Winter Sports - Football GETTING Personal...
Andy Thompson ‐ welcome to his world, won’t you come on in ...
Who are you? Andy Thompson, Head
Groundsman at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club.
Family status? I’ve got a partner, a pug and a French bulldog.
Who’s your hero and why? My dad, because of his work ethic.
What would you change about yourself? I’d have smaller teeth and get my hair back.
What’s your guilty pleasure? Crying when people sing on talent shows.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Becoming head groundsman at a young age… or maybe being made HG here, because they’re on the cusp of the Premier League.
What are your pet peeves? I have three rules: don’t lie; don’t be late; don’t have your hands in your pockets. If they have, I get rid of them. That’s why I have no staff.
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? I’d go home.
What’s the best part of your job? Coming to the stadium early in a morning. I’m calm then, by myself.
… and the worst? I don’t like matchdays, because I can’t enjoy football in the same way anymore.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? I’ve always wanted to work in the Premier League. And after that, I can’t see myself cutting grass when I’m sixty.
Favourite record, and why? Welcome to My World by Jim Reeves ‐ my dad used to play it a lot.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? Tom Daley. It used to be Zac Efron, but he’s too big now.
52 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Come to work and brag about it.
If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be and why? My assistant, to see how much of a nightmare I am.
Do you have any bad habits? Eating too much. Getting stressed out by little things. Being stroppy about stuff. Being too hard on staff who aren’t like me. I swear a lot.
... or any good ones? That’s for other people to decide.
Do you go to bed worrying about the next day's workload? Every day. Every night. Every hour, wherever I am, I check the camera feed on my phone.
What are you reading now? Alan Carr’s autobiography. And a book on the English Defence League leadership.
What's the best advice you have ever been given? Don’t try to please everybody.
What's your favourite smell? I don’t like coffee, but I like the smell. And my partner’s aftershave.
What do you do in your spare time? Eat. Check the pitch camera. Walk the dogs. Eat. Go to my mum’s. And eat.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Difficult, opinionated, funny.
What talent would you like to have? I want to be able to swim.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? I would make it illegal to drink at work.
What’s in the shed?
Dennis G860 cylinder mowers x 3 Dennis Premier cylinder mowers x 2 Toro ProCore 648
John Deere R54RKB 21” rotary mowers x 3
Honda Pro54 21” rotary mowers x 4 Stihl strimmer Stihl hedgetrimmer Spray linemarker SGL LU440 lighting rigs x 4 Kubota RKV utility vehicle John Deere 3730 tractor Team Vixen sprayer
dictate.
Andy’s team Koro the pitch each September, and tend to rake and verti‐cut alongside this, to complement the action.
This will be accompanied by ten bags worth of overseeding, repeated after six months. They also seed the goalmouths after each match, all with Johnsons 100% rye J Premier Pitch. Their only disease issue is leaf spot, and they don’t suffer from any notable pests. In summer, they feed the fungus out, and in winter, they tend to perform a single spraying of Banner Maxx fungicide, which handles the problem efficiently.
Andy has intimated, however, that if troubled by fusarium due to damage, he will most likely use Instrata Elite 50/50 if budget allows.
When taking samples, Andy checks for calcium levels and ways to improve pH, which is currently around 4.7. He recently aimed to discover the natural nematode levels too, but is currently awaiting the results of this test.
Andy said: “It’s hard to know
whether pH is inherently dangerous, though. Because, we’re at 4.7 down at 100mm, and we’ve still got healthy grass.”
“And I figured out, even though that’s the norm, that our roots don’t go down near 100mm. So, I decided we could take some at 40mm instead. They were at 5.2.” “You can have a company come in and tell you the figures that’s supposed to be between, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those are the figures we can achieve, or even that they’re the figures we need to achieve.”
“You can end up being a number chaser, which is good in some ways, because it gives you a way to quantify what you’re achieving, but clearly the numbers aren’t the only thing that matter.” “That was early on. And since I’ve been here, we’ve hovered more like 5.3‐5.4, and we’ve always had grass cover. If grass is growing and no other issues are presenting, how can it be an issue itself?”
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