Winter Sports - Football
pitch and marked out for the evening’s League 1 game against Chesterfield. The pitch played well, but another bad result for the team. We did the post match repairs, which were minimal knowing that there was another game at lunchtime on Wednesday. There were two long-term injuries who needed some match fitness, so a game behind closed doors had been arranged against a Wigan side.
Richard doing first mark out
We cut the pitch on Wednesday morning and left the markings as they were deemed adequate for this friendly. After the game, the pitch didn’t look like it had even had one game on it, let alone two in less than twenty-four hours. We continued to monitor the
pitch on a daily basis, cutting it most weekdays. It seemed that the pitch had now settled down and root growth was averaging 6” (150mm). Then came a mad few days as
Pitch nearly ready
we hosted Burton Albion in the League on Saturday 29th August, a charity match on the Sunday featuring a host of TV and soap stars (nearly all of them I’d never heard of) and a Johnston Paint Trophy game against Oldham the following Tuesday. Don’t you just love these games all coming at the same time! The weather had been wet and
warm and this, combined with the grass damage from three quick games, led to a bout of leaf spot. The grass started to yellow off and we had to bite the bullet and apply some Bayer Interface to stop its spread. In preparation for the fungicide,
First match day
we brushed the pitch against the mowing nap to get the grass standing up, so the chemical could get right into the sward. It had the desired effect and, within twenty- four hours, the pitch looked to be perking up again. Just to make sure the grass had enough reserves to aid recovery, we applied 30kg of water soluble 15:0:43 and 5l of Bullet Trace Elements on Friday 4th September. Yes, the start of autumn and
already nine games played on the pitch, with another imminent; this time an U20s England International against the Czech Republic. Richard and I cut the pitch on
A happy Richard puts the flags out 76 I PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
Sunday the 6th September and then double cut on Monday morning before marking and watering. The evening game went well, but not for England as the Czech’s finished with a 1-0 victory. The worm population appeared
to find the surface more habitable again, so we sprayed again with Caste Off on Wednesday 9th. We continued to monitor and cut the pitch in the build up to the game against Crewe Alexander on Saturday the 19th. However, the night time temperatures were now cooling down to as low as +4O
C and the grass was certainly slowing down in terms of daily growth. We cut the pitch on the Friday morning before the Crewe game and decided that it probably wouldn’t grow much by the following afternoon so, for the first time this season, we had the pitch prepared by the Friday night and that meant less of a route march on match day. The pitch probably performed
itd best to date but, dissapointingly, not the team, which failed in their fourth attempt to gain at least a point at home this season. The pitch was watered heavily
after the game on Saturday night and, on Monday morning, it was standing up like it had been given a dose of Viagra! We cut the pitch and then
applied 10l of Maxwell seaweed, 15l of Maxwell chelated iron and 40kg of water soluble Soil Solutions 12:0:39+4% mg. All these products used were to help strengthen the plant as we enter the cooler months. As I write this, it is pretty much
where we are up to, looking forward to Blackpool this Saturday and, with fingers crossed, that the team can finally break their duck on our pitch and gain some much needed league points. For me, I’ve really enjoyed being back on the tools, working well with Richard, and Andrew initially. I’ve lost plenty of weight and walking in to the ground in the morning seeing the pitch looking like it does fills both Richard and I with a great deal of pride.
The contract price was based
and fixed on the club’s total spend the previous season. It would be fair to say that it has cost me more than anticipated so far but, in relative terms, it’s still a tiny proportion of the turnover of club at this level. We have already proved that it
is possible to produce an excellent surface and, whilst I wouldn’t want to count chickens, if the weather isn’t too horrendous, it should continue to perform well through the rest of the season.
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