FOOTBALL/RUGBY Club history
His first thoughts weren’t to become a groundsman and manage his own ground; like many of us who end up in the turfcare industry, fate led him here
with Ted Hopkins, and I’m happy to provide hospitality and sponsorship in exchange for the servicing and supply of machines. We certainly don’t have an abundance of machinery, but I would love to invest in a Toro ProCore, as it’s lightweight and enables us to get holes through the carpet in the winter months; most of the compaction is in the top couple of inches.”
“With us being the first stadium to install a Desso PlayMaster, I feel last year we were a little bit light on the renovations and I would certainly like to see a higher level at the end of this season. We are currently taking some counsel on that now; in mid-February, Dan Duffy and Sion Bennet from Desso will come down and discuss the way forward.” To add to the wear on the pitch, Mark has to fit in community games before any
renovations can commence. “I try and push them all to the end of the season, but this is getting shorter. This season will finish in the middle of May and football will want to be playing again by the middle of July. That only gives us a period of six to eight weeks to achieve everything we can.” Mark shares his thoughts on the turf industry going forward. “I can see the future being more multi-use stadia, with less money being around. I believe all stadia are struggling, especially in the lower leagues, and you normally find that the grounds part of the operation is the last department to get any overspill of money; so I can see more people ground sharing. It’s tough - I think a lot of groundsmen would say the same.” “One of the big gripes for me nowadays involves social media. I have staff who work a ridiculous number of hours every weekend, only to have derogatory comments made towards them, which are sometimes very personal, almost always ill- informed and can be very hurtful. I’m now trying to be a little more proactive on social media, in a bid to educate fans how much the team do throughout the week as they are doing it.”
After chatting with Mark and having seen first-hand what his team cope with week in week out, I can only commend the dedication they have; to try and produce a quality surface each game, with such a huge fixture list and testing conditions in winter, is no mean feat. Keep up the good work and good luck for the rest of the season.
84 PC February/March 2019
“
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
