Educational Establishments
Presentation is top of the list ...
schedule, and Thomas keeping the amenity areas looking good, it means I can crack on with my beloved cricket squares. It also frees up time to keep on top of the dreaded paper work; purchase orders, risk assessments, COSHH reports etc. Over the year, our workload is very routine, but we always know the importance of efficient working to hit our targets.
Do you have specific tasks for specific staff or is it an ‘all hands to the pump’ approach?
The senior groundsmen will generally look after the pitches at each of their sites, whilst my part time groundsman will normally do amenity areas, grass verges, banks, flowers bed, litter picks etc., and I will normally be sorting out all the cricket prep. But that is in a perfect world. We do all work on everything, especially over holiday periods or when the weather misbehaves. I like my staff to have a massive input into what needs doing. Okay, I might have the final say, but they are highly qualified groundsmen; they know when and what needs doing.
Where does presentation rank?
Presentation is top of our list; we love the wow factor as people come through the gates. A lot of higher management are unaware of what it takes to produce top quality pitches, so our presentation has to be our first port of call. We make sure the stripes are always in the pitches, goals are
... Adam loves the ‘wow’ factor
set up, flower beds are always tidy and everywhere is litter free. Then we get down to the nitty gritty maintenance regime after this.
What end of season renovations do you undertake?
The first job we do ourselves is to give our winter pitches a scarify and a heavy seed. We normally have eight pitches sand dressed and verti-drained every year on our winter games areas, which is tendered out to a contractor to undertake. On our cricket squares, I borrow equipment from Leicestershire County Cricket Club which gives us the opportunity to give them a real deep scarify before the seed and loam goes down.
Are renovations affected by budgets or outside pressure?
Massively! Our financial year runs from August to August and, as you can imagine, the first thing that gets chopped from the budget is the spring renovations. If the budget was April to April, it would work better for the ground staff, but I don’t think the university will change it just for us!
We have a lot of external tournaments throughout the summer, so getting the renovations done quickly is key. We only have a small window between students finishing and summer external use starting.
How have changing weather patterns affected what you do?
The mild winters we have had the last few years have really changed everything. Grass growth has been the biggest change. Six years ago, mowing would slow right down after November but, with soil temperatures being higher, we are mowing continually, but this is also due, in part, to our fertilising programme as well. Last summer was the best we had for a fair few years with the cricket. 2012 was a terrible year and put a real strain on the groundstaff with the amount of rain we had. But you just have to take what is thrown at you; we always battle through in the end.
Do you take regular soil samples to ascertain what work is required?
Yes, we have an agronomist take samples once a year to make sure we are using fertilisers cost effectively. We get an in depth report on the pitches, e.g. organic matter, CEC. It gives me a good foundation for the year on how our maintenance regimes are going to shape up.
Artificial surfaces - what ongoing maintenance/refurbishment is carried out?
Once every three months, we have Technical Surfaces in to give the artificial surfaces a deep clean as we don’t have the equipment to do this ourselves, but we maintain them by brushing and sweeping every other day.
The pond at the Manor Road site 72 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015
Borders around the car park at Manor Road
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