Winter Sports
Head Groundsman Nick Phillips marking one of the academy pitches Included in the squad are six full time
gardeners, led by head gardener Gavin Hardy. Plants, shrubs, fruit trees and, soon, a vegetable and herb garden are an integral part of the layout and they certainly give it a very rural and welcoming feel. There’s about 1.5 million pounds worth of turfcare equipment at the Centre. It all belongs to the club and it’s as precious in its way as any of the club’s big summer signings. Each bit of kit has a squad number, not surprisingly beginning with the prefix TH, specifically to keep tabs on their fitness for the job. When the Centre first opened last year,
Darren gave a four year maintenance contract to Ernest Doe. It means a specialist mechanic is on site three days a week, and on-call for the rest. After eighteen months in operation, this is clearly an arrangement that’s working well for Darren and his squad. “We have at least two of everything, so
we’re pretty much covered for all eventualities,” he said. “Doe’s make sure everything out there on the pitch is one hundred percent fit and that we’ve always got a fully fit sub on the bench, so to speak. I’m as pleased with that situation as AVB is when he has a full quota of fit players.”
The centre has fifteen pitches but, with
areas for special training needs, it equates to about twenty all told. Limagrain MM60 ryegrass mix is used, cut universally and daily to 25mm, though this will rise to 28mm later in the autumn when growing slows down. Half of the first team’s pitches are Desso Grassmaster, with undersoil heating to replicate White Hart Lane conditions. The remainder are Fibresand with no undersoil heating. For the senior academy and development pitches, four out of five are Fibresand. The schoolboy pitches are all natural rootzone, some of them supplemented with sand. All of the training pitches are fully drained and irrigated. There are hundreds of miles of piping beneath the surface and over 600 Hunter sprinkler heads watering not just the pitches, but all of the hedges, tree rings and lawns. Darren uses three different pieces of aeration equipment at the Centre. Until November, a 2.4 Verti-drain with one- inch tines down to ten inches will do much of the work. Otherwise, a combination of pedestrian Toro ProCore and Wiedenmann Terra Spike keeps the air flowing. “This is massively important and gives us a full range of spacing, tine widths and depths to suit all conditions,” he said. So far, Darren says there are no turf
A light circle getting detailed attention
bug issues, just the usual risk of fusarium, which he says he successfully combats, by and large, by dewing all the pitches every morning. “We’re as green as we can be and will only use fungicides if we absolutely have to,” he said. “We do use compound fertilisers, but supplement this with a lot of seaweed liquids. As a boost to establishment after close season renovation, for example, we’ve been using Headstart seaweed extract treatment.” “Our green footprint may not be as all embracing as Forest Green Rovers, but we certainly do what we can. Rainwater from the buildings here is recycled and makes a significant contribution to irrigation.” All water from the first team pitches and the roofs is collected in a chamber and pumped back to irrigation tanks to supplement water from two on-site boreholes, which shut off at a certain level. The first third of all water used at the Centre is always recycled water. At its Bulls Cross Training Centre,
Tottenham Hotspur has a close working relationship with neighbouring Capel Manor College. Part of the negotiated arrangement with partners in the development of the site actually made this an obligation for the club, and it’s something quite close to Darren’s heart because he studied at Capel Manor
Groundsman Billy Beech fertiliser spreading aboard TH32
Keeping Spurs pitch kit one hundred percent fit - Ernest Doe OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 PC 53
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