Winter Sports - Football
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The end to the groundsharing deal with FC
After fraising off the surface layers, the next phase was to laser-grade the sub- base to ensure a flat surface. Back went the topsoil, which was also laser- graded; then the heavens opened, waterlogging everything and delaying work for the best part of a fortnight
United of Manchester will also ease Michael’s gruelling maintenance commitment to ready the match pitch for play by either club every Saturday.
Once on site, Chappelow Sports Turf
stripped off 1,000 tonnes of existing topsoil, stockpiling it in the car park ready for reapplication later. The club worked closely throughout the project with turf specialist Mike Harbridge, who advised on the mix of grass types and growing media, the underground drainage system and a twelve month maintenance programme of overseeding and applying ‘biocarbs’ and stimulants to nourish the grass. After fraising off the surface layers, the
next phase was to laser-grade the sub-base to ensure a flat surface. Back went the topsoil, which was also laser-graded; then the heavens opened, waterlogging everything and delaying work for the best part of a fortnight. “Not the best start to proceedings," recalls
director Ben Chappelow, who runs the business with father Alan and brother Edward, “but once the better weather returned, we could crack on to make up lost time.” The focus shifted to drainage as 1,400m of
polypropylene pipes were laid diagonally at 5m centres, feeding two main drains 550mm below the surface. It was time to lift out the old sprinklers, dig new trenches and lay supply pipework to the new irrigation system, which Michael can control remotely from a single device whilst walking along the pitch perimeter. Laid around the pitch and along a midline in the middle of the playing area, the sprinklers do not impede the passage of play because they are sunk below the surface, with each topped off with a little grass ‘cup’ to ensure a smooth, even finish. By mid-June, Koro top-draining was being
undertaken, using a “minor miracle” of a machine that digs three trenches at the same time, 0.5m apart, 10 inches deep and 40mm wide, then fills them with sand. “It’s thoroughly tried and trusted
technology,” says Ben, “with proven capability to do the job. We laid 250 tonnes of Tarmac medium grade sports sand for the sand slits. It’s quarried at Eaton Hall and is perfect for the purpose.”
52 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2015
“Once this had settled down, it was time
to add 320 tonnes of Tarmac Loksand, which we drop spread over the whole playing area, then ameliorated into the growing medium.” Loksand gives the pitch resilience to wear
and tear and is a material that clubs in higher divisions have invested in, including one or two in the Premiership. A pre-seed fertiliser readied the ground for the sowing stage - a Limagrain MM60 mixture designed for sports applications. “I believe Arsenal use it,” Michael reports. “Each seed is coated with Headstart, a biostimulant seaweed extract, to encourage early, vibrant germination, giving each grass plant the best chance to thrive.” The torrential rain, followed by warm,
sunny weather, proved ideal growing conditions and the freshly sowed surface turned a lush green within a week. Anxious to make up time lost through
being rained-off, Ben and his team ploughed on through the night until the early hours to get back on track. “We did what we had to do to claw the project back on schedule. Fortunately, the neighbours were not disturbed too much!” says Ben. The maintenance schedule at Gigg Lane is
proving to be a lighter task, says Michael. “We divot after every game, then roll, brush and mow, and that’s about it.” Historically, Bury’s match pitch has
suffered its trials and tribulations, blighted not only by dreadful drainage and too high an intensity of use, but terminal damage due to staging sport incompatible with playing quality football. “In 1994, we hosted the World Lacrosse Championships here - twenty-one games in eleven days, finishing two weeks before the start of the season," recalls Michael. “A returf, which we did ourselves, was the only solution. That offered only temporary respite as the underlying issue of water management rose to the surface.” The stadium pitch transformation presents
one facet of a coordinated programme of advancement for Bury that also involves its three training grounds. Already ‘baptised’, the new Loksand pitch
has raised expectations all round - not least Michael’s - that, after many a frustrating season of coping with a waterlogged, compacted surface, he is about to witness a new era of the beautiful game at Bury.
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