Winter Sports
Rugby League World Cup
High profile; high demands
The Rugby League seasons starts at the end of December and runs to October. November is not the ideal time for pitch renovations, so Mel tries to fit in some of this work towards the end of the playing season, in between fixtures, when the weather is better. Often, it is limited to light scarification, aeration and seeding. However, this year, once Mel found out the stadium was to host two of the World Cup matches, he went about planning a more vigorous renovation programme, rescheduling some league matches to give himself a four weeks window. The pitch was koroed off and re- seeded by Mallinsons. Within four days, the seed had germinated and, a little over a fortnight later, it was being cut. Mel’s feeding regime centres around a
granular and liquid programme ensuring there is a balance of root and shoot growth, whilst using a turf hardener iron sulphate for colour in the winter months. He also acquired a set of grow lights, courtesy of one of the club directors. They were of great benefit in helping maintain grass cover in some of the problem areas. For the World Cup matches, Mel was intending to keep to his usual pre-match routine. However, having found out there was going to be a lot of activity on the pitch, up to several hundred people performing, including dancers and children playing small sided games, he increased his aeration programme, particularly across the centre of the pitch, at the same time applying some additional straight sand to these areas.
He also raised the height of cut to 55mm.
The match passed without incident and, more importantly, the pitch stood up to all the activity and a hard fought game between two of the most physical teams in the competition. A great night of rugby, with Mel looking forward to his next World Cup match, Samoa versus Fiji, two weeks later.
I left Mel just after lunch to take the short ten mile journey to Leigh Sports Village, and met up with Keith and his staff who were putting the final pitch preparations together for that evening’s match, scheduled for a 8.00pm kick off. Keith was in discussion with the event
organisers regarding the arrangements for the pre-match entertainment; very similar to what Mel had to deal with -
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014 PC 67
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