Winter Sports - Football
GR SSCUTTER It’s been a bit ‘Parky’...
Our anonymous groundsman, Mr AKA Grasscutter, issues a plea to the Boards of the lower league clubs to dip into their pockets
and state that their groundsman was being let down by the club’s Board. He said something along the lines of; “I’ve got to defend the groundsman Mick Doyle because he is working so hard, but hasn’t got the help needed. He’s been hung out to dry.”
It prompted one Bradford fan to comment on social media; “Look at all the money the club have earned from cup competitions and TV money this season. Surely some of that could have been set aside for improving the pitch. It’s a false economy not to do so. Well done to Parky for publicly blaming the Board.”
One fan even set up a fundraising website asking every Bradford City season ticket holder and flexi-holder to donate £20 to the cause!
What a dull old March we had. If it were a colour, it would have been beige. There wasn’t much rain to speak of and, apart from a handful of sunnyish days, it was overcast for much of the time.
It certainly did our pitch no favours as the temperatures stayed a few notches below the ‘average’ as well. But, all in all, it just about hung in there, not unlike our team, who keep dipping in and out of the play-off spots on an almost weekly basis.
Writing these articles, as I do, a few weeks before the magazine is actually published is a bit tricky. Come the end of April, we will have a better idea of our play-off chances. Automatic promotion is beyond us, but we may sneak fifth or sixth. Either way, we will be a long way behind the points tally of the eventual winner.
Whether we gain promotion or not won’t affect me too much this season as my renovation budget has been agreed already, but it would be good for the club and supporters to have a bit of success.
For us lower league groundsmen, this season has been disappointing because of the amount of negative media coverage some of our pitches have received. Whilst I’m
70 I PC APRIL/MAY 2015 “
I’m sure that Mick would have taken great comfort from Mr Parkinson’s words, and the support of the fans, but nonetheless, he will still feel demoralised about the state of his pitch.
Should we have to go cap in hand every spring to see what renovation budget we will be given? Should we really have to make do with out of date machinery or source secondhand equipment to ‘keep the costs down’?
obviously not personally responsible for the plight of my colleagues’ pitches, I do feel that we occasionally get ‘tarred with the same brush’. And I am in no way criticising my colleagues, because I understand, only too well, the pressures we are all put under.
It was great to see the Bradford City manager, Phil Parkinson, actually come out
Do we groundsmen really have to shame the respective club Boards into helping us out more? Should we have to go cap in hand every spring to see what renovation budget we will be given? Should we really have to make do with out of date machinery or source secondhand equipment to ‘keep the costs down’?
No, of course we shouldn’t. Whilst we will never have the finances to create the quality pitches seen at the likes of Villa Park and White Hart Lane, we do, given the requisite monies, have the knowledge and, dare I say, talent to provide a decent surface.
I have been fortunate, in recent seasons, that the powers that be at my club have backed me wherever possible, and our pitch and the team’s performances have, in the main, reflected that. Surely, it’s a win-win situation?
So, come on all you club purse string holders, give us the money to do the job properly. We won’t let you down.
Keep the faith, and keep cutting the grass. After all, that’s all we do!
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