RUGBY LEAGUE
We tend to do major work via running repairs rather than renovate, but that’s due to timings. I keep deciding I’ll do a renovation, but it’s a matter of finding time in the schedule
photoshoots, charity events, football-related events. We have an awful lot of adverts and promotions here.”
“It can be challenging if there’s a photoshoot on a Monday after a Saturday game, to present the pitch to the standard a television advert requires of a surface.” “It’s a dual-code rugby pitch, which you would expect to show some spread wear but, in the adverts, it’s supposed to represent a football pitch, which should look different.”
“Sometimes they’re night-time shoots too. So, we’re both marking out a different pitch for football as a one-off and we might be doing it at night.”
Of course, the ground suffers from the famous Mancunian rainfall levels: “I couldn’t tell you the exact figures, but there has been very high rainfall this year.”
“We haven’t had many dry games. We haven’t lost any games, though. We haven’t lost a game in the seven years we’ve been here. It’s a fully constructed pitch, so the rootzone is appropriate and it has a full drainage system underneath. It’s a good pitch, but in a wet area.”
“The infiltration rates are good. We look at nutrition and pH consistently. There’s
Lighting rigs
nothing we’re working on currently. All the chemical levels are close to where they should be.”
“This has probably been the heaviest year since we got here, because the cold and damp started so early - around September, when the final few months of the year can often be more decent.”
“On the note of not having those exact figures: that’s because I don’t document these things as much as most. I couldn’t, for example, reel off the number of fixtures we had last season. I don’t think that’s a good way to think. It’s more destructive than helpful.”
“It doesn’t make any difference what your fixture list is or your rainfall has been, because you’ll still be doing the same job and can then focus on what you can control.” The stadium is open at all four corners and has lower stands than many major stadia. As everywhere, the south stand is problematic, and there’s some shade at the west, as the stadium points northeast.
“I put a proposal together for the lighting rigs, because we shared, with the CFA, the matches of the under-20s Rugby Union World Cup tournament.”
“That started around the end of May, and
we were going to have dual-use around that time. There was little time before potentially global television broadcasts of that game.” “We needed some extra help to get us up to scratch to host that tournament, and the board were very receptive to the proposal. Of course, those help us massively going forward.”
“Expectations on groundstaff are higher these days because the industry has improved so much. A pat on the back is nice but, when I look at my pitch, I see its faults. Maybe that’s not the healthiest way to look at it, but it’s probably a mindset which keeps it at a high standard.”
“As I say, the management here are very helpful and it’s a strong relationship. Fifteen games of rugby union in twenty-two days, with a rugby league game in the middle meant we needed good plant health.” “I was very lucky at the start of this process to be granted the tools to set us up to be 90% self-sufficient. I’d take a topdresser, but no one’s wish list would ever end, I suppose.”
“We do most of our own servicing as well, although Campey Turf Care deal with the major tractor servicing and the like, because they’re one of our lead suppliers.”
86
PC August/September 2018
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