Educational Establishments
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boat club in Island Bridge, ten acres of ground at St. James and Tallaght hospitals (where the Trinity medical students train) and, if this is not enough, there is the twelve acre Trinity College Botanic Garden in Dartry. To maintain all these facilities, David has fifteen staff working under him. There is not enough space to cover everything that David does, so this article will only concentrate on what is involved maintaining the grounds in Trinity.
Sports pitches
The hockey, cricket and football pitches lie on one of the oldest sites in Dublin. The land was originally part of the mud flats of the River Liffey. This land was reclaimed where, eventually, All Hallows Priory was built. Even
today, the flow of the Liffey influences the drainage of the pitches. If heavy rain falls and the tide is out, the pitches will drain very quickly and play can resume almost immediately. But, if there is a full tide, it will take several hours before the surfaces are playable.
The site of St. Patrick’s Well (which Nassau Street was named after) is situated very close to the pitches. There are no man-made drains under these pitches. The soil is naturally rich in potassium and phosphorus, so the fertiliser applied will have no P or K - usually 46:0:0. The soil PH ranges from 7.8 - 7.9. David gets the soil tested every two years. Tissue analysis is done in the alternating years.
With regard to the cricket square, this is
A grass running track is provided from April to September, around the perimeter of the pitches, and is maintained to Business Houses Athletic Association (BHAA) standards
rolled and compacted as much as possible. Topdressing is carried out during the winter months using imported fine clay from England - particle size needs to be 0.0002mm and is not available commercially in Ireland.
The summer height of cut of the square is 3mm, whilst the outfield is mown at 7mm. The hockey and football pitches are cut at 20mm. Pure ryegrass is grown on the cricket pitch, whilst the outfield will have a hard fescue and smooth stalked meadow grass sward. A four month slow release fertiliser (10:2:4) is used on the cricket square during the growing season.
A grass running track is provided from April to September, around the perimeter of the pitches, and is maintained to Business Houses Athletic Association (BHAA) standards. The track is overseeded and aerated at a depth of eight inches (200mm) during March. The height of cut of the grass track will be reduced to 7mm in April and maintained at this height until September. Construction of a state of the art rugby pitch began in September 2013 and David hopes that it will be ready for play by August 2014. The grass type used is ryegrass and hard fescue and was sown on a 100mm sand rootzone. Drains were installed under the rootzone.
All of the pitches mentioned above are maintained to a very high standard. They have to be as Trinity teams take part in the Irish Division One football and cricket leagues as well as athletic competitions,so it is important for David and his crew to get it right first time.
There is a fine pavilion on the eastern side of the pitches, which contains the dressing rooms. The pavilion is styled on the Lord’s Cricket Pavilion. It is very eco friendly and has solar panels installed for heating along with a rainwater collection system. Trinity recently obtained a Green Flag Award, making it the first third level institute in a capital city to achieve such an award anywhere in the world.
The croquet lawn creates a bit of a PC JUNE/JULY 2014 I 101
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