KEYNOTE INTERVIEW


At the time, I was also lecturing for the FA on winter sports maintenance. I’d have fifteen to twenty guys at each session who, during coffee breaks and lunch, would be queuing up to ask me questions such was their thirst for information


”


that something had to change.” So, is that when the idea for Pitchcare hatched? “In June 2000, I was sat in the stands at Molineux, looking out over the pitch we were mowing following its renovation, when a young work placement lad who had just completed his sports science degree, Simon Britton, turned to me and asked; ‘how do you make money out of the internet?’”


This was at a time when fledgling companies such as Amazon and eBay were struggling with dial-up internet connection and Google was taking its first tentative steps towards world domination. Wikipedia and Facebook were still some way off, and ‘tweeting’ was something the birds did in the trees!


Dave with the FA Cup at White Hart Lane in 1991


Northampton Town, Derby County and Wolverhampton Wanderers - what he calls the ‘Midlands triangle’. “I was living out of a hotel at the time, getting up early to be at Sixfields by


7.00am, finishing there and heading up to the Baseball Ground and then over to Molineux late afternoon, early evening!” “At the time, I was also lecturing for


The Pitchcare paper announcing the company’s launch at Windsor in September 2001


14 PC June/July 2020


the FA on winter sports maintenance. I’d have fifteen to twenty guys at each session who, during coffee breaks and lunch, would be queuing up to ask me questions such was their thirst for information. So much so that I often had to forgo coffee and lunch myself!” “The association and industry magazines were still not really providing any meaningful content and it was clear to me


“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.” ““I had a good friend who ran his own internet backbone provider IT company and he’d set me up with a dial-up connection and hand-me-down computers, upgrading me from 386s to 486s to Pentiums every time he upgraded his staff’s equipment. So, I was already using a fledgling internet and could see its potential immediately.” “By the time I had finished talking to Simon, I had the idea for Pitchcare running around in my head. So I went to see the Wolves Club Secretary Richard Skirrow to bounce the idea off him. ‘What are you going to write about after the first year?’ was his reply and, for the next year, he continued to play devil’s advocate, whilst I continued to maintain the Midlands pitches and training grounds.”


“But, all the while, I was formulating a business plan, with help from the local Chamber of Commerce, whilst Richard continued to offer his advice.” “I was allowed to make a presentation to the club and some of the players even invested in my idea. I’d valued the concept


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