KEYNOTE INTERVIEW


I was intrigued by his question, but it got me wondering if, indeed, the internet could be used as a vehicle to bring our fragmented industry together, to provide a knowledge base and to allow individuals to talk to each other across the ether


”


The late Sir Jack Hayward presents Dave Saltman with the 1996 Groundsman of the Year award. His right hand man Terry Carver is on the left, now sadly deceased too


there, he built two Chelsea Flower Show gardens, which won silver and silver gilt medals.


D


In his sandwich year in 1987, he set up a landscaping business with a friend, Jason Wood, called Garden Innovations; it specialised in concept design and build. Garden Innovations was invited, by another company, to do some turfing, which turned out to be replacing the old Astro pitch at Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road stadium. It was a cell system pitch from southern Europe. Once completed, Dave was asked by the contractor if he’d like to maintain the QPR pitch.


The company was also maintaining other sports venues, as well as building tennis courts, football pitches and other sports surfaces. Dave had to ‘learn on the hoof’ as he calls it, but found there were only a handful of industry books available to learn from. The industry magazines at the time didn’t offer anything, perhaps one feature article, which was often just advertorial. Exhibitions, events and talking to peers seemed to be the only way he was going to


ave Saltman qualified as a Landscape Gardener and Designer at Merrist Wood College in Guildford at the age of twenty-one. During his time


improve his knowledge base. When the recession hit in 1990, landscaping and building died a death. Every builder turned their hand to patios and fencing (badly, he notes) but sports ground work was non-stop, so Dave dissolved the landscaping business and went to work for the sportsground contractor.


Dave comments: “By 1991, we had picked


up Tottenham Hotspur, Millwall and West Ham and then had to address Barnet FC’s slope to comply with their new Football League status.”


“In 1994, the new Sixfields Stadium at Northampton was added to the portfolio and, within six weeks, we had also added Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Molineux and Derby County’s infamous Baseball Ground - one half of the pitch was home to seagulls it was that wet!”


“I remember the then CEO telling me they had a friendly against PSV Eindhoven the following week and I had to explain to him that there was no chance of that with the pitch in its current state. However, with some serious commitment and a Pattison Spiker, I was able to get the pitch into some sort of reasonable condition and saw real improvements towards the end of that season.” So, Dave was now maintaining


PC June/July 2020 13


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