Winter Sports
as a volunteer at Rochdale, whilst completing his school studies and trying to earn a place at Myerscough College. Whilst Phil was delighted to have the help, and was mightily impressed with Drew’s dedication and commitment, the club weren’t in a position to employ him full or even part-time. Drew eloquently presented his frustrations and desire to work in the industry to the Pitchcare members via the message board and, eventually, through ‘Find Me A Job’, was offered a position at the Wigan Athletic training ground by their Head Groundsman, Ian Forshaw. Drew was, understandably, delighted to get a foothold in the industry, but Phil soon realised what a valuable asset he had lost and set about persuading his club on the value of having an assistant. After agreeing the relevant funding, Drew was invited back to Rochdale as a ‘paid’ assistant. However, he remains eternally grateful to Wigan Athletic for giving him the initial opportunity. Phil has been the Dale’s head
groundsman for nine years, initially inheriting a heavy soil based pitch, with limited drainage, that had changed little over the years. However, with the demands of dual use, often with back-to- back football and rugby, and just a five week germination window in May and June, Phil was struggling to maintain grass cover. After the particularly bad winter of 2006-7, when eight matches were postponed due to poor drainage, the club, based on Phil’s advice, agreed to install new primary and secondary
drainage systems. Souters Sports carried out the work, installing a primary system at five metre centres and a secondary, sand banding system at one metre centres. Further improvements were undertaken in 2009 when a Mansfield FibreSand pitch was installed. This also meant that a new, fully automated pop up watering system was required. With the pitch surface now performing much better, Phil was able to convince the club to invest in new machinery, purchasing a new Dennis G860 cassette mower, a road legal 40hp New Holland 1920 tractor, Hardi sprayer, two pedestrian Hayter Harrier rotary mowers, linemarkers, a Trimax Procut 210 rotary for use on the training pitches and a Charterhouse Verti-drain 7316. The combination of having a surface that can cope with high rainfall, and the equipment to get on and do a good job, has been the catalyst for producing a better pitch. Even so, coping with two different sports on the same pitch has it challenges. “It is a lot easier, going from football to rugby,” explains Phil. “We’ve got it down to a fine art, greening out lines, changing posts and re-marking almost immediately after a game has finished.”
“Our most worrying time is at the end of the football season, when we have less than seven weeks until the next home fixture. That’s when we undertake our renovation work, and the weather plays a crucial role. Good weather, i.e. lots of sunshine and warm temperatures helps to stimulate fast germination and establishment, which can be crucial. Last year we employed the services of
“Having a
fibresand pitch certainly helps; divot damage is greatly reduced compared to the soil based pitch”
Drew Duffy
Phil and Drew with the new Hayter Harriers
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