Winter Sports - Football Ecosol Turfcare
Sports pitch renovation and construction specialists
First team training at Staplewood; the new Markus Liebherr Pavilion in the background
says Andy. Premier League requirements
for undersoil heating meant that, this year, there had to be more substantial close-season changes to the stadium pitch, however.
Northern Ireland-based
contractors, Clive Richardson Ltd., were called in by Andy to reconstruct it, taking it back to gravel raft, removing all the rootzone and introducing the company’s own fibre-sand mix. Sub-contractors, Top Turf Irrigation,the irrigation system with Ken Pryor doing the undersoil heating. I asked him about why the
club hasn’t opted for a Desso surface? “Desso is fine and does a great job at multi-use stadia. St Mary’s is not like that," he said. “It’s a football venue, plain and simple, and what we have produces a fine surface all season without the expense of Desso installation. Until the need changes, I’ll go with what makes best sense economically.” With nearly half the season gone, and not a hint of wear and tear, you couldn’t argue with that. I then ask Andy about the
prospect of European football coming to St Mary’s and the pressure of regular mid-week matches. His answer was succinct. “Champions or Europa League football won’t do the pitch any favours, but it’s a pressure that we’d love. Longer weekly playing time and shorter lighting hours will mean the pitch will be tested more, and so will we. Bring it on.” At the club’s Staplewood
training centre, eight miles from
St Mary’s, even in the foggy skies you can see the dockyard cranes piercing the horizon. There are currently four grass pitches and one 3G, all in use most days of the week. Security is very tight. Andy says it has only been that way this season. Surely it will be forever thus, now that the Saints do seem to be marching on. “With players worth £25 million, you can’t take any chances,” he says. As we talk, there’s a crew
from MUTV milling around. How did they get the okay? The Saints Operations manager, John McWilliams, alerts Andy. “They are here because there’s an under-21 match between the two clubs coming up,” Andy tells me. Life in the fast lane is getting
to be routine. Andy keeps out of their way. He’s more interested in telling me about how Staplewood is developing as a training complex. Staplewood has been the
training ground for the Saints since the early 1990s. It used to be just a single pitch used by the first team, with a mini training area alongside, and this switched to being a cricket pitch for a local club over summer. The rest of the current site had previously been arable farmland but, in the mid-90s, the club bought some of the fields to extend the training site to two pitches. In 2002, further fields were bought and two more pitches added. There hadn’t been a specific plan. The facility just gradually expanded as the training demands of the club and its academy grew. Laid in summer 2013 were two Fibresand pitches either
We are professional turfcare consultants and contractors providing solutions to pitchcare problems, including drainage schemes, pitch rebuilds, end-of-season renovation and in-season maintenance. Ecosol Turfcare can help you get the best out of your pitch.
Koro Terraplane Laser grading Sand slitting Sand banding Sand spreading Overseeding
Tel: 01666 861250 Email:
info@ecosolve.co.uk
www.ecosolve.co.uk Ecosolve Ltd, Armyn Cross, Malmesbury, Wilts SN16 9RJ
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