pitch preparation could take place.
This involves shutting down the fans and unzipping the tented segments, which are then rolled up on special, motorised reels. It is a very slick operation.
The match was due to kick off at 8.00pm that evening, leaving quite a bit of work for Martin and Stuart to complete before the match.
Once the tent was down, Martin and
Stuart were able to finish divoting the pitch and repair any surface damage, with some of the wettest areas requiring some sand to restore levels. The next job was to erect the posts; these had been removed to accommodate the tent cover. Martin explained that this is now a much easier operation using a post sling, a device that fits onto a tractors rollbar, enabling them to be pushed upright. Both sets of posts can now be put up by two people in less than thirty minutes.
By mid afternoon there was a hive of activity around the ground as the ESPN electricians and cameramen readied themselves for the match. By now it was dark (5.00pm), and Martin needed the floodlights to be put on so he could mark out the pitch. Using a spray jet linemarker, he mixed up a 5-1 ratio water/paint mix and began stringing out and marking the pitch. It took less than an hour to complete with all the lines neatly marked. The try lines were marked in two directions to ensure they stood out. All that was left to do was put out the post protectors and corner flags. Some of the home supporters had begun to arrive, with one little lad keen to help Martin put one of the corner flags in place.
Post sling in use 48 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013
Out of step with the cheerleaders!
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