FOOTBALL


People have got to look back at pitches of the past and appreciate that they have improved dramatically


until 11.00am, but it just kept coming down, so we put a shout out on the website. By one o’clock, there must have been fifty people, brushing, shovelling and generally getting stuck in and, by 2.30pm, it was all clear.”


The pitch is a rootzone construction with a pop-up irrigation system with twelve sprinklers around the edge and six in the playing surface. Shade is a big problem under the west stand as it takes out a strip from the 18-yard line to the touchline all the


way down the pitch. “We suffer from the shade for twelve months of the year, even in summer after renovation; the seed struggles to germinate down that side.”


When I walked on the pitch, I could still see the seed lines from the disc seeder. I asked Michael what renovation he carried out in the summer and, like many groundsmen around the country, how he had coped with the summer heat? “It was very testing conditions with a very hot summer and a four-week window until we played Liverpool. We just went with the fraise mow this time, and disc seeded it with eighteen bags of seed four ways.”


“The irrigation system was used as much as possible to give me a fighting chance to get the seed germinating, and I had to hand water some areas around the pitch where the sprinklers didn’t seem to reach. But I managed to get the pitch ready in time for the Liverpool game.”


Michael must adapt his maintenance regime around a busy schedule of games and training sessions each month. For example, in October, he had six games with the first team, youth team and an England Under 19s game, plus eight training sessions.


“Every morning I like to check the G860’s blades are on cut. The height of cut is set at


What’s in the shed


Head Groundsman Michael Barrow


76 PC December/January 2019


Dennis G860 with brush and  Toro Reelmaster 2000D Honda rotary mower Old Kubota Tractor  Linemarker 


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