Educational Establishments
“I firmly believe that the work that has gone into enhancing the turfcare sector on the island has paid dividends to many employees and employers”
available for use to many on the island - only recently, we were able to deploy a local contractor to run an Imants Shockwave across the entirety of our playing fields, something that was simply beyond the realms of possibility just a few short years ago.
Supplementing the machinery demonstrations was a very informative chat by Keith Porter of Leigh Sports Village - along with son Martin - both of whom were happy enough to impart their knowledge and wisdom with anyone who approached them - truly down to earth, nice people. We were also pleasantly surprised to have another highly respected groundsman present - Ian Forshaw from Wigan FC’s DW Stadium. We look forward to further establishing and strengthening relations with such people. Despite huge progress, and the many pleasing events and experiences of the last twelve months, I must say that all were tarnished by an annoying series of events whilst overseeing the largest contract that I have ever personally been involved in, so I will be finishing up this
Campey demo day in full swing
article with something of a rant. Some twelve months ago, a decision was taken to replace our 2G Artificial turf hockey pitch. The original pitch was commissioned in late 2004. I recall the original installation, though not being directly involved as I was only a junior member of staff at that time, I did take in as much as I could from afar. I do recall the construction being troublesome, with a particular issue with the levels of the macadam base being at the forefront of the problems. The original layer was a long way outside of the agreed tolerances and, following many negotiations that went on at a level or three above my station, it was agreed that a secondary 25mm thick layer of macadam be overlaid on top of the original layer, and levelled accordingly. Before long, the secondary layer was laid, the shockpad was laid and, ultimately, the carpet installed. The contract ran a long way over schedule but, ultimately, we were a ‘happy customer’, or so we thought. I inherited the maintenance of this
pitch some three years ago, and found issues almost immediately, mainly in the form of a slippery surface. Following a long list of fruitless efforts to restore the pitch to a playable condition, it was acknowledged that it was beyond saving, and would not see out the projected ten year lifespan. The reason for this shortened lifespan was a simple case of poor carpet selection in relation to the dynamics of the site. A sand dressed, 10mm fibrillated carpet was selected, which brings with it something of an open textured pile - with our site being very windy by its very nature, this was a recipe for disaster - the sand simply would not stay within the carpet fibres, hence the sand levels being insufficient to hold the pile erect, and ultimately leading to ‘folding’ of the fibres. Once this has occurred, a pitch is done.
No amount of cleaning, brushing, raking, decompaction, dressing, any other task or ‘wonder cure’ which you are told will restore the pitch will not work - believe me, I have tried. Much like when a piece of paper is folded, once a carpet
Pitchcare’s Dave Saltman addresses delegates at the Dennis and Sisis demo days 94 PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014
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