FOOTBALL/RUGBY
The pitch is currently draining really well. A few
weeks ago, we had 45mm of rain over two or three days but, within an hour of the rain stopping, it was fine
Johnsons Premier Pitch, but we are not averse to changing this nearer the time to whatever is best suited.”
With the subject of dual-use on the pitch in mind, I went on to ask Niall, how he prepares for a doubleheader of football and rugby. “I experienced this on my second weekend here, when we were still in the growing season. We double cut on Thursday and Friday and cut once on Saturday morning which, looking back, we probably shouldn’t have done considering the length required for the rugby, but we marked up for football.”
“When the football finished, we went straight out with the Dennis machines using the brush cassettes to tidy up the debris as this is quicker than the rotaries and does an effective job. We greened out the football lines, marked in the rugby lines and swapped the posts over. Then, on Sunday morning, we came in around 9.00am, put the pads on the posts, put the corner flags out and marked the dashes in. On Monday morning, we used the dragbrush to stand the sward back up, gave it a clean-up with the Lawnflite rotaries and, the rest of the week, we knocked the divots back. Then it was just a matter of letting the pitch recover
without putting too much stress on it.” The club currently has two training bases; the local cricket club (as previously mentioned) where there are two pitches, and they also train on a fibresand pitch at the University of Manchester’s Platt Lane site, which was formerly Manchester City’s Academy. The club is looking to invest in their own bespoke facility, which will enable the first team and youth team to train on one site, which can only mean exciting times for Niall and the club in the near future.
“Involvement in this project is what helped attract me to move to Rochdale and take on a new challenge. The club has a realistic view of what they want to achieve, and it will be great to be a part of that. It will also be so nice to have a training ground we can call our own.” Since taking the step up, Niall has leaned on the advice of people around him who he trusts in the industry. He gave a special mentioned to Chris Simm, Head Groundsman at Bolton Wanderers who was his old boss and taught him a lot during his time there. Niall also seeks advice from a former head groundsman who knows the pitch like the back of his
hand from his past work there. At the same time, he has his own way of doing things but, as he says “it’s always good to get a different opinion”.
Niall believes our industry is in a healthy place at present and feels it’s good to see some young faces picking up some key positions. However, he strongly feels groundsmen and greenkeepers are being undervalued, under-rated and are not being listened to.
“I feel lucky that Rochdale are listening to what I say and are implementing changes from my suggestions, but I’m not sure all venues are the same. I like to attend industry shows and seminars to try and find out what’s going on, what’s coming out and what’s new. This also gives new and better ideas on how I can improve the pitches and allows me to network with other groundsmen and meet new people to share thoughts.”
At this point, my brew had got cold as we had been too busy talking. I took this as my cue to leave.
PC December/January 2019
95
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