Winter Sports - Football
“ 86 I PC JUNE/JULY 2015
The biggest problems we suffer, weather-wise, are dust storms and heat stress in the midst of summer, when temperatures are at their highest. There’s really not much we can do!
operational staff for use of heavy machinery, a spraying operator, mechanics for setting height of cut, sharpening blades and fixing any machinery breakdowns.” “Whilst some of the stadiums are new,
others will be demolished and rebuilt in readiness for the 2022 World Cup. The new stadium pitches are sand based and built with sand straight from the desert. The older sites have heavy clay based pitches that will become sand based once rebuilt.” “Mark and I work alongside each other, under the director of sportsturf manager Darren Shaw, to ensure that each site is up to the high standards set by ourselves and the national Qataris. They rank presentation number one, then how it plays. But, for me, it has always been how it plays then how it looks. Obviously you want a pitch looking as best it can. Ninety-five percent of the time though, if it looks well, it normally plays well.”
December and January, up to a staggering 50O
With temperatures that range from 24O C in August, are there any special
maintenance techniques? “Water, water and more water,” states Oli. “Obviously, with the hot and dry climate over here, getting the timings right with the irrigation system is vital in keeping good grass coverage on the surface. In the summer months, when the rye grass can’t survive in the searing heat, the Bermuda warm weather grass takes over.” “The biggest problems we suffer, weather- wise, are dust storms and heat stress in the midst of summer, when temperatures are at their highest. There’s really not much we can do!”
“We aim to cut every pitch each day at a
height of 25mm. On a match day, the main stadium pitches are double cut for presentation purposes. Aeration is carried out every six weeks on each pitch; or near as damn it. A preventative fungicide is applied once a month to all pitches and a pesticide is applied when needed - grubs, ants, worms and black beetles being the biggest ‘bugbear’
C in
here. We have trained sprayer operatives who carry out all spraying as and when required.”
“Marking out, using Raycam linemarker machines, is carried out on each day of training and for a match, with occasional double marking for games in the stadium. We cut all pitches with Toro Reelmaster 3100s.” “We carry out two renovations; one in
winter and one in summer. Winter renovations consist of a light verticut, followed by verti-draining and seeding. For the summer renovations, we will heavily scarify all surfaces, clean up, verti-drain and then leave them for two weeks before topdressing. All pitches will be back in play after five weeks as the Bermuda just grows back naturally.” “The training pitches take a battering with
community and school use, training and games. The locals like to get as much usage out of the pitches as possible, so they are also used for parties, concerts, school camps and the like; the list is endless. We have just got to fit the renovations in where possible. The usage is quite worrying here, even on the main stadium pitches. Each pitch will take between 10-16 games/training sessions on them a month, and that is no exaggeration; we have to work all our maintenance around when it is possible to get a free day. It can often be hard work getting time without anyone using the surfaces. There are no synthetic surfaces over here to relieve the pressure either; they would not be a viable option in this climate.” “We have just started on the full
reconstruction of the Al Ahli Stadium pitch, which will be a fully sand based surface with full irrigation system and flat pipe drainage. All pitches have pipe drainage in them, but it’s not tested very often in this climate!” “All the work will be done in-house. The
only external help we get is that we take soil samples once every six months and these are sent overseas to get the results!” “All staff receive comprehensive training
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