Winter Sports - Rugby Union
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We haven’t chosen the products yet, so it’s technically still on the table, but we like to take the advice of the RFU wherever possible
was viable to provide us with the grant.” “They have given us a significant amount of money, as have another organisation which aims to help clubs like ours achieve their goals.”
“We’ve made a concerted effort over the last four years to focus on the state of the pitch, because we’ve now got four pitches instead of two.”
“The farmer used to lend two of the pitches to us and he’d cut the grass down for us and maintain it to some extent.” “We’re now into our fourth year of leasing those and, because of that, we’re in a situation where we’re maintaining double the number of pitches, so we’ve had to invest in equipment, materials and everything that goes with it.” When asked whether he would be interested in undertaking formal groundsmanship qualifications, Iain replied: “It is something I’d like to investigate, as there are so many types of courses available. When you’re doing something you enjoy, you don’t mind learning it.”
“ 92 I PC JUNE/JULY 2018
“I’m getting to know more about it, increasingly. We have someone come to take soil samples, which is how we’re planning to arrange our fertiliser programme.”
“We haven’t chosen the products yet, so it’s technically still on the table, but we like to take the advice of the RFU wherever possible.”
Martyn added: “We’ve been making a few mistakes, over the years. We hired a guy to come in to help with the surface and he’d do a lot of cutting and rolling the pitches.” “So, we’ve ended up with a two‐inch crust of very compacted soil. It’s like fired clay. That’s the reason the pitches have a recent history of waterlogging.”
“Underneath that, the soil is fine. It’s just about getting the water into that soil. We’re looking into hiring equipment to make that happen. We’d like to use a verti‐drain sometimes.”
Iain has also calculated that around 90 tonnes of sand should be laid out between the two main pitches this year, with a 2:1
If you research the process on the internet, some people are very positive about it. The RFU don’t like it. They don’t rate it
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