Winter Sports - Football
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Not only was the game being played five weeks, four days and three hours after seeding in May, it was also being televised live on BBC2
The day before the first game (24th June)
We had dusted down the rugby posts and
retrieved marker pads etc. from storage rooms and had everything ready around the perimeter on the Friday. We found and uncovered the buried sockets and were ready for final preparations the next day. It was the day of reckoning, and we
started mowing in earnest first thing on Saturday 25th morning, but this was curtailed two thirds of the way across as a thunderstorm passed over Wigan. The pitch was holding water, particularly down the west wing, and we had to wait until lunchtime to finish off this job. We had string lines ready and, whilst two of the lads finished mowing, I started the marking out. This was completed by 2.30pm and we put the goals up and pads out. We then dug out and installed sockets for the corner flags. Not only was the game being played five
weeks, four days and three hours after seeding in May, it was also being televised live on BBC2 so, if the pitch dug up, we had nowhere to hide. We knew that we only had an inch or so of rootmass, but with the morning rain and further use of the irrigation in the afternoon (once paint lines had dried) we felt that it wouldn’t get too badly damaged. The Warriors won the game and the pitch played pretty damn well. We were relieved and happy that we’d got this game out of the way and the pitch would get another two weeks of recovery and growth before the next fixture. After the game, the pitch was rotary mowed and divoted, before running a full water cycle around to settle the surface.
On the Monday, we carried out more
intensive repairs and some light seeding was applied with rootzone over a few scars. The pitch was then cylinder mown. On Tuesday 28th, after mowing, we ran the ProCore over the surface for the first time since renovations. On the 30th, we applied 140kg of Maxwell Amino1. The organic regime, combined with seaweed and Biomass was to help build up beneficial bacteria and microbes in the rootzone. On the Friday, we mowed and verti-drained the pitch using a little heave to help create air space for the
78 I PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016
roots to colonise. We put our fortnightly trickle feed of 160kg Maxwell 12:0:6 down after mowing on Monday 4th July and, through the week, continued to cylinder mow at 30mm in readiness for the Wakefield Trinity tie on the Friday night. The pitch played very well and you could
see that the grass was starting to mature and root growth was improving daily. After the first game, we had tried to remove the posts, but they were stuck fast and, as Wakefield was the next game, we decided to leave them there and get them out afterwards. Would they come out, would they heck!
and we spent a good part of Monday 11th with scaffolding, hydraulic jacks as well as the local Metro Rod guys and their jet washers getting them free. Brute force and persistence paid off and, with the pitch changing over to football, it was another mini relief to see them out of the ground. Not content with the pre-season friendly
against Liverpool on Sunday 17th, the club agreed to play another friendly against Manchester United on the 16th. So we had a double header of football and the lads worked hard to get the pitch repaired and presented ready for these two games. We
had reduced the height of cut through the week to 25mm. The two games went well and the surface
was standing up to this early season onslaught. After each game, the pitch was divoted and rotary mown and then watered. On Monday 18th July, we cut the pitch,
aerated with the Procore and applied 360kg of slow release Lebanon 25:0:5, as it was around three months after the last application.
On the 19th, we applied another litre of
Dedicate and 40 litres of Biomass Sugar, the fungicide more as a preventative as I’d heard a few reports elsewhere of leaf spot and couldn’t afford to see the pitch go backwards now.
On the 22nd, we hosted Warriors v St Helens, an explosive local derby game that took no prisoners. A few scuffs and scrapes, but nothing serious, and another game crossed off the list. Mowing continued Monday to Friday using the cylinder mowers and, on the 25th July, we applied 180kg of Maxwell Premier 12:0:6. Two days later, we verti-drained the pitch again. We were joined at the beginning of August by Adam Lawrence, who completed the full time team of three at the stadium.
Pitch preparation on 12th August; l-r: Tony Jump, Adam Lawrence and Rob Woods
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