Winter Sports - Football
Dartford Football Club
Keeping the revenue flowing
This very model of modern sustainable football is committed to a programme of advances to keep ahead of game. Tom James caught up with Andy Gibbins, the Head Groundsman overseeing developments at the Kent club
D
artford FC is moving on to ‘fourth generation’ synthetic pitches this autumn, renovating its existing full-size 3G surface with the latest, thicker, longer-strand
version of rubber-crumb filled carpet. The advance will bring the Vanarama
National League South club fully up to spec - its two junior size artificial pitches are already 4G. Dartford FC represents the new breed of
sustainable football. It hires its synthetic areas out for community and club use to generate the revenue to keep abreast with turf development (the 4G upgrade is estimated to cost £250,000), whilst maintaining its natural playing surfaces in fine order, not only for first team action but to put itself in line to host European games. The Kent club also plays host to a popular India sport, Kabaddi. “It is really popular here,” reports head groundsman Andy Gibbins, whose sports contracting company, AJG Grounds Maintenance, is retained full- time to tend the club’s turfcare needs. “Kabaddi is played in bare feet and is a bit of a free for all, but is catching on big time.” The club, which unveiled a near 5,000-
capacity purpose-built stadium in 2006, was formed in 1888 by members of the Dartford Workingmen’s Club. Today, a swathe of fundraising activities and a longstanding board of directors provide added financial and corporate stability to a footballing entity that boxes above its weight in terms of sporting provision. “My budget varies from season to season,” Andy says, betraying the faith that the club hold in his decision-making after nearly a decade in the post, “but I usually achieve
74 I PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016
what I request and our dedicated team ensures the job is done to the highest possible standards within the resources available.” He continues: “We run mostly hand
mowers here, but also use a chunky Dennis 860 cylinder machine for the main stadium, whilst only ride-ons are used on the course.” Hang on. Did you say course? “Yes, the 9-
hole parkland course the club purchased when it bought Princes Park fourteen years ago.”
Princes Park Golf Club is no afterthought though - some sporting backwater left to vegetate as the footballing mainstream flows by.
In keeping with national trends, footgolf is
proving a hit, attracting a fresh breed of youngsters with the prospect of them taking up the traditional form of the game: A logical move, given the influx of aspiring footballers closeby. A greenkeeper for twelve years at Aldeburgh in his native Suffolk, Andy is well- positioned to apply his experience to nurturing the course in what is a more unusual blend of turfcare requirements. Also a little out of the ordinary is the
working arrangement with turf machinery. “I own some of it,” Andy says, “and the club purchase other items.” Certainly sounds like Dartford runs on efficient lines. “I’m employed by the club under a rolling
contract as a contractor,” Andy continues “and the working arrangement seems to be working fine so far.” Like the canny grounds manager that he is,
Andy keeps his nose to the ground in the thriving market in used turf machinery to acquire his fleet, but he has well and truly
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