Winter Sports - Football
GETTING Personal...
Clive Pring - cheesy answers, but we like his take on gamesmanship and sin bins!
Who are you? Clive Pring, Estates Manager at Exeter City Football Club.
Family status? Married to the lovely Louise with a beautiful fifteen year old daughter, Millie.
Who’s your hero and why? My dad. He has been the perfect roll model.
What would you change about yourself? I am happy in my own skin, who I am and what I have been given.
What’s your guilty pleasure? Emmantal Cheese.
What do you drop everything for? Family.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Being on an open top bus through the city of Exeter after our promotion to League 1. I really felt a part of the team.
Glass half full or half empty? Half full.
Climate change - fact or fiction? Fact, but I believe it’s an evolutionary process. Our planet has survived before and will survive again. We are just here for the ride.
What’s your favourite season? Summer.
What are your pet peeves? I don’t like people who are disrespectful.
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? Anywhere warm, dry and relaxing.
What’s the best part of your job? End of season renovations.
… and the worst? Losing a match to the weather.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? I’d like to take a year out and drive around the world.
Who wouldn’t you like to be? A linesman.
Favourite record, and why? Young At Heart by Aztec Camera. Reminds me of my first holiday with friends. One of which is still my best friend and one who died at a very young age.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? My wife. We’ve been married for twenty years, but she’s still great fun to be around.
44 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Congratulate my wife, because I don’t do the lottery.
If you were to describe yourself as a musical instrument, what would you be and why? A bass guitar. Just goes about its job without making a fuss, but would be missed if taken away.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.
What’s your favourite smell? Home cooked food.
What do you do in your spare time? Mainly DIY around the house and in the garden. I live in the countryside and love every minute.
What’s the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? What’s the pitch like?
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Charterhouse Verti-Drain.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Generous, determined, respectful.
What talent would you like to have? I would like to be able to manipulate the weather.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? I think we should introduce a sin bin system into football to try and reduce some of the cheating and gamesmanship and try to return some respect to the game.
St James Park; one of the best surfaces in the lower leagues
to make sure we comply with the sports grounds licensing authorities green guide. This is something all football clubs have to do.”
And then there’s all the
current legislation to keep on top of; “which is probably changing as you read this!” states Clive. “We have our own sprayer and qualified operators, but prefer to spot spray with a knapsack sprayer if we can. We do get outbreaks of Red Thread during the growing seasons, but nothing a dose of nitrogen won’t cure. We did have some fusarium last year, but managed it before we had to spray.” “Foxes and rabbits are a pain at the training ground, and we have a cat who uses a goalmouth as a litter tray in the stadium! My deputy walks his bull terriers around the perimeter every morning and this tends to keep the foxes out of the stadium, but not the cat!”
Clive has a decent array of machinery at his disposal (see ‘what’s in the shed?’ panel), but is always looking to push to the next level. “You can have the best machines on the market, but without operators they are useless,” he states. “The last thing I can afford to do is buy equipment that rarely gets used. For example, I would love a couple of walk behind cylinder mowers for the stadium, but would also require extra staff or more hours in the day to be able to use them. My team are busy enough with what we have to accomplish already and, in the current economic climate, I’m just delighted
that I have not had to let anyone go.”
When additional equipment is required, Clive will buy new or secondhand as he sees fit. Failing that, he will hire. “DGM can, and do, handle all our requirements - they are a great local dealer.” Clive goes on to observe, quite rightly, that the lack of money and the economy has tightened purse strings for everyone. “Greenkeepers and groundsmen at all levels are still producing some wonderful surfaces as they don’t want their standards to drop,” he suggests. “Where we have suffered the most is the actual working environment we are in every day and the stretching of other areas, such as machinery upkeep and PPE purchases, which could have serious knock on effects for the future. We already look after our own machinery between us, so that’s one area we are making savings.” “All we can do, as an industry, is continue with the good work, striving to improve every year. Eventually, the penny will drop with employers, but I must state that we certainly don’t feel undervalued here at Exeter.” Wearing two hats
appears to be a challenge that Clive has risen to with ease and he concludes by saying: “We held a demo day at our club last year, which proved successful. I want to help local groundsmen as much as I can and, to that end, I am also Pitch Inspector and Adviser for the Devon FA.” Fair play.
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