Winter Sports - Football
GETTING Personal...
Paul Bradshaw - hobbies include junior football and tea parties; if he can get organised!
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To see my kids grow up into happy, successfull adults and have lovely families of their own one day.
Who wouldn’t you like to be? Anyone who has to work all their life in a job they hate.
Favourite record, and why? She Bangs The Drums by The Stone Roses. Just a great song from my youth and I whack the volume up when it’s on in the car.
Who are you? Paul Bradshaw, Head Groundsman at Burnley FC.
Family status? Married to Nikki with a seven year old son Callum and a two year old daughter Chloe.
Who’s your hero and why? My dad. He was a lovely, kind man and was extremely brave when diagnosed with terminal cancer.
What would you change about yourself? Well, I’m thinking of going to work in a suit as it seems the only way to get any sort of respect in the workplace!
What’s your guilty pleasure? Definately chocolate! Doesn’t matter which sort, I love it all.
What do you drop everything for? My family.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Being nominated twice for Championship Groundsman of the year (2010/11 and 2011/12) and having another chance to be a groundsman in the Premier League - this time with a better pitch!
Climate change - fact or fiction? Fact. I’m no expert in this, but things do seem to be changing for the worse.
What’s your favourite season? Summer. You can’t beat working outside in your shorts and t-shirt with the sun on your back.
What are your pet peeves? Inconsiderate people; and cats fouling in my garden every day!
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? Disneyworld... purely for the kids, honest!
What’s the best part of your job? Receiving any form of praise for the work we put in.
… and the worst? Being taken for granted too often and not given the respect we deserve.
48 I DECEMBER/JANUARY 2015 2014
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? My Wife, although they’re few and far between these days.
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Inform my deputy that he’s getting promoted!
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Don’t put off ’til tomorrow what can be done today.
What’s your favourite smell?
Not sure about the favourite, but I like the smell of wild garlic. Always reminds me of places I used to play when I was a kid.
What do you do in your spare time? My hobby nowadays is mainly trying to entertain a seven year old boy who wants to play football and a two year old girl who wants to play tea parties, at the same time.
What’s the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? After our Desso pitch was installed at the stadium, one man asked if it was now an all-weather pitch.
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Machinery wise, probably our Toro 5510 fairway mower. Otherwise, the four MU27 baby lighting rigs at the stadium.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Friendly, quiet, but very disorganised!
What talent would you like to have? To be multi lingual, and would also love to play the drums.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? Something serious should be done about dangerous dogs. It is time they were all stopped from being bred and wiped out from society. They aren’t working dogs, they dont serve a purpose and too many kids are being viciously attacked. I would get rid of them all.
With such a good first half, we were hoping that Burnley
would get the goal they needed; however, it was not to be. West Ham had changed their tactics and played a more direct game, catching Burnley on the break and, within four minutes of the restart, were two goals to the good. George Boyd pulled a goal back for Burnley, but West Ham substitute Carlton Cole nodded in to seal the points. So a 3-1 defeat; depressing for the home fans, but the West Ham supporters were jubilant. A couple of flares were thrown onto the pitch, resulting in
burns to the grass. Paul said that he would inspect the burns and expected that, within a couple of weeks, they would have grown out. After a quick debrief of what ifs and whys, it was time for
the groundstaffs’ final task to be completed before they could go home. With the weather staying dry, Paul was keen to get the pitch cleaned up and rotary mown. With three Hayter rotaries on the go, it would be another hour and half before they completed their match day routines, finishing around 7.00pm, a long day indeed. It was a great day and both Dave and I enjoyed
our match day experience. I would like to thank Paul for putting up with us and wish him and the rest of the Burnley staff the best for the remainder of the season.
A fan’s view...
Memories are made of this for life- long Burnley fan, David Whiteman
Blacklaw, Angus, Elder, Cummings, Miller, Adamson, Connelly, McIlroy, Pointer, Robson and Harris. It may seem a bit sad to some, but I can still remember the team from when, as a young boy, my dad stuck me on his shoulders and took me to Turf Moor for the first time to see my beloved Burnley. And what a team it was. The previous year, little old Burnley emerged as First Division Champions beating, amongst others, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City at fortress Turf Moor. The following season, as English Champions, we would play the best teams in Europe in the European Cup, eventually losing in the Quarter Final to the mighty German Champions Hamburg, 5-4 over two games. Heady, heady days! Fast forward around twenty five years and I was once again ‘on
the Turf’, but under very different circumstances. Burnley Football Club, a proud founder member of the Football League, was bottom of the Fourth Division and needing a win against Leyton Orient to prevent relegation from the division and into non-league oblivion. The records will show that goals from Grewcock and Britton secured the win and league status but, my, oh my, it was a close call! Clearly, I am a fan. A big fan. A ‘thick and thin’ fan, supporting
my home town club through triumph and disaster for the whole of my life. So, when Pitchcare editor Laurence Gale asked me if I would be interested in accompanying him to my beloved Turf Moor to take photographs of the groundstaff at work, I bit his hand off … almost to the elbow! You see, Burnley FC is once again in the big time. Yes, our little town, population around 80,000 are once again competing with all the giants of the richest league in world football. Burnley’s opponents on the day, West Ham United also play in the same colours, so the capacity crowd of around 20,000 was a sea of claret and blue. We arrived at the ground around 9.00am, to find the
groundstaff already hard at work. Ask fans about the workers at any club and they will name the manager, players, physio, club chairman, even the mascot, but you will be hard pressed to find anyone who can name the groundstaff. Head man, Paul Bradshaw, has been at the club for nine years, moving back to his hometown after honing his skills at Liverpool FC. The Turf Moor pitch already looks immaculate to my untrained eye, but Paul and his assistant Chris Pickles are already giving the
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