If faced with a choice between employing a teacher or maintaining a pitch, schools are going to employ the teacher
pitches and is working with a leading university on a project to assess exactly what is in the material. It has been found necessary to wear breathing apparatus when cleaning some of the surfaces as the dust and debris is considerable. “I cannot describe the smells that come out of some synthetic pitches - the bacteria is breeding rapidly under the surface and it is awful, really awful! I want to make players, establishments - and especially local authorities who maintain surfaces that children play on - aware of what can live in the carpet.” “Our methods enable us to use a strong vacuum to help remove this dust and bacteria and filter them out. It is important that councils lengthen the life of their pitches not only from a financial point of view, as they are paid for by public money, but also because children play on them and they need to be safe. We need to work together to minimise the risk.”
Stephen Thorpe of Nottinghamshire County Council says that the county has an extensive stock of synthetic pitches, many of which are on school sites and are old. “With the policy of local management of schools there has been a shift from retained central grounds maintenance budgets to schools,” he says. “It is for schools to decide what they spend their money on. In general, if they are faced with a choice between employing a teacher or maintaining a pitch, they are going to employ the teacher,” he suggests. “On the other side of the coin, synthetic pitches are becoming increasingly popular with schools and, in Nottinghamshire, we have an objective of all secondary schools having access to at least a floodlit 60m x 40m surface. These pitches help schools develop their local community role, especially school-club links and, of course, schools want to develop income from the pitches.”
He continues, “Schools like synthetics as they offer a good consistent surface on which children of all levels of ability can play to a higher standard. They also tend to be more popular with those female pupils who are hard to engage in PE lessons. However, there are simply not enough resources to replace most surfaces and schools have not been aware of the need to create contingency funds. They get a nasty shock when told the cost of a new surface.”
“So, it is important to help schools understand the need to maintain the pitches well in order to get a longer life out of them, whilst they save up for a new surface! A well maintained pitch helps the morale of the PE Department and the positive attitudes of the pupils towards physical education.”
Mark says that it is vitally important to install a high quality pitch to start with. As in any industry there is good and bad. “I have maintained surfaces laid by many manufacturers. I have been particularly impressed with the synthetic facility laid by Tiger Turf at Twickenham,” says Mark. “This area runs the full length of the stadium right up to the touchline and forms the players and officials areas. After a pop concert it had become heavily soiled and our task was to clean it in readiness for the new season.” “Charlton Athletic Football Club has a
Fieldturf synthetic pitch, laid by ERDC, which is eight years old and is still in excellent condition. In comparison, another contractor has laid an alternative pitch adjacent to the existing Fieldturf. This has suffered various seam failures although it is only 18 months old.” Paul Geary, Head Groundsman at Charlton Athletic’s training ground, says that “Not only is it important to invest in a good quality surface but it is vital that you keep on top of your maintenance regime. How you look after the surface is
as important as the material itself. We do in-house maintenance in tight windows as our ground is very busy, and we need to make sure we are doing the best job in a short space of time. I welcome better information on how to look after the surface.” Paul is also a fan of Charterhouse maintenance machinery. “I use the Verti- Groom to decompact the material and loosen it before Mark puts the Verti-Air on the surface. I normally take the brushes off to start with, so we are raking it first, but it depends how much we want the pile to stand up. The brush has soft bristles in order not to damage the fibres. That’s why it is necessary to put the Verti- Groom on heavily compacted pitches first. Once the Verti-Air moves across the carpet the brush lifts the infill in conjunction with the compressed air produced by the turbine. The rotary brush can be adjusted to the depth of infill. This infill is then passed round the internal filters, removing all of the debris and dust within the pitch. The clean material falls through the sieves and is worked back into the carpet,” he explains. “After this operation we would then use
the Verti-Groom in conjunction with the drag mat to level any crumb on the surface and leave fibres standing upright. I then finish by pulling a drag mat to level it all out”.
Mark adds: “I also think the infill grading is very important. If you do not use a high spec sand it will contain a lot of dust that compacts very quickly and becomes like concrete. You do need to use a good sand. A high quality sand and specification provides carpet stability and ensures optimum surface conditions whilst allowing for drainage. A moist, or lesser graded sand, would not offer these properties and would clog up the carpet rendering it unplayable.” Website:
www.pitchandtrack.com
It’s important to help schools understand the need to maintain the pitches well in order to get a longer life out of them
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