Winter Sports - Rugby Union
“
Callum has worked his backside off to get where he is now ... what an arena for him to work in and learn his trade
Callum McMillan working his backside off behind Jim
groundsmanship journey began. He still speaks fondly of Falkirk and it appears that the club are still in his heart. His wife Susan still works on reception at the club’s stadium and he is also full of praise for his old apprentice, ‘little’ Bob Lochhead, who is now a full-time member of the groundstaff at Falkirk FC.
Nurturing the future generation of
groundsmen is something that is incredibly important to Jim. Under his guidance is a new apprentice, Callum McMillan, who originally started at Murrayfield in a work experience position. “Callum has worked his backside off to get
where he is now. He has his Level 3 Greenkeeping qualification and I believe he has a great future ahead of him. What an arena for him to work in and learn his trade.” “The best advice I’d give to an aspiring
groundsman is to talk to your peers. Talk to anyone, whether it be clubs in lower leagues right through to groundsmen at the top teams - just go and talk to them. I’m more than happy to pick up the phone for Callum if he’s got a problem I believe someone else will be able to solve for him. I’m quite content to send him to other grounds and have other apprentices come and see me here.” Perhaps the beauty of this industry is that
everyone is just that one phone call away. Everyone shares the same passion and is always willing to help a fellow colleague, as Jim notes. “Everyone is close in this industry, which is good because someone may currently have the same problem as you had two or three years ago. You can then help identify the problem and help them fix it - which is great. I’m not sure if you would find that in a lot of other industries - everyone that I’ve encountered is always quick to oblige.” It is this kind of help and support within the industry which has raised the level of groundsmanship at a much needed time. With the increasing amount of money being generated by sports such as rugby and football, whether it be through TV rights or investments, groundsmen are coming under more pressure than ever to perform.
96 I PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015
Fortunately, the level of groundsmanship has raised significantly enough to be undeterred by this new found pressure, according to Jim. “I think the industry has changed during
my career. The machinery has got a lot better; so too has the grass, the fertilisers - everything has changed since I first started. Groundsmen are hitting their peak, which is excellent for the whole industry.” “There’s a lot more venues installing higher quality pitches and the likes of the Desso hybrid surfaces are becoming a regular sight now. You just have to look at the state of the pitches in the eighties - they were nowhere near the quality that they are now.” Jim himself is a proud owner of a year old
Desso GrassMaster pitch, which was a result of an ongoing nematode issue on the previous Murrayfield surface. A common problem throughout the UK, nematodes, better known as roundworm, burrow through the roots of grasses, draining the nutrients and weakening the entire plant. Jim and his grounds team had to rush to the field of play after every scrum in order to repair the carved up surface. “It was a major headache - an absolute
disaster. The whole pitch, especially under scrums, couldn’t sustain any stability.
Scottish Rugby decided to install a new surface. The new Desso GrassMaster came in and what a difference it has made from the previous year to this year.” It is a hybrid grass pitch which is 100%
natural sport grass, reinforced by millions of artificial turf fibres. Already installed at Twickenham and football clubs such as Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool, the pitch is said to take three times as much playing time than a normal, natural grass pitch - something which suits a widely used pitch such as BT Murrayfield. Not only is BT Murrayfield the home of the
Scottish Rugby Union but it plays host to Guinness PRO12 and European Champions and Challenge Cup matches. Rugby aside, it has also held seventy-three events in the past year, which equates to approximately 230 hours. “The amount of events that we have here
certainly has an impact on what we do, because we have got to take into consideration what we are doing before the event and then after the event.” “If it has been a concert, then there will be a lot of staging which creates quite a lot of work. We try and get everything clean and we’ll go out there with the brushes and then
The new Desso surface getting a cut with Dennis G860s
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164