Educational Establishments
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We try to work it that we can all adapt to each other’s tasks, to cover for sickness and holidays and ensure nothing is neglected
white balls and all the fanfare you’d expect for a modern T20 occasion,” Colin adds. At 44, Colin plans to see many years ahead of him at Ampleforth, not only managing a diverse team of groundsmen and gardeners but also being there to enjoy the continuing evolution and development of the school and its sports facilities.
Colin has been head groundsman since September after being in post as a groundsman for the last six years. He’s enjoyed a varied career, qualifying as an engineer, working for Scarborough council cutting the town’s prestige lawns, before moving into agriculture as a contractor, based in York.
A great advocate of education, Colin completed a Level 3 technical diploma in sports turf management, achieved via a distance learning programme online at home in his own time.
Delivering high service levels is the
foundation of his approach to the job. “If two tennis courts have to be prepared at short notice, for example, I’ll go and do it if no‐one else is available, because my priority is to deliver them ready for play ‐ that’s my commitment to ensuring the school has the quality of facility it expects.”
He applies his agricultural nous frequently to helping create the most cost‐sustainable fleet of machinery in a sector where one mower can cost five‐figure sums. “We’ve adopted a more streamlined approach,” he explains, “to reduce lost time due to machinery going off site for repairs. I’m very open to change and it’s important to hear all views about how we go about maintaining such a vast area.” A Ransomes Spider comes in handy for cutting the elevated grounds and slopes in front of the Abbey Church, while recreational lawns need tending ready for activities such as javelin, archery and al fresco lessons.
Notching up twenty‐one years on site, groundsman Andrew Cornforth, 48, is arguably the most experienced groundsman at Ampleforth. “I do some of everything,” he says, “although maintaining the cricket squares ranks high with me. There’s far more to preparing pitches than many realise.” “We try to work it that we can all adapt to each other’s tasks, to cover for sickness and holidays and ensure nothing is neglected, but I take the responsibility of being the spray man at Ampleforth, whilst other members of the team use knapsack sprayers to control weeds around the site. I ensure the College keeps up to date with all new legislation best practices and reduces application of chemicals through the use of integrated pest management. ” Also on the education track, George Kirk, 25, two years at the College, has just started his Level 2 technical certificate in turf surface maintenance. He's already taken on the role of gang mower specialist and last year had his tractor replaced with a new Kubota L4240, whilst apprentice Nathan Roberts, 19,
80 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018
arrived last March and is on block release to Askham Bryan College block on his City & Guilds sportsturf maintenance Level 2 course. Every one of the College’s boarding houses has its own gardens ‐ reason enough for the grounds team to include a fair smattering of gardening prowess. Stephen Kneeshaw, 43, is completing seventeen years, Wayne Theobald, 27, six years on gardens, estates and forestry duties, while gardener Mike Pike, 44, has tended the grounds for more than six years. Much of the tree management work rests in the hands of college forestry manager Mark Podgorski, 60, who can boast forty‐ four years at Ampleforth ‐ his father working here before him. Close behind comes Geoff Thrower, 65, with thirty‐five years’ service working on forestry as well as estates and gardens.
Ampleforth runs a full‐time and part‐time forester to help manage the mainly deciduous woodland on the 2,000‐acre estate. “The vast majority is leased to the Forestry Commission, but we have plenty of leaf fall to tackle as trees line the back boundary of the rugby and football pitches,” Colin explains.
“Wind sometimes can help us remove most of them, although they tend to gather up around the cricket square perimeter nets when it blows from the South West.” The quantity of timber generated from trees pruned and condemned is large enough to fire two biomass boilers. And still the sporting provision rolls on. “Miles Skehan who looks after the 9‐hole course at nearby Gilling Golf Club is nudging merely a decade of duty. "The course is owned by the College, which allows us to borrow each other’s machinery when needed,” explains Colin.
Pride of the rugby provision is the Lawrence Dallaglio Match Ground, created in 2010 from an existing pitch. A former Ampleforth pupil, the rugby legend won the Open and Festival Tournaments at Rosslyn
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