Educational Establishments
GETTING Personal...
Steve Fidler - dinner would be a heady mix of sonnets, modesty and cigar smoke!
Who are you? Steve Fidler, 57, groundsman for nearly thirty years. Currently Head Groundsman at St James Senior Boys School in Ashford, Middlesex.
Family status? Married to Justine for seven years, no children.
Who’s your hero and why? Ian Botham - plenty of on field heroics, supremely talented and the money he has raised for leukemia has made a real impact.
What would you change about yourself? I’d like to have been taller.
What’s your guilty pleasure? Too many to mention.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Winning the Schools, Colleges and Universities Groundsman of the Year award in 2013.
Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill and Muhammad Ali.
Do you go to bed worrying about the next day’s workload? Very rarely, the North Field Project led to a few sleepless nights.
What are you reading at the moment? Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes - a follow up to a recent visit to the Flanders battlefields.
What are your pet peeves? Restaurants and cafes who insist on adding cheese to the entire menu.
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? Back to Africa, I’d like to take my wife on safari.
What’s the best part of your job? I spend my days in the open air, in beautiful surroundings and get huge satisfaction from seeing a perfectly presented ground.
… and the worst? Having to call matches off.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? My wife of course! … and yes, she will be reading this.
52 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2016
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Revisit the previous question?… only joking, I’d retire, travel more and watch more cricket.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Never let the weather take credit for your hard work … it won’t take the blame when things go wrong.
What’s your favourite smell? Bacon cooking - it’s too much of a cliché to say freshly cut grass.
What do you do in your spare time? I enjoy most sports, mainly watching these days. I’ve just finished my last cricket season as a player. I intend to stay in the game as an umpire. I read quite a bit and occasionally do a bit of writing. My wife and I both love to travel as and when funds allow.
What’s the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? The first question my wife asked when we met was; “how do get the stripes in the grass?”, which may not be the daftest, but we still laugh about it.
What’s your favourite piece of kit? It varies with the seasons but, overall, the Team Sprayer 6 metre boom sprayer.
What talent would you like to have? To play a musical instrument.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? A stop to cold calling and junk mail.
The cricket square was relaid using GOSTD 125
The completed North Field Project, which should be in use by the start of the summer term
What other projects have been undertaken in recent years?
One of the first tasks when I arrived at the school in September 2010 was to reconstruct the cricket square. It had been laid a few months before, using a totally unsuitable soil and then turfed in order to make the grounds look better for an imminent wedding! We stripped the turf back, using a Koro Field Top Maker, and introduced thirty tonnes of Surrey Loams GOSTD 125 into the top 50mm before seeding. The work was carried out late in October, but we managed to play on the square the following season.
I have also relaid the cricket net run-ups and an area of ornamental lawns known as The Quad.
Do you employ a health and safety officer?
One of the teaching staff has special responsibility for Health & Safety with weekly meetings of a Health & Safety committee. There is an annual external audit of safety procedures.
How do you purchase machinery - e.g. outright, 5 year replacement deal, second- hand etc?
The school had very little equipment in 2010 and I have spent the last five years adding to the fleet. Some of the larger items were purchased second- hand, but all have been bought outright.
Purchases were made from local dealers, including Ernest Doe, Lister Wilder, Synergy Products and Turf Machinery Engineering. I will always shop around for the best value and try to get the right machine for the job.
Are there any new pieces of kit that have significantly helped improve your playing surfaces?
I purchased a 6-metre boom sprayer two years ago and it has proved invaluable. It has meant being able to embark on a programme of growth regulation and liquid fertilisers. It’s also been used to apply a wetting agent, liquid iron and for weed control. Being able to carry out spraying in-house gives me a much better level of control.
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