a half hours, and even longer during the growing months with the arisings collected.
The pitch itself is soil based, with the usual twmpath (Welsh for hump. Ed), thanks to decades of sand dressings to assist drainage. When the company first got involved, the only machines in the shed were a rather old and heavy 36” Allett Regal mower and a Kombi marker. The Regal was retired and part exchanged for a 34” Allett Buffalo, and this machine, together with their own overworked, but reliable 27” Buffalo does all the season’s mowing.
A schedule of aeration and chemical treatments was drawn up, within the limitations of a tight budget and, as with every suggestion made, was met with whole-hearted support from the then Conference club. After each game the pitch is
repaired in time-honoured fashion by John Lawley, one of their helpers, and his trusty fork. Once a week, weather and fixtures allowing, one of the full- time staff will transport a tractor from their base at Hay-on-Wye with either an Aer-aid or Vertidrain attached. Other mechanical operations, such as
roto-brushing, dragmatting and slitting, are also carried out on a regular basis. Likewise, chemical treatments
are carried out when conditions suit. A light fertilising is undertaken monthly, using a combination of British Seed Houses BSH9 (12:2:9) and Mascot 5:5:10, which is recorded on a spreadsheet, as they do with all the other sports grounds, to give an annual total of around 120:14:70 (kg/pitch). Additions of whatever iron solutions are on offer are interspersed, usually to give a boost to colour. Experiments have been
carried out with PrimoMaxx to limit grass growth with some success, and this will be continued to get the optimum concentrations and time-spacing; an offshoot of this has been the use of the growth restrictor on the school running tracks and cricket squares. Spearhead is used to control weeds very successfully, and an alternation of carbendazim and thiophanate-methyl, with and without wetting agents, has been used over the years to minimise the perennial worm problem. However, this year seems to have been a good one - for the worms throughout the Marches and the
Above l-r
r: Mike Lewis, John Lawley and Gareth Jenkins.
Above and below: The Hereford pitch is rated as one of the best in the league and the Beamrider has improved presentation
NEWCASTLE Performing well!
Well, at least something is! King Kev’s return to Newcastle United has overshadowed one of the best performing pitches in the country. Along with Bristol City they have been using the new Fibrelastic second generation reinforced turf.
The 2007/8 football season is now well past the halfway stage. In fact, at the time of writing (mid February) there is only three months to go! So it is, perhaps, an appropriate time to post a progress report on the first season’s experience with the latest development in pitch rootzone technology, Fibrelastic Turf pitches To briefly recap, Newcastle United and Bristol City were the two clubs to install the new technology in the last close season following an
encouraging two year research programme at STRI, which concluded that the use of polyurethane fibres in association with polypropylene fibres led to a reduction in surface hardness, which equated to less jarring of limbs and reduced the risk of injury in falls. There was also an increase in resilience increasing energy feedback to players feet and a lower ball bounce and, as an added bonus, a further increase in surface traction characteristics.
The views of spectators,
groundstaff, sportsturf scientists and, last, but by no means least, the players themselves, have all been taken into account in this progress report. Firstly, the spectators including, of course, the TV audience and pundits. From a purely aesthetic viewpoint both pitches have maintained good grass cover and generally look in very good condition. Newcastle’s St. James pitch has had over thirty matches so far.
Feedback from the
Groundstaff has also been encouraging, with Craig Richardson, Head Groundsman at Bristol City, Michael Curran, Grounds Manager at Newcastle and his Head Groundsman, Andrew Tully, all saying that the new systems has been performing very well and maintenance has been more straightforward.
The sportsturf scientists at the STRI have been commissioned to carry out independent monitoring of
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