Winter Sports
Growing in
GrassMaster was a bold one, but one that has worked for the stadium business plan”
Stadium pitch to Desso
“The decision to change the Wembley
ever met and worked with, and having someone like John in your corner on such a big project is a comfort.
St.George’s Park is unique in that it offers four different pitch profiles on one centre. As well as the Desso GrassMaster, the centre will boast four fibresand, five natural and two 3G synthetics. It offers England teams the ideal base from which to prepare, as the pitch profiles on the centre are the main ones currently being used throughout the world game. All the natural pitches have now been constructed or renovated, and have just come through the first phase of the grow in. The mild autumn was a huge boost to the project, as it has allowed us to go into the winter period with much stronger swards than we had dared hope for. Although the winter has been mild to date, we do not see ideal conditions returning until late March when we will start the final push towards opening through the second phase of the grow in. As well as turning the pitches around, the last six months has been as much about building up the rest of the grounds department. Remember, this is a project that has restarted from a blank sheet of paper. Key partner companies have been identified to support the grounds team across all of their business. Being in the National Forest, the mowing operation will run beyond the pitches to verges and meadow land - in total eleven different mowers will be required.
First cut 60 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012
The majority of the mowing equipment has been supplied by Ransomes Jacobsen, whose wide product portfolio makes them ideal to supply the majority of the mowers. Tractors and renovation equipment has been supplied by Campey Turf Care. Campey are now recognised as one of the market leaders in the supply of such equipment and, given the diversity of the maintenance required,
makes them the ideal partner in this key area, especially with the majority of the renovation works being done in-house. Although the project has decent budgets to work with, in all key areas of the programme they are still very tight, and the biggest challenge, away from the construction and renovation of the pitches, has been to put together the consumables programme. After much deliberation, Rigby Taylor have been selected as the key consumables partner. The grounds team will be able to draw on the technical resources offered by the company, as well as having the benefit of additional support from PSD. The grounds team will also work with leading nematode authorities, such as Kate Entwhistle, to monitor closely nematode populations in the various sand dominated rootzones. With five of the pitches fitted with undersoil heating and requiring to be watered before play and training, all those connected with the project are conscious of the ideal environments being created for nematodes. With this in mind, it is very much a case of prevention being better than cure. There is much still to be done. One of
the key tasks will be to complete the grounds team, which will start with a crew of eight on the pitches supported by two gardeners. These numbers may be viewed as light, initially, but will be reviewed as the centre goes through its first year. Like many of the superb mature trees that surround the site, the
St.George’s Park project will take time to grow and mature but will, hopefully, be around for many years to come.
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