Winter Sports - Football


“We’ve been feeling for a while that we could do with a new irrigation system. I got a quote last year, and it’s perhaps a bit expensive for a club of our size, even considering that we’re doing well financially for a Championship club.”


“I’ve got our current one working far better than it was, and the club made a useful compromise by investing in both a new pump and new sprinkler heads for the existing system.” “At the moment, we’re in the process of researching other affordable options, and trying to go about improving the irrigation economically. For now, it’ll do, because it’s working better than it has done for some years, and we’ll save up for a while.” Irrigation and drainage perhaps matter at Oakwell more than at most venues, because David isn’t yet sure what makes up the lower layers of his surface.


To this end, an agronomist undertakes Clegg Hammer Impact Soil Tests, infiltration


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tests, and Turf Doctor analysis. They attempted to find evidence of a gravel carpet, and the presence of nematodes, to help them decide whether they need to invest in related products.


David said: “Last time he came to test, the sward and the colour were both good. It was in the eighties, which they summarise as a four‐out‐of‐five.” “At the end of last season, it wasn’t draining as it should have done, but that’s recovered a lot now. The infiltration rates are pretty average.”


“We added 120 tonnes of Fibresand to get the profile back up to spec, and the pH is good at about 6.2. The pitch is Fibresand by construction, but the profile has a mix of all sorts in it. It’s somewhere between 80‐ 100mm deep too, which we’re pleased with.”


This is all helped by an undersoil heating system, which has been underneath since the pitch’s inception immediately after their


sole top‐tier season in 1997.


The consultant who came in most recently raised this system as a chief issue, because he believed the aged pipes could be compacting the surface.


These pipes are only around 300mm down, so when the team verti‐drains, they only take the tines to nine inches to avoid risk to the pipes’ integrity.


They usually don’t verti‐drain during renovation, which is around the end of May, because it tends to include a full turn‐over of the turf. But, when cost‐saving, they Koro the surface instead and this will be accompanied by verti‐draining, and again roughly eight weeks later.


He also ProCores with a club‐owned machine as required. He does this when inclement weather has been predicted, or when the pitch is clearly compacted, but without affecting the structure of the pitch. For cutting, the team has a fleet of three Dennis G860s, with which they cut three


I’ve got our current one working far better than it was, and the club made a useful compromise by investing in both a new pump and new sprinkler heads for the existing system


52 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018


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