Winter Sports - Football Pitch perfect
Tony Bell called in specialist sports contractors CLS Sports to undertake major works at the Rockliffe Park training ground and Riverside stadium last year, with the 2016 end of season pitch renovation at Rockliffe already planned in when Pitchcare went to press.
In a hectic six-week schedule of improvement works last September, CLS Sports upgraded the Riverside pitch perimeter, installing a 3G synthetic surface.
Boro had sought a contractor to undertake the enabling civils package to prepare for the installation of the club’s new ADI digital perimeter board system and a synthetic perimeter surface upgrade.
Working to tight deadlines to ensure the stadium remained fit for home matches throughout the project timeline, CLS undertook the North and South stand foundation extension, running cable ductwork to the pitch perimeter, cable rerouting, raising of existing perimeter manhole chambers and regrading the existing Redgra perimeter track.
A new perimeter drainage system was then installed and the 3G synthetic surfacing to the perimeter run-offs with associated infill fitted.
A key element of the work was maintaining strong communication links, stresses CLS Sports’ Andrew Miller. “We enjoyed a fantastic relationship with the club, along with head groundsman Tony Bell helping to ensure the works were coordinated and completed on time to the exceptional standards and tight timescales MFC required.”
Meanwhile, CLS Sports also worked closely with the club last year in preparation for their steam sterilisation operation. They were on hand to verti-drain the surface at the Riverside, which was required to facilitate the steaming process.
Raising standards at Rockliffe
In a process of transforming pitches at the Rockliffe Park training ground, natural and synthetic surface specialists CLS Sports upgraded the playing surfaces from a basic soil formation to a free draining sand make- up.
Utilising their extensive fleet of specialist sports construction and maintenance equipment, they carried out the end of season natural pitch renovations, including koroing and scarification, sand spreading, amelioration and overseeding. This has improved the quality of grass coverage and allowed the pitches to be more free draining. Disruption to the surface in wet weather has also been reduced.
The company also returned mid-season to verti-drain, whilst also constructing an access road to enable maintenance machinery to treat pitches with minimal damage and undertaking a major planting scheme for Leylandii hedging.
www.cls-sports.co.uk 68 I PC APRIL/MAY 2016 Raycam Uni-rake at Rockliffe Park Blec Roto Rake behind a New Holland TL100 tractor
together, including humic acids and phosphites, to bring life back into the pitch,” he explains. The population of ‘bad’ nematodes in the
soil was startlingly higher than normal numbers. Anything above 20 per cubic square foot for root knot nematode is deemed unhealthy - Riverside’s population had soared to astronomical numbers - 1,000 to 2,000 per cubic foot. Organisms killed during the sterilisation
process bring benefits after life, Tony adds. “There is so little organic material in the soil because of the nature of the pitch composition that the dead bodies of the nematodes help boost levels.” As you might suspect by now, Tony is not
afraid to try new measures to tackle thorny problems, and Middlesbrough can claim to be the first club in the country to adopt steaming to cure nematode infestations in turf.
Southampton are believed to be adopting
a similar solution at their training ground, conducted by the same company that Tony brought in for the Riverside - Dutch concern Nemaworks. What worries him now is keeping the root
knot species out of the stadium turf rootzone. “The worms can be imported onto the site in material supplied to us,” he maintains. “I took samples from the 180 tonnes of new material we bought in last summer and they contained a few root knot nematodes but, nine months later, we still have none in the soil." He has quarantined 60 tonnes of soil for
three months - covering it up away from light and moisture to use this spring - to prove his theory. Steaming is not an annual task, however, and is a process best conducted when a pitch is first constructed, Tony says. “I will not be treating the pitch this year,” he confirms, “as I am trying to manage levels by ensuring material coming in is free of root knot nematodes.” What he will be doing once more is
koroing off the surface, as he does annually as he’s a firm believer in its efficacy. “You think you can manage the algae and the Poa, but I believe it is far better to clean off the surface every year.” Like some reinforced turf pitches, the
Fibresand installation promotes drainage to the point where nutrients can quickly leach
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