MULTI-SPORTS Getting Personal
Ian Trantum - he’d like to sing Gentle On My Mind no doubt!
Who are you? Ian Trantum, groundsman at Culcheth Sports Club.
Family status? Married with one son.
Who’s your hero and why?
Jonathan Thirsten; I love Rugby League.
What would you change about yourself? Go back and do better in school.
What’s your guilty pleasure? A good meat and potato pie.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Being nominated for groundsman of the year.
What are your pet peeves? People mithering me.
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? Bora Bora, Mexico. What’s the best part of your job? Working outside. … and the worst? Winter
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To live a long healthy life.
Favourite record, and why? Anything Northern Soul.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? The wife.
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Look after friends and family.
If you were to describe yourself as a musical instrument, what would you be and why? Saxaphone - chilled and mellow.
Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? Steven Fry, Jonathan Thirsten and Dean Martin.
If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be and why? Dean Martin.
Do you have any bad habits? Smoking.
... or any good ones?I like to help people as much as I can.
Do you go to bed worrying about the next day's workload? Sometimes.
What are you reading at the moment? - Hard copy or online? Pitchcare Magazine.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Listen and learn.
What’s your favourite smell? Fresh cut grass.
What do you do in your spare time? Walk the dog, read and watch TV. What’s your favourite piece of kit? SISIS Quadraplay.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Understanding, helpful and a bit moody. What talent would you like to have? To be able to sing.
100 PC December/January 2019
topdressed with fresh sand.” Maintenance of the pitches is
kept simple with Ian using a Trimax Striker 150 tractor mounted rotary when possible. Cutting heights in summer is at 25mm, but is raised to 28mm in the winter to try and keep grass cover.
“In-between, I like to get as much aeration work done on the pitches as possible. I use the deep spiker every week on the SISIS Quadraplay, but this was difficult in the summer conditions this year. It took until now (end of October) for the ground to soften up to get Richard to Earthquake them for us, at a depth of 6-8 inches.” Ian marks out both pitches once a week using a spray marker with mixable paint. Renovations taken out on the pitches this year consisted of deep scarification, an overseed with 100% perennial ryegrass mixture and a pre-seed fertiliser. He would have liked to topdress with 60 tonnes of sand, but
funds would not stretch that far this season.
“The dry summer hit us hard. It took the pitches and the bowling greens a long time to recover, especially having no irrigation system to speak of. The greens are still suffering now. We didn’t carry out much work on them over the summer so as not to stress them out any further. We have only just managed to scarify two ways, overseed, micro hollow tine and fertilise them two weeks ago (end of October); fingers crossed, the weather is on our side and they start to germinate soon.” Ian has a Replay machine - a brush with a little rake on it - which mounts onto the tractor. He uses this to tidy up the tennis courts every two weeks in summer and once a month in winter.
When it comes to budgets for machinery, renovation and fertiliser, the club tries to support Ian the best they can with what money they have available. “If I
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