Winter Sports - Football
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Thatch is a big problem - 2” in places - which has given me a lot of black layer. The smell was awful the first time I aerated the pitch
Original poor rooting and thatch
now the course manager at West Surrey. Alec would always encourage debate and would welcome people who wanted to challenge his ideas. For me, this shows someone who has confidence in his own ability. An all round great guy and mentor, despite his Rangers allegiances!
Are you responsible for budgets or do you report to someone else?
I am answerable to my Facilities Manager, Kairn Campbell. We have a tight budget but, if I can justify the spend, Kairn does what she can to help me out. She has been great since I started, having complete faith and trust in me to produce a surface to be proud of.
State of the sward when Graeme arrived at the club
As a sole groundsman, who do you call on for additional help?
I have developed a great working relationship with Alan Wright and the Terra Firma guys. We had next to no machinery when I started, so I have had to beg, borrow and steal from local golf, football and cricket clubs who have all been a massive help.
How would you describe the soil profile?
The pitch is built on Tay sand, which appears to be quite fine in its composition, meaning compaction is a battle. When forking the ground, I would hit a pan at about 4” which was like hitting concrete. Thatch is a big problem - 2” in places - which has given me a lot of black layer. The smell was awful the first time I aerated the pitch.
Does it require any special maintenance techniques?
With this being my first season here, it’s been a steep learning curve. Through the summer and autumn I verti-drained every other week and have had my mate, Chris Pearson, over the pitch a couple of times with his Air2G2 which has helped massively to relieve the worst of the compaction.
Under Graeme’s care, rooting has improved 54 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016
I’ve been slitting when the opportunity allows, trying to keep the thatchy surface open.
Do you have any additional equipment or systems at your disposal - for example, undersoil heating, drainage, lighting rigs, covers?
I’ve got an irrigation system - it doesn’t get used much!
Are your pitches used by the community or hired out to outside agencies?
In the summer, the pitch is used for local schools to compete in the ‘Junior Games’. The pitch is played on alternate weeks between Stirling Albion and Stirling University - in the Lowland League. Stirling Uni are currently flying, best of luck to them in making it to the football league.
We have also accommodated several development league fixtures and a few Scotland youth matches, hopefully with more to come. The number of games played this year is racking up. Many people seem to think this riles me, having so much traffic on it, but that’s where I find the job satisfaction. There is little point in presenting a good sports surface for people to stand and look at it!
Does the facility suffer from any regular natural occurrences such as flooding, high winds, excessive snowfall, frosts etc?
Being in central Scotland, all of these are an issue. We had a freakishly bad spring last year where I didn’t get any real growth until July and, now, in the depths of winter we are breaking records for the wettest November and December - 300mm in November, followed by 400m in December. As I am answering this, I have noticed the local News are forecasting that the temperature is to fall to -10O
C through the night. How have you coped with such excesses?
Aeration, aeration, aeration. I’ve been really pleased how the pitch has taken the combination of traffic and weather, but it feels like I’ve been fire fighting with it on a week by week basis. I’m looking forward to remedial work in the summer so I can enjoy
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