Winter Sports - Football
“ “ 96 I PC JUNE/JULY 2017
The pitch was taking rainfall and irrigation well, colour and health were good and, apart from mowing, there was very little to do
The pitch showing signs of improvement on 5th April
8th April, Latics played and beat Rotherham. On the 11th, we applied 140kg of Maxwell
Premier 12:0:6 and then got the pitch double mowed on the 12th and again on the morning of the 13th ready for the Latics v Barnsley game that evening. Another win and maybe Latics could turn the season around under caretaker manager Graham Barrow.
No time for the lads to dwell on what may
be, as another Rugby League game was imminent on the 14th, a big local derby as Warriors entertained Saint Helens. There was drizzle throughout the morning and the game, which kept the surface nice and firm. On the 17th, the pitch was vertidrained
through the middle six mowing bands longways and, on the 19th, we applied 180kg of slow release Lebanon Pro-scape 25:0:5. Mowing was taking place daily and the
A typical morning in the north west!
lads were taking off around twenty boxes of grass per day. The weekend of the 22nd/23rd saw another back to back with Cardiff arriving on the Saturday and Catalan Dragons on the Sunday. The lads said that the pitch didn’t look like it had a game on it after the weekend, let alone two competitive matches. On the 24th, we applied 180kg of Maxwell
The lads were taking some time off through this period, working on a rota so, whoever was in, would check and mow the pitch, set the water and disappear soon after 11.00am to relax for the rest of the day
Premier 12:0:6. If no heavy rain was being forecast, we would irrigate every day to ensure the pitch recovery continued. We had a nice little break now, the pitch
was taking rainfall and irrigation well, colour and health were good and, apart from mowing, there was very little to do. The lads were taking some time off through this period, working on a rota so, whoever was in, would check and mow the pitch, set the water and disappear soon after 11.00am to relax for the rest of the day. On the 2nd May, we sprayed on 40 litres of
Biomass and 10 litres of Humimax - the root mass was now excellent. The pitch was prepared ready for the 5th with Warriors playing Salford on the Friday evening. The lads were all back in for this and worked through Saturday to turn the pitch around for the final Championship game of the season. Unfortunately, the Latics
results hadn’t gone well in the previous few weeks and the club were relegated back to league 1 after the 1-1 draw with Leeds United on Sunday afternoon. This was game number 43.
On the 8th May, we applied 180kg of
Maxwell Premier 12:0:6, after a rotary mow, brush and then cylinder mow of the pitch. Now the football season was over, the
pitch was hosting youth, corporate and community games, starting with the U18s Latics v Bournemouth on the 9th. For the next ten days, we estimated well over 600 players of mixed ages enjoyed the DW surface and our team received a lot of praise for the quality of the pitch. Every day it was mown, marked out and watered, with some vertidraining also carried out. On the 22nd May, we applied a last
application of 180kg Maxwell Premier 12:0:6. We had one more corporate football
match on the 25th, before the lads turned the pitch back for the final RL game before renovations. The Monday bank holiday game was Warriors v Wakefield and the pitch looked tremendous. With continuing injury problems, Warriors lost again, but the players and coaches were full of praise for the playing surface. So, that was that, our one year contract
was at an end. The season has been challenging with dual sport on a Fibresand surface. Outside of my experience at The Millennium Stadium in the early 2000s, it is probably the most difficult surface that I’ve managed. It has been a fantastic experience and an
absolute pleasure to work with and bring on our three full time staff in Rob Woods, Adam Lawrence and Tony Jump. They stepped up to the plate and worked some very long days to maintain the surface and bring it through the season largely unscathed and without the need for a re-turf. During this season, we brought the
nematode population under control, removed any previous drainage issues and fears and kept near on 100% grass in the goal areas and the west wing, the key problem
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