Winter Sports - Rugby Union
“
If you are having fifty plus hours of usage a week, it becomes very difficult to keep the ball characteristics of bounce, roll etc. consistent with your initial registration
Alan Ferguson on the FIFA 2 Star indoor pitch
St. George’s Park. It is on its own. There are lots of academies and training grounds, but none of them has the vast commercial operations that this place has.
I am also going out to Spain to see Paul Burgess at Real Madrid. Paul and I know each other from old, so I will swap notes with him and what his club is doing down there. Likewise, we have a similar relationship with Darren Baldwin at Tottenham and also consult with Steve Braddock at Arsenal.
Are the artificial pitches well used?
We currently have one outdoor and one FIFA 2 Star indoor artificial pitches. The FIFA 2 Star is one of the unique selling points for the commercial side. It is also rather essential because a lot of the youth age
Our ladies team has qualified for the 2015 World Cup in Canada, so a large part of their preparation will be on our Desso IDNA carpet, which is the same carpet they are going to play on in Canada
”
A few of the St George’sPark groundstaff, l-r: Reece Venning, Stuart Thomson, Harry Roe, Matt Arnold, Ed Mowe, Stephen Bradley and Dan Oliver
46 I PC APRIL/MAY 2014
groups now are played on synthetic. So, giving them the opportunity to go out and play on that type of surface before they leave here is really important. I am quite pleased with that.
Ideally, we could do with another artificial pitch, and that has been identified, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we put another one on site. And, as part of phase two, it will be another FIFA 2 star.
When we set up the indoor facility here, we looked at the FIFA licence and how we would maintain it because it has to have an annual re-test. If you are having fifty plus hours of usage a week, it becomes very difficult to keep the ball characteristics of bounce, roll etc. consistent with your initial registration.
The message I am trying to get over is that
these surfaces are not ‘maintenance free’ as is often considered the case. I’m from a grass background and I am 100% natural. I am passionate about that. But these pitches have a place and you can no longer ignore the developments and improvements that have been made in recent years.
The Ladies 2015 World Cup in Canada, for example, will be played on synthetic pitches. Our ladies team has qualified for that, so a large part of their preparation will be on our Desso IDNA carpet, which is the same carpet they are going to play on in Canada.
And their maintenance regimes?
A lot of brushing, a lot of hygienic cleaning, keeping the fibres stood up and keeping the infill at the right depth, and just monitoring things like the ball roll. We have our own
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