Winter Sports - Rugby Union
past ten years, propelling the club from the local leagues to the first team being runners- up in National 2 South. The club has seen success not only in the first team; the development side and the extras winning their respective leagues. Established in 1881, the club has over a thousand senior members in addition to 520 Junior members aged 6-17, which has proven to be excellent for the club’s development - approximately half of the current first team have been fed through the junior teams! Ampthill RFC is proud to hold onto
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community values, offering a standard of rugby for everyone, with five senior teams and a ladies team. The current President, Dave Williams, has been a member for fifty years and held the post of president for the past nine years.
The Two Original Pitches 2005 - 2011
As their groundsman, and a contractor in my own right, the club asked me to look at their two pitches and produce a programme of works to improve, what were, poor playing surfaces.
Pitch Flooding: The first task was to stop water pouring from the adjacent road, across the car park and down onto the 1st team pitch. This involved the installation of a 100mm drain and a 3m deep soakaway along the edge of the car park, which solved the initial ingress of water.
Poor Soil: Having taken core samples, it was clear that the soil profile was very layered where enthusiastic volunteers had put varying layers of ‘topsoil’ over some well
ituated smack bang in the middle of an imaginary triangle formed by Bedford, Milton Keynes and Hitchin, Ampthill Rugby Club has seen rapid development over the
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New Pitch Development 2011 - Present
My initial suggestion was to dig up the pitches - as one can imagine, this was met with some rather sceptical reactions and I was asked to work on a less radical approach!
draining sand. My initial suggestion was to dig up the pitches - as one can imagine, this was met with some rather sceptical reactions and I was asked to work on a less radical approach! Until this year, I have worked on aeration,
fertilising and topdressing. From week to week, I use a Sisis DP 36 Slitter, but also hire in a contractor to verti-drain bi-annually; once during renovations and again in October or November. I have a soil analysis carried out annually
and fertiliser selection is made according to the report. As and when club finances allowed, we would topdress with sand (60 tonnes per pitch) in order to improve levels and drainage. These two pitches are located adjacent to the clubhouse. One is floodlit and used for training six days a week, so takes quite a battering, and the other is used on most weekends.
In 2011, with the help of the RFU and many supporters, Ampthill Rugby Club began the construction of two brand new pitches set back behind the clubhouse on Olney Field. Perched on the side of The Greensand Ridge, the new pitches are set amongst ancient woodland and adjacent to a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Ampthill Park - Capability Brown circa 1771. All works carried out in this project had to
be as sympathetic as possible to the surrounding landscape and wildlife. Close liaison with the Wildlife Trust and various other agencies ensured that these obligations were met and we are in the process of developing a sympathetic management plan for the areas surrounding the pitches; this is likely to include sheep grazing to encourage flora and fauna.
Dig It Up!
Full excavation of the existing landscape was necessary to achieve a level playing surface This was a mammoth task and took around eight weeks to complete. Works began in early May 2011 and, as we had no facility to water, we were very much at the mercy of the rain gods!! The RFU’s Jim Hacker designed the pitches and the RFU’s preferred contractor was John Greasley Ltd. The new pitches were terraced out of the Greensand Ridge using huge 360O excavators, bulldozers and dumpers. Laser levelling ensured a precise construction. The new pitches had composted green
waste incorporated into the construction and TerraCottem was used to improve water retention and increase Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC). After consultation with the club, Jim
Hacker decided to start with a combination
Excavating the landscape for the two new pitches ...
... and creating an amphitheatre PC JUNE/JULY 2014 I 63
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