Schools & Colleges
Head Groundsman Chris Wright marking one of the rugby pitches
What’s in the shed?
New Holland 5040 tractor New Holland 4020 tractor
2 x Ransomes 2130 Highway ride-on triplex
2 x John Deere Gators
2 x John Deere 740 lawn tractors 1.6m Wiedenmann Terra Spike XF SISIS Mega Slit
2 x Dennis cricket pitch mowers Auto-Roller Bomford Flail 3 x Fleet Kombi Line markers Ferris 5000 zero-turn rotary mower Pedestrian Ferris for bank mowing
Trimax Stealth 2 tractor-mounted rotary mower
4 x Sthil hedge cutters
Selection of back-pack and hand-held blowers
Selection of strimmers and brushcutters 3 x chainsaws
Aerating one of the Park Wood football pitches. Apprentice Dave Crowe is at the wheel
The Park Wood artificials have been in place since September 2005, installation being conducted by specialist contractors McArdles. There are two pitches: a sand- dressed Astro for hockey and a 3G rubber- crumb pitch for football. Paul and his team handle the maintenance in-house. The 3G is used for inter-college tournaments, which means that wear and tear is relieved from the grass pitches, and a machine bought from Artificial Grass Maintenance - a 224cm working width Double Renew2 brush and rake behind a John Deere 740 - sees that brushing, decompacting and crumb redistribution is effectively conducted in a single pass. This is done at least once a week. The university has about 18,000 students - 5,500 of them living on its Canterbury Campus - and it’s one of the country’s burgeoning centres of learning. Business is decidedly good. A report published in January highlighted the £0.6 billion it contributes to the economy of
TWENTYQuestions
Paul Griffiths - a passionate, energetic and enthusiastic Welshman living off coffee and living in Kent.
Who are you? Paul Griffiths, Grounds Maintenance Manager at the University of Kent.
Family status? Married with two children.
Who’s your hero and why? JPR Williams - possibly the best full-back ever. Also Paul Turner - small town boy made good. Shame he only got three caps for Wales.
What is your dream holiday? Anything away from work, but Australia and New Zealand would be nice.
What annoys you the most? People not owning up to a mistake or an accident.
What would you change about yourself? I’d like to have the ability to switch off from work.
Who wouldn’t you like to be? Anyone else!
Favourite record, and why? A Design for Life by the Manic Street Preachers - just hit a chord with me when it first came out (I was still at college).
Who would you choose to spend a
romantic evening with? The wife - obviously!
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Boring stuff, but pay off the mortgage, and go on that holiday down under.
If you were to describe yourself as a musical instrument, what would you be and why? Probably a drum kit - I can be very loud!
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Work hard and you’ll get the rewards.
What’s your favourite smell? Fresh coffee.
What do you do in your spare time? Cycling, spending time with the family. Supporting Newbridge RFC.
What’s the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? “Is that plant dead - there’s no leaves on it?” It was winter time!
What’s your favourite piece of kit? The Wiedenmann Terra Spike - easy to adjust, operate and very versatile.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Passionate, energetic, enthusiast.
What talent would you like to have? To play a musical instrument.
What makes you angry? Wilful damage to trees and plants. Poor reinstatement after contractors have been on site.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? Don’t over legislate.
the South East, and this has a doubled over the past five years. Paul says there is a very healthy
relationship between student and grounds team. “The university’s Conservation Society, with a new Environment Coordinator in place, has done much in recent times to foster student involvement in things ‘green’, and there is noticeably a lot more respect these days for their work. “There is one big difference between a university and a school at grounds level, which I believes is very largely responsible for this. Sport is not part of the curriculum. Those that take part do so simply because they want to - just for recreation. That gives them a vested interest in how good the pitches are.” Universities have to be businesses as well as centres of learning, and funding
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