Winter Sports
he success of any sports facility is, fundamentally, due to the actions of a number of people within the club, who have the personality, drive and ambition to make it successful, both on and off the pitch. In many cases, it is former players who tend to contribute the most. Having enjoyed their playing career at ‘their’ beloved club, they want to give something back, either in the capacity of coaching, running the bar, club secretary, or match secretary, whilst often progressing to become the club’s chairman/president. It is these people who, importantly, recognise the value their club and its facilities can bring to the community. The successful clubs are the ones who have developed a good team of people. For example, many would not survive without the support of their junior and youth sections who, as well as providing the next generation of players, also generate much needed income. It is important that clubs invest in both the clubhouse and pitch facilities. It is often the case that clubs invest in the ‘social’ aspect, whilst paying only the bare minimum of attention to their pitches. Over time they become poor surfaces to play on and, during inclement weather, are not fit for play. Many of these past players, and other non-playing members who take up the challenge of helping their club will, quite often, bring many different skills to the table; solicitors, teachers, businessmen, farmers, tradesmen.
T Sheltons Chain Trencher
new pitches and clubhouse builds and renovations. Bromsgrove RFC is a not-for-profit
One such club that has tapped into these skills and areas of expertise is Bromsgrove Rugby Club, an ambitious Midlands based set-up that has been steadily rising up the leagues under the stewardship of their club coach and former player, Ross Baxter who, with a number of other like-minded members, has been instrumental in turning the fortunes of the club around. Ross’s day time job is working for the RFU in the capacity of Funding and Facilities Manager for the Midlands, one of several who help rugby clubs across the country gain access to possible funding to improve their facilities. Over the years, he has assisted
numerous clubs to gain funding for floodlights, improved drainage schemes,
organisation that has four sports pitches, which are used regularly by a wide variety of groups throughout the year, but with the majority of use being throughout the winter. This high demand and high volume of use, combined with poor weather and lower light levels, often results in extensive damage and a steady deterioration of the surface. In recent seasons, the quality of the first and second team pitches at Bromsgrove had suffered that exact scenario, with water not able to drain away efficiently after rain, leaving the surfaces wet, heavy and not conducive to running rugby. The club are currently mid table in National 2 North League and play against the likes of Preston, Caldy, Birmingham and Stourbridge. To keep apace with these clubs, Ross recognised the importance of good training and playing facilities, which would not only attract new players but allows the club coaches to get the best out of their existing crop of talent. Ross, along with the club’s chairman,
John Blackhall, himself an ex-player and also a Chartered Civil Engineer , spent a number of years evaluating the needs of the club in terms of improving pitch quality, and then looking at ways to obtain funding for an ambitious drainage installation project.
Between them, they managed to source funding from Sport England, Queen Elizabeth II Sports Field Challenge and The Veolia Environmental Trust (who awarded a grant of £30,000 through the Landfill Communities Fund), that netted over £100,000 and, along with the club’s own fundraising efforts, had raised enough to begin work on the project in October 2012. A local sportsturf contractor, Phil Day Sports (PDS) from Worcester, won the tender to carry out the work.
I caught up with the John Blackhall and PDS Technical Manager, Toby Grace, himself a keen rugby player with Pershore RFC, to see how they were progressing. Toby is vastly experienced, having a Mechanical Engineering degree, an NVQ Level 3 in Construction Site Supervision, a CITB in Construction Site Manager Safety and four years management experience in Construction and Civil Engineering. Coupled with John’s engineering skills, they form a formidable partnership. Indeed, it was John who provided the drainage plans for the project through his company Complete Design Partnership. Toby Grace details the project: “The remit was to install primary and secondary drainage systems to two full size rugby pitches. The system being consists of perforated land drainage pipes, backfilled with approved gravel and rootzone to the surface, at 5 metre centres; these connect into the main drain. All pipes were installed using a grade laser.
The training pitch has also been gravel slit at 1 metre centres (90° to the laterals), followed by sand topdressing, vertidraining, overseeding and fertilisation.
The timescale for the work began in July of last year on the training pitch - phase 1 - installing main drains, laterals, sand/gravel slits, sand topdressing and seeding.
The bad weather did not aid operations
Gravel bands were cut with an AFT Whizz-Wheel FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 PC 67
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