MULTI-SPORTS
Our biggest issue with the Fibresand pitch is having enough water. In 2018, we found out a lot about what our irrigation is like
”
compared to what it should be like
The Riverside Fibresand rugby pitch
contractors is now being spent on the extra material we’re going to need to manage the pitches.” “Renovations are still being contracted out, but we’re doing all of the feeding and all the maintenance in-house, so that’s added significantly to the budget. However, the club has shown a real commitment to providing the resources required to get the standard that we and they want.” “The pitches are now a significant source of income for The Lensbury and I think that’s what helped them make the decision to bring someone in full-time. They recognise that they need to protect that income and maintaining the two pitches every day does that.”
Catering for professional rugby began in 2015 when eventual tournament winners, New Zealand, picked The Lensbury to be their base for the Rugby World Cup, following the construction of a Fibresand pitch. The standard of the pitches is now a top priority for Peter, but an issue that needs to be overcome is irrigation.
“The Riverside pitch is Fibresand and its initial construction was done during the winter of 2013/2014 in anticipation of the 2014 World Cup. Fortunately, the weather at the time meant there were no drainage issues. Afterwards, there was a lot of retrospective work that had to be done to impact it, but now it’s an extremely free draining Fibresand pitch.”
“Our biggest issue with the Fibresand pitch is having enough water. In 2018, we found out a lot about what our irrigation is like compared to what it should be like. We have a borehole and we’re limited to 6,000 cubic metres from 1st April to 31st October. That limit has been set for twenty years, but the development of the club and the usage has changed, but because of the environmental situation when we asked for more, we weren’t able to get it.” “So, once we use that, we then have to go onto mains water. We had what we thought was an adequate 10,000-litre tank installed which we found out was good to have, but the water was going into it at one-hundredth
Rugby training in full swing 76 PC April/May 2019
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