Winter Sports - Football


T


he weather remained cold, dark and damp, with a combination of frosty mornings and rainfall which was standard for the time of year although, being the north west,


more prolonged than other parts of the UK. For the next few days, the repairs continued with careful attention up and down the mowing bands to repair scars and get grass standing upright again. More small damaged areas were replaced with imported turf; the turf (from Tillers) had been rolled out in the players’ car park and kept in good condition for use as and when required. On the 28th January, we had 7mm of rain


followed by a cold night and frost, and another 10mm of rain during the next day. The rainwater continued to drain well


through the pitch and, on the 30th January, we applied 1 litre of Proteb and 10 litres of Chipco in a first application, followed by 5 litres of phosphite, 20 litres of iron and 40 litres of Biomass in a second application. The fungicide was used due to a few evident signs of leaf spot on the shaded west wing that had appeared. The next day, 180kg of Maxwell Premier 3:3:12 was applied after the rain stopped mid-morning. With more rain forecast, it was perfect timing and another 9mm of rain fell that night. The lads started to prepare the pitch on the 2nd February, giving it a light cut with the Allett mowers. The next morning, the pitch was mown again crossways and then marked out ready


for game 26, live on Sky Sport against Sheffield Wednesday. As always, we had one eye on the forecast and irrigated after the marking was dry, but stopped giving the pitch a second round as heavy rain was due. In the end, only about 2mm of rain fell all evening and we felt that the pitch had been too dry for the game. It was sod’s law that the heaviest rain didn’t then come until the early hours of the next day with what would have been a perfect 7mm. Still, the lads set about repairing the pitch again, initially with divoting and then a rotary mow. More rain overnight and the repairs


continued with Rob, Adam and Tony working diligently to get the pitch recovered. Work was delayed for a few hours on the


PC JUNE/JULY 2017 I 91


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