Educational Establishments


expressing his impression by my work ethic and how I’d come across as dedicated to breaking into that side of turfcare. He offered to create an extra place on the groundstaff.


You can be lucky with those types of situations. It’s possible to struggle on and not get to where you want to, but I think if you try for long enough, the luck makes itself, and I was lucky enough to end up receiving that leg up. Suddenly, I was going to be a groundsperson as I’d hoped.”


Developing that career


I moved to St. George’s around five months later, after the FA had completed a restructure. After six months, I was asked to go for a “team leader” role, which I was initially unsure about as didn’t feel I was ready for the role. I told Alan exactly that, and he listened. He saw something in me that he thought would work, however. So, I accepted the job, knowing it would require me to climb a steep learning curve. The others doing the same job to which I’d been assigned had far more knowledge at


the time, having travelled to take the job with Alan when he moved from Ipswich Town FC, as well as a good few years’ experience by then at St. George’s. It got to a stage where I felt I wanted to progress personally and professionally. For me to progress into, for example, a head groundsman position at that venue would have required the other two leaving, which was extremely unlikely.


One has now left, but his counterpart is still at St. George’s and has now, expectedly, taken the senior role immediately below Scott Brooks, who is in Alan’s now‐vacated position.


I spoke to my friend Ed Mowe at Leicester Tigers RFC ‐ who used to be with Leicester City Football Club ‐ asking him to contact me if he heard of any advanced roles being advertised.


I thought that, even if I didn’t end up getting the jobs for which I interviewed, it was about time I had some interview experience to stand me in good stead for when I was ready.


Quite quickly, he responded with the


vacancy at the University of Leicester. I came and spoke to Adam Tester, who used to do my current job and is now my boss, and he was keen, whereas I was dubious. It would require further travel and a drop in wages, which is difficult because I have kids and a mortgage, but it was the correct decision. I’ve had a good run so far [Chris started less than a year ago], and I’ve learnt a lot in my short time here.


I’m happy to be managing my own team and setting the budgets for the year, in terms of fertiliser, seeds, renovation ‐ all of this was brand new to me when I joined here, but thankfully, as I say, my boss had done the job immediately before me.


Learning what’s necessary At St. George’s, we had certain


responsibilities which were designed to bring us through in the hope that we would take on those higher‐responsibility roles eventually.


We had to be a bit more computer‐savvy at ‘team leader’ level, which is massive in my current job. We had emails to attend to,


72 I PC APRIL/MAY 2018


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164