Winter Sports - Rugby GETTING Personal...
Dave Balmer ‐ No more heroes anymore. Well, perhaps Kirsty Alsopp ‐ he forgets!
Who are you? Dave Balmer, Stadium Manager at the Kingsholm, home of Gloucester Rugby.
Family status? Married for nigh‐on thirty‐eight years.
Who’s your hero? As you got older, you maybe understand more about life and lose them. It may once have been Bobby Charlton.
What would you change about yourself? Three stone.
What’s your guilty pleasure? Wine.
What’s been the highlight of your grounds career so far? Hosting Rugby World Cup games.
What are your pet peeves? Again, you lose them. But, maybe it used to be team runs on the pitch.
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? New Zealand (Christchurch).
What’s the best part of your job? Results.
… and the worst? Unpredictability.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To live as long as possible.
Favourite record? Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? Kirsty Allsopp ‐ good conversation.
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Get a Desso Grassmaster.
Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? Eric Bristow, who I met briefly, Barack Obama and Dennis Lillee.
If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be and why? An astronaut on a space station.
Do you have any bad habits? I’m getting forgetful.
88 I PC JUNE/JULY 2018
... or any good ones? I try to think of others first.
Do you read (and what)? I tend to get bored after three or four chapters.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? “Stay quiet and be thoughtful, instead of opening your mouth to be found a fool.”
What’s your favourite smell? A nice Merlot.
What do you do in your spare time? Visit
grandchildren and parents.
What’s the daftest work- related question you have ever been asked? [As a lorry went past]. “Why do they put rolls of grass on
lorries?” I told her that posh people have their grass sent away to be cut. And she believed me.
What’s your favourite bit of kit? Toro ProCore.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Glad I’m alive.
What talent would you like to have? I’d like to be able to fly a plane.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? I’d have better‐controlled team warm‐ups like they have in Premier League football.
Club CEO Steven Vaughan explains the new logo change
“Last year, we commenced a review of all our communications and brand. A full audit and research project was undertaken across the club with the primary objective to deliver an agreed set of values that every member of staff, whether that be in the playing department or elsewhere, could be guided by.
This piece of work also looked at the future design of all Gloucester Rugby communications and different logos used across the club. This included areas such as Community, Conferencing and Events, Hospitality and others, where we had a large number of different logos and nothing linking them together.
It became clear that our current logo did not fully portray our
ambition for the
club and we needed a more contemporary logo that reflects the traditional elements of Gloucester Rugby.
We now have a Master brand that does that really well and will support our ambitions for the future. The name of the club was never in question and we remain Gloucester Rugby.
The Gloucester Rugby brand is a key element in terms of the future success of the club and, whilst we know for some people it will take a little getting used to, we are really proud of what has been developed and know the changes will support our ambitions for the future.”
autumn/winter in the summer, just to focus on root growth.” “I don’t take soil samples much, because my brother and I have been doing this for so long. Usually, you can just look at the plant and see whether it needs any nutrition. I tend not to worry too much about pH or similar. It’s much more a visual thing.”
“Using a sand‐based pitch will be a new experience for both of us, however. We’ll see what happens through County Turf going forward and may start to do more of that sort of thing.”
“Occasionally, we’ll spray with a liquid too, but we haven’t needed to for the last two years. We were going to put some seaweed down a couple of weeks back, when it was looking a bit flat and sad due to the rain, but the ground temperature is back up now.”
“We use pre‐made fertiliser from the main proprietary suppliers.
We’ll go with their combinations, because they tend to work perfectly well.”
“They haven’t made those proportions up for no reason. They know what they’re doing. And with a decent soil profile, as we have had, it holds onto the nutrients well.”
“However, we may start to suffer from leaching with this new profile, so a change‐up might be needed as we see how the surface develops over the coming season.” Dave said his dad instilled in him an attitude to prioritise a pitch that will work well for players, before worrying about the supporters’ opinions:
“There’s no point going on the pitch if it’s wet just for the sake of it. 90% of the time, you’ll be doing more damage than good. The weather’s there to be worked with, not against you.”
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