Winter Sports - Football
GETTING Personal...
John Ledwidge - heading in one direction; to The Maldives - with clean laundry and ‘Rachel’ obviously!
… and the worst? Matchdays!!!
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To work in the Premier League.... Check!
Who wouldn’t you like to be? Max Clifford.
Favourite record, and why? The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York. It remind me of my Irish upbringing and family.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? My girlfriend ... or Jennifer Aniston!
Who are you? John Ledwidge, Head Groundsman at Leicester City FC.
Family status? Long term girlfriend.
Who's your hero and why? My parents, their love and support has helped me throughout my life and career.
What would you change about yourself? My ‘GBS’ - Ginger Beard Syndrome!
What’s your guilty pleasure? One Directions music.
What do you drop everything for? My pitches.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Producing a playing surface for the London 2012 Olympic games at the Ricoh arena.
Glass half full or half empty? Half full.
Climate change - fact or fiction? Fiction, the weather is as unpredictable as a woman!
What’s your favourite season? Spring.
What are your pet peeves? People who think attention to detail doesn’t matter.
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? The Maldives.
What’s the best part of your job? Matchdays.
54 I PC JUNE/JULY 2014
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Buy Coventry City and shares in the Ricoh Arena!!!
If you were to describe yourself as a musical instrument, what would you be and why? A guitar... because I like a good strum!
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Attention to detail is everything, what surrounds your pitch is just as important as your pitch!
What’s your favourite smell? Clean Laundry!
What do you do in your spare time? Work!
What’s the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? What do you do with your eight weeks off in the summer?
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Honda rear roller mowers.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Meticulous, hardworking, thoughtful.
What talent would you like to have? To be able to sing!
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? Pay parity in our industry; not just guidelines.
The King Power pitch looking pristine “The first team training pitch
was a complete rebuild,” confirms John. “This was done by establishing base levels, installing drainage layers, laying down 200mm of base sand, installing undersoil heating pipes and irrigation and putting on 100mm of 80/20 Mansfield rootzone.” “It was then a case of sewing in the Desso fibres. It’s both a fascinating and time consuming process, with three machines on the go. Once the fibres are sewn in, it will be a case of oversowing the pitch with Johnsons Premier Pitch seed mix at 45g/m2
, applying a pre-seeder
and waiting for germination.” Similar work was undertaken on the second pitch, however, there was a need to extend the width of the pitch by fifteen metres. This required building a 120m gabion wall to help stabilise the bank between the two pitches. “Once the wall had been
completed, we began work on the pitch by removing the top
75mm of old rootzone material, gravel banding to improve the existing primary drainage system and connecting additional lateral drains. This was followed by the installation of 200mm of base sand, topped up with the final 100mm of 80/20 rootzone material and oversown with the same rye grass mix.” “Mowing will start once the
grass has reached the two/three leaf stage,” confirms John, “using cylinder mowers set at 33mm for the first few cuts until the plant is ready to be rotary mowed.” “As for the remaining training
pitches” renovations, these will be taken out of play once the football season has finished and the players go on leave. They will be sprayed with a combination of growth retardants to both suppress the poa and stop any existing grasses from swamping the new seedlings, fraise mown, verti- drained, topdressed with 60 tonnes of Mansfield sand and oversown.”
The training ground
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