Winter Sports - Rugby
County Turf, on the back of its first new ownership in over twenty years. “It’s a popular turf in the southern hemisphere, and Real Madrid also have a couple of their tertiary pitches constructed in this format. It sits somewhere between Desso‐type pitches and Fibresand.” “Until recently, because we’re in the bed of the River Severn, it’s always been a river
silt profile, plus anywhere between 60‐100 tonnes of sand per renovation.”
“That doesn’t sit in the surface; it works its way down through the profile. That’s okay for most of the season but, in the dead of winter, the pitch becomes less predictable.” “It’s come back quite well this spring, but the south edge, with the big stand, does shade it quite a lot and restrict
photosynthesis. It does struggle a bit. We’ve got to keep fertiliser on it and keep verti‐ draining.”
Dave doesn’t employ contracted agronomy help, because of his brother’s status as a pitch advisor, but will be using the turf supplier’s service partners now the new surface has been installed. He also doesn’t use contractors for major work.
Dave Balmer talks to Gloucester Rugby TV about the new pitch
GRTV: “Dave, behind us, in the distance, we can see a couple of pieces of machinery carrying on doing the work on the pitch. What’s happened so far?”
Dave Balmer: “Basically, what we’ve done since the end of the season… they came in and removed the top vegetation off the pitch and removed another 150mm of soil, then we put a new drainage system in across the pitch. That was complemented with a smaller, narrower drainage system running down the pitch.
That was overlaid with 150mm of sand. As you can see, they’ve now covered that with the green carpet. The green carpet is now being filled with 40mm of sand, and once the sand has been brushed in, like they’re doing with the machine at the moment, the pitch will then be seeded, and hopefully, within three weeks, we’ll be mowing.”
GRTV: “So, what you can actually see in the background here is actually artificial fibres?”
Dave: “It is. It’s an artificial mat, which has covered the whole pitch, and the grass will grow through the backing on this mat, which is biodegradable. The root structure
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will form underneath and the stability of the pitch should improve tremendously.”
GRTV: “And one of the key things for you is the drainage as well, because that’s going to take away any sort of heaviness in the winter. You’re going to have to water it more than you have done in the past, aren’t you?”
Dave: “Yes. I can see the irrigation now running on a daily basis because, with it being sand‐based, it will drain so freely. Rain problems on matchdays – touch wood – should hopefully be a thing of the past.”
GRTV: “And will you have some sort of sprinkler system in place?”
Dave: “The sprinkler system in the pitch is still as it was in the previous pitch. We’ve still got 20 sprinkler heads, and that should suffice to keep it moist enough.”
GRTV: “Now, when you actually sow the grass seed, how long will it be until it actually starts to show?”
Dave: “Hopefully, we should see seed up within seven days. We’ll probably look to be mowing from anything within 10‐15 days.”
GRTV: “So, at the moment, bearing in mind we’ve got a friendly in the latter part of August, should everything be on track and proper and ready and bedded-in for then?”
Dave: “Yes. We shall start a fertiliser regime once the grass has actually come through and, once we get to the 23rd August, things should be looking quite fine.”
GRTV: “And it sounds like, even though there’s an element of artificial in this new pitch, there’s just as much work for you and the team to do.”
Dave: “Yes. The mowing is going to be on a different basis, because we’d be using pedestrian mowers rather than the ride‐on triple we’ve been using in the past, so that’ll be a bit more labour‐intensive. And, post‐match, we’ll need to use the rotary mowers to clean off all the debris, to keep the structure of the pitch nice and clean.”
GRTV: “And I guess, like ourselves, you’ll be as keen to see what the actual finished product is going to look like, aren’t you?”
Dave: “Oh, yes. It’s taken us into the 21st Century, and it’s upwards and onwards, really.”
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