Huddersfield was the first club in the country to have a Desso Grassmaster pitch system in 1996
John Kazimierczyk with Phil
around £28 million. Huddersfield was the first club in the country to have the Desso Grassmaster fibre reinforced pitch system in 1996. It was laid by contractors, Hewitts, who are still
employed to oversee the annual
John Kazimierczyk has a Mastif responsibility!
Building of the Year award for 1995. The stadium boasts an impressive range of facilities including the Panasonic Stand which includes a purpose built Business & Conference Centre and a Community Health & Leisure Pod. To the south of the site lies a 30 bay Golf Driving Range with professional teaching facilities and a 1500 sq. ft. Golf Superstore. To the north of the site is a 9 screen cinema with over 2000 seats and associated restaurant/bar facilities. Clearly, the stadium is like no other. And yet, the more you look, the simpler it all begins to appear. Each stand is shaped like an orange segment, and for good reason. Studies suggest that a majority of spectators prefer to watch closer to the centres of each touchline. It is also known that the optimum viewing distance for rugby and football is a 90m circle drawn from the centre of the pitch. Thus, to fit within this circle each stand assumes the shape of a slightly flattened semicircle. In addition, its unique design allows far more natural light onto the pitch than more conventional stadiums. When the Galpharm first opened for the 1994/95 season only the two side stands were ready. The South Stand was opened three months later.
The stadium has also confirmed what many designers have been arguing for years, that good stadium design need not cost a fortune. The four stands, holding nearly 25,000 seats (including 254 spaces for disabled fans), plus car parks, landscaping and the golf range, cost
76
with sixteen bags of Advanta MM60. An inspection of the Desso system
revealed that there is still 75% of fibres left in situ. However, a replacement Desso system has been earmarked to be installed in the summer of 2011. Last season, well over seventy matches
were played at the ground along with many training sessions.
The grass is cut between 25-30mm, the
preferred requirement being 25mm for football and 30mm for rugby. A typical week’s regime is:
Saturday: Repair large divots and scars after a game.
Sunday: Single cut with Ransomes Mastiffs set at 30mm to clean up surface.
Monday: Complete divot repairs, which would include knocking in any scars, lifting heel marks and filling with a sand and seed mix as required.
Close up of the area behind the goals
renovations along with providing ongoing support to the groundstaff. Phil Regdwill is Head Groundsman, a position he took up when Rob Ellis moved on to work at Croke Park in Dublin. He is ably assisted by John Kazimierczyk who has worked alongside him for the past ten years. With both football and rugby league being played at the stadium there is, inevitably, a crossover of fixtures during the summer months, with the football season running from August to May and the rugby league season from March to September. This leaves very little time for important renovations. This year’s fixture lists allowed just a four weeks ‘window of opportunity’.
It was during this window, in May, that Hewitts came in to undertake the annual renovation programme. Surface debris was koroed off to a depth of 13mm and thirty tonnes of sand was imported and levelled. The area was then overseeded
Tuesday: Cut at 30 mm, feed and vertidrain if conditions allow.
Wednesday: Cut again, reducing height of cut to 25mm.
Thursday: Mark the pitch using Grassline paint and a wheel to wheel line marker.
Friday: Cut again at 25mm
Saturday: Cut and mark out again and water the pitch if required. Once the game is over the staff spend about an hour repairing large divots and scars.
Changing goals posts from one sport to the other usually takes a couple of hours.
Phil is keen to get the vertidrain on the pitch at least once a fortnight. Also, a regular brushing of the pitch helps stand up the sward and remove any early morning dew. The feeding programme is based
around regular soil testing that is undertaken every three months. A balanced NPK programme is in place to meet the needs of the sward. As with most sand based pitches it is about
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