Viewpoint


Colin Mason, Volunteer Head Groundsman, Hertford Town FC


Dave Lee, Grounds Manager, Old Boltonians Football Club


Christopher Proudfoot, Grounds Director, Peppard Stoke Row CC


Groundsman, Stokesley Sports Club


The provision of sports surfaces at the lower levels is often hampered by little or no budget, poor equipment and volunteers simply doing it for ‘the love of their club’. We ask four groundsmen what challenges they face and how things might be improved


First, let’s meet the panel.


Colin Mason is a volunteer Head Groundsman at Hertford Town Football Club, a Step 4 club recently promoted to the Bostik Isthmian League. As well as the first team, the club also has an U25 development squad, plus youth teams at U18, U15 and U14 age levels.


Dave Lee is the Grounds Manager at Old Boltonians Football Club’s Turton football ground in Lancashire. “We are the current owners of what is believed to be the oldest football ground still in use in England,” states Dave. “We know it’s a ‘Heineken claim’ which others might dispute, but we’re sticking to it. Recent research has evidence of a game of football of some sort being played in 1830 between Darwen and Tottington (for a £5 purse held by the landlord of the village pub). We think informal matches were played from the 1850s and certainly Turton Football Club


played on the ground from 1871, originally under Harrow Rules and then adopting Association. We took over the ground in 1952 and purchased it in 1971 with all that brings.”


Christopher Proudfoot is Grounds Director at Peppard Stoke Row Cricket Club. “We were two village clubs (Peppard and Stoke Row) that both played league cricket. We merged just over three years ago. The picturesque grounds are 2.5 miles apart - fifteen minutes on a tractor! We field three Saturday teams, two Sunday teams, one (sometimes two) midweek teams and have an extremely successful junior set-up with over 200 members and junior league teams from U9 to U19.”


Martin Wood is a volunteer groundsman at Stokesley Sports Club, a multi-sport facility offering football, cricket, tennis and bowls. Stokesley is a small market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North


Yorkshire. The first team play in the Wearside League, but also field over 35s and Wanderers teams.


So, without further ado, let’s find out what each one thinks of conditions at the grassroots level.


What made you take on your role in the first instance?


“I thought the quality of the playing surfaces was poor and needed to be improved,” states Martin. “I’d had no previous experience though, so it was a steep learning curve, but I had always been interested.” Christopher had dabbled in groundswork


for a long time. “I worked as a groundsman at my first club back in Glasgow when the groundsman went on summer holiday. That was nearly thirty years ago when I was at university! When the clubs merged (I was involved at the larger of the two), we needed someone to oversee the management of both grounds, so I volunteered.”


Martin Wood, Volunteer


The Old Boltonians pitches tended by Grounds Manager, Dave Lee PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017 I 13


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