Winter Sports - Rugby Union


Willenhall RUFC


Four pitches ‘just like a big garden’


The principal volunteer groundsperson at Willenhall Rugby Union Football Club is 44-year-old Iain Athersmith. He’s a big guy with an even bigger beard. Jake Barrow switched on his fog lights and headed for south Staffordshire


I


ain Athersmith has joined at an ambitious time in the club’s history, as it aims to shake up membership numbers, improve its surface and clubhouse, and generally invest in the club’s long‐term


future.


Whilst taking on this responsibility in addition to his day job, Iain is not showing signs of stress. He called it therapeutic, boldly stating: “I like gardening. I’ve done a lot of gardening. And this is just like a big garden.”


Counterintuitively, Willenhall RUFC is not in the town of that name ‐ it’s not even that close. Instead, it lies about a 5‐mile, 15‐ minute drive north in the village of, Essington. The rugby club, in fact, lies in Staffordshire, whilst Willenhall is in the borough of Walsall.


Iain was a rugby union player when he was younger (at prop forward), and his sons both took after him in this respect.


He said his youngest is perhaps the most enthusiastic about the sport, and it was through the family’s current involvement in the club that he found out they needed help with the grounds.


Iain also maintains the non‐turf grounds around the clubhouse, including the pathways, fixtures and other jobs which might be within the remit of a handyman. These are not dissimilar from some of the jobs he has to rattle through during his working days as a builder.


90 I PC JUNE/JULY 2018


“I’m here quite often anyway, as my eldest comes up on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I’d be here to watch. My youngest is also here on Wednesdays, alongside me coaching the U‐15s that day too.”


“So, it works really well for that reason. I thought I’d just tie it in with a bit of time after school with the kids. Out of my time, it’s probably about eight hours per week, but it’s sometimes as little as two. Depends on how far ahead I get.”


“It was a steep learning curve for the first period I was here. I think it will continue to be a learning process for as long as I do it. Science is coming up with new tools for the job all the time.”


“Part of the job is the learning, but because it’s at club level and committee level, it’s partly about getting requests passed through and ensuring we’ve got the funds with which to do things.”


“You can do as much learning as you want, but we’ve got to be able to adapt and to know we’re actually able to do the jobs we’d like to do. We managed to get the committee to agree to invest in a large Ransomes mower this past year.” General manager Martyn Loach, who was with us while I was interviewing Iain, added: “We also successfully applied for a large grant from the RFU to help fund things like that.”


“A guy from Twickenham came down to have a look at the pitch to assess whether it


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