RUGBY LEAGUE
Wakefield Trinity Rocketman!
The Mobile Rocket Stadium (aka Belle Vue) is the home of Super League rugby league club Wakefield Trinity. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, they get their name from the Holy Trinity Church. Lee Williams met with Head Groundsman Steve Dutton to learn more about his role and his expectations for the future
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teve Dutton, Head Groundsman and Kitman, has served Wakefield Trinity for the last thirty-four years, through thick and thin. He started his working career as a joiner but suffered a back injury whilst in the trade, which put an end to that career path early on.
He had to find work and started working at the club part-time back in 1985. His first job at the club was cleaning out the dressing rooms when the council owned the ground. When the ground was taken over by new owners, Steve found himself thrown in at the deep end. “I came in one day and was told
PC October/November 2019
‘you are now the head groundsman’. The conversation went like this: ‘all I know about grass is it grows faster in the summer than it does in the winter’. Their response was: ‘well, that is good enough for us’. Since then, I have gained my NVQ Level 2 in Sports Turf to help improve my knowledge and I have been lucky enough to lean on various other experienced groundsmen around this area for advice.” Steve took on the full-time role of head groundman in the early 1990s, learning as he went along. Since then, he has become more than just the groundsman. “My main responsibility is still the preparation of the
stadium pitch for training and games, but I’m also the club’s kitman responsible for setting up the kit for home and away matches, plus washing it after the match and hanging it back up in the changing room.” Steve has no help on matchdays and, with so much work to do, I am keen to understand what a typical home game involves and what time he starts and finishes.
“If we have a home game on a Sunday, I will prepare the pitch on Saturday, which involves cutting with the Dennis G860 one way and then mark out. Then, on Sunday, I will get in for 9.00am and set the kit out in
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