Winter Sports


He also sometimes uses wetting agents on the pitches to help prevent water from pooling on the surface; unlike when he uses wetting agents on the greens in the summer to get them to take water, he actually uses the wetting agent to get the water off the training pitch surface by breaking through the soil quicker. The pitch is kept well irrigated too. They use a Hunter irrigation system which has twenty-two stations, and Mark tells me that football teams like to give it a run before their training sessions to get a slicker surface. I ask Mark what machinery he has


available and he tells me that, because of the two championship courses on site, they pretty much have every machine they need available to them. “We use a fairway mower to cut the


pitches, not the push mowers like some of the Premier League clubs in the UK.” For verticutting, Mark likes to use a Toro 5610 with verticutting heads on it. He also uses a Sisis Veemo on the pitch. For overseeding, a


“ 102 I PC JUNE/JULY 2017


Vredo or a Blec seeder is used but, at the minute, he is using a Moore Unidrill. The machinery used by the team is mostly owned outright by the Carton House Estate. Does the training area suffer from any


regular natural occurrences such as flooding, high winds, excessive frosts etc.? “Frost! It is a pocket for frost. If it is 0°C in Maynooth, it’s going to be -3°C here! We actually got snow mould on the training pitch before, it is the only time the pitch has been infected with disease and the only time we had to use a fungicide on it. We’ve never had trouble with disease on the pitch other than that; our main issue is usually wear and tear.”


This is the second time the British & Irish Lions have dropped in, why are the best teams in the world coming to Carton House? “I think it is the whole facility really; the hotel is beautiful, the pitches are in great condition and it’s secluded. They can relax and have use of the golf courses. There’s also an adventure facility where they can try off- road driving and biking, amongst other


things. Ireland rugby international Cian Healy is a big fan of the off-road track. The food - especially the IRFU; those lads can certainly put it away!” Are any special preparations required for


hosting huge teams, like the Lions? “Nothing major, except obviously the pitches have to be pristine, but it would have to be like that for the IRFU anyway. There is more managing of guys coming in and out with jeeps and caddy cart etc. There’s generally more bodies knocking about and we have to have security on the gate. Extra signage, we have to be careful of the irrigation system when hammering pins and poles into the ground.” Any upcoming projects? “We are talking


about resurfacing pitch one, coring it, taking the sward right down to the base again, re- draining and overseeding it. It is always hard to get the time for such renovations. If we go ahead and take the whole surface off (full renovation), it will leave us with just one pitch for up to six weeks. If we decide to do the drainage alone, without taking the


In April, we verticut, topdressed and overseeded the pitch. It’s only really back from the dead now after all the line out drills and scrums


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