Winter Sports
t is surprising how quickly fortunes can change in football. It was as recently as the 2009-10 season that Crystal Palace were staring administration and relegation to Division One in the face but, after a final rally, a change of management and some good fortune they managed to remain in the Championship. Following that brush with
I
relative obscurity, the club enjoyed an unbeaten start to the 2012-13 season, resulting in the then manager, Dougie Freedman, being lured to Bolton in November 2012. He was replaced by Ian Holloway who, continuing the good work of his predecessor, was rewarded with a place in the play offs, followed by a win against Watford in the Wembley final to seal promotion to the Premier League. Formed in 1905 by workers at the Crystal Palace exhibition centre, the club were elected to the Football League in 1920 and, since then, have spent a total of thirteen years in the top flight.
The return of Crystal Palace to the Premiership will be welcomed by many, not least because their colourful manager and former player, Ian Holloway, will be appearing on Match of the Day each week to offer his off-the-wall takes on proceedings.
He is also a man who understands and values the work of the groundstaff, as Head Groundsman, Mark Perrin, will testify.
Laurence Gale MSc reports
Their fan base includes a number of comedians, amongst them Ronnie Corbett, Eddie Izzard, Jo Brand, Harry Enfield and Roy Hudd, but there is nothing remotely funny about the trials and tribulations Head Groundsman, Mark Perrin, has had to suffer since he joined the club back in 2005. When I called in to see Mark, just prior to the all important play off final, the first team were having a training session on the Selhurst Park stadium pitch under the guidance of their manager. Mr Holloway immediately came over and introduced himself and was keen to praise the work of the groundstaff, stating how good the pitch had been over the course of the season and how it had played its part in allowing the team to play attractive football. He likes to call the pitch his office. Starting off life in cricket, a sport he admits is his ‘first love’, Mancunian Mark’s first job was in south-west Manchester at Chorlton-cum- Hardy, where he worked from 1989 to 1992. Passionate about playing
cricket since a boy, and developing into a useful all- rounder in the Manchester leagues whilst growing up, Mark was always drawn to a
career in the game, explaining that, on leaving education, it was a natural progression for him.
“I was always a better
cricketer, but enjoyed watching football far more, so had always considered taking a position at a football club,” he explains. After leaving Chorlton-cum-Hardy to seek “a greater challenge”, he moved to a post at Manchester Grammar School, drawn there by its many sports pitches, and especially its cricket square, which he took pleasure in maintaining until 1995 when he took his first steps into professional football, joining Stockport County FC as head groundsman.
“I enjoyed my time at Stockport,” he recalls, “but, after four years there, I felt it was time to leave. The best jobs in this business will always be in the south-east, so I made the move down here and was lucky to find a very nice post at St Mary’s College in Twickenham, where they were looking to develop their sports pitches.” As grounds manager, he was
charged with looking after the site’s plethora of pitches. Yet, as the position proved to be “more office based than I'd been used to”, when the head groundsman vacancy came up at Crystal Palace he leaped at the chance and, in 2005, made the move further south still. And, with true northern grit, he is still there.
Mark is definitely looking
forward to the challenge of working in the Premiership, especially knowing he is likely to have better support financially to help improve the condition of the pitch. During the ‘hardship years’, Mark had to develop a ‘coping strategy’ and, like other areas of the club, had to cut his cloth accordingly. Mark likes to build up long
term relationships with suppliers and contractors, and it was one of these that Mark remains eternally grateful to for “getting me through the lean years”. Keith Kensett, himself a Palace supporter - although not renowned for his joke telling! - and owner of Kensett Sports, assisted Mark with his end of season renovations. “If it wasn’t for Keith, we wouldn’t have been able to do many of our renovations, including the koroing, which we have ‘off pat’ now,” Mark
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