Winter Sports
“The pitch is orientated east/west meaning that, come the winter, at least half of the pitch is always in shade
lengthways”
accolades for his maintenance of the Pirelli Stadium pitch, including runner-up for Groundsman of the Year in the Football Conference for the 2008-09 season, and FA Groundsman of the Year in Football League Two for the 2009-10 season.
Having close ties with nearby St George’s
Park has seen the stadium host an England C international and UEFA U-19 international, along with several UEFA U-17 matches featuring England, Italy, Sweden and Malta. An England Women’s U-19 international between England and Scotland also registered the highest ever crowd for a fixture at that level. The ground also hosted the Blue Square North play-off final for three years between 2006 and 2008 and is the regular host of the Independent Schools Football Association junior finals each March.
So, on top of the club’s annual Sky Bet League 2 matches, Simon and Nick are kept busy hosting plenty of other fixtures. They even had to compromise on this year’s end of season renovations to accommodate a Ladies International match on the 26th June, beginning the renovation in earnest on the 20th May, and leaving just five weeks to get the pitch back in play.
The pitch was lightly fraise mown to clean it out, topdressed with sixty tonnes of 80/20 sand/soil rootzone, vertidrained and overseeded with British Seed Houses A20 seed mix. Then an Everris 8:12: 8 preseed fertiliser was applied, followed by a 19:5:18 slow release to see it through the growing-in period.
Simon also applies biostimulants and calcium products in a monthly liquid feed to help reduce plant stress and keep the grass healthy.
The club utilises PSD Agronomy Services to help ensure the pitch is going in the right direction and meeting its potential. Regular samples are taken to monitor soil pH and nutrient status, along with keeping an eye out for any possible nematode activity. In fact, the populations are well below recommended threshold levels, so are currently not causing any problems. An attack of fusarium has been seen a couple of times, but a preventative application of fungicide has helped reduce the incidence of disease. The newly renovated pitch, once germinated, was cut using pedestrian rotary
66 PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
roller mowers, firstly at 40mm, gradually being brought down to summer height of around 28mm. The club have two Allett Buffalo cylinder mowers that they cut the pitch with on a daily basis throughout the growing season. Match day height will vary between 24-28mm depending on the time of the year.
The pitch is orientated east/west meaning that, come the winter, at least half of the pitch is always in shade lengthways. This becomes quite an issue during the winter months, especially during heavy frosts. The club have invested in sixteen pitch cover sheets that are fairly easy to handle, but still time consuming to put out and fold away. Winter is always the worst time of the year
for groundsmen, having to drag sheets on and off the pitch to accommodate fixtures and training, especially if they are covered in snow.
The cost of undersoil heating or lighting rigs at Burton Albion would be prohibitive with their current league status, but Simon is hoping that they may secure further promotions so that at least the lighting rigs might be achievable, especially if he can source them locally and have them made fairly cheaply. As for irrigation, the club had a perimeter pop-up system installed during the initial build, with three hand sprinklers for watering the centre areas of the pitch. However, these central sprinklers have recently been replaced with infield pop-ups, making it possible to water the pitch more easily pre-match and at half time. The pitch gets verti-drained a couple of times a year, coupled with more regular aeration work using a Greencare Coremaster loaned from St George’s Park. Simon has a good relationship with the facility’s Head Groundsman Alan Ferguson and, because they stage a lot of FA matches at the stadium, he’s able to loan an array of equipment during the season. The club also enlists the help of volunteers, with one of their longest serving, Cliff Wilson, having been involved at the club for over fifty years. He’s so good that Simon is happy for him to overmark the pitch. Like most football clubs, match days are the most enjoyable day of the week for the groundsman; being able to present the
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