Sports & Recreation Clubs
The cricket outfield provides excellent grass cover for winter games - in September “
I really enjoyed the Pitchcare courses. They gave me masses of basic advice and I certainly got a lot out of them
square. A small sarrel roller is all I have for aeration at the moment.” Simon is helped twice a year by
Below: The triumphant 1st fifteen at Twickenham in May after their 23-7 RFU Junior Vase win over Northallerton
contractors A T Bone, who carry out end of season renovations. The spring visit is the most crucial for the club and, last year, Simon tells me twenty-five bags of a high wear tolerant creeping rye grass seed were needed to recover the bare outfield after a particularly heavy winter of rugby training and football. As well as reseeding work, the late March restoration routine includes verti- draining and topdressing. Simon’s an opening bat for the Ironsides 2nd XI and admits he has a vested interest in seeing that cricket’s use of the ground is looked after especially well. Scores have been steadily rising, he says, since he’s been involved in pitch work, with games generally lasting longer, and he reckons better pitches may have something to do with it. He averaged almost fifty for the first time last summer, and scooped up the cricket club’s Player of the Year award at their recent presentation evening. So, groundsmanship is definitely paying off for him. “I admit I enjoy grounds work in the summer more than over winter,” he says. “It
is soul destroying watching some areas deteriorate as they inevitably do, but A T Bone do a tremendous job for us each year and I know they will again next March.” Simon has ten grass strips on the club’s
square to look after, plus an artificial one for the juniors, which requires little more than post-winter jet washing to remove silt and moss to keep in trim. “Not counting the football and school’s
play, it’s the eight hours or so a week rugby training that’s the biggest issue as far as surface deterioration is concerned,” says Simon. “All I can do with what we refer to as
rugby’s mud area is just flatten it out with tractor-towed chains now and again and distribute sand over it. The ground is saddled with the training regime because there are no floodlights at the Wandsworth Council rugby pitches up the road. Despite the problems, we’re all delighted, of course, that the rugby team has done so well. They certainly train hard and just love the mud.” It’s what Ironsides’ life is all about; a balancing act between the different sports. So much sport, so little space. It’s just one big battle.
Not counting the football and school’s play, it’s the eight hours or so a week rugby training that’s the biggest issue as far as surface deterioration is concerned
66 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2016 ”
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