FOOTBALL


One of the advisories we had, which came as no surprise, was that our machinery is old, and it


would be wise to invest in some new equipment


tells me the church wall by the traffic lights, which is about 500m from the pitch, used to be the harbour wall. “The sea would come in and go straight up the river so, if you dig down, there is a lot of sand underneath which helps with our drainage. When the pitch is flooded, it is not because of the rain that has come down, it is because the water has come up through the water table. But, literally overnight, the water will disappear and the next day it is bone dry. We do have drains in the pitch which run pretty much three-quarters of the pitch, with the outlet at the back of the goal. They do work well, but with some of the levels of rain we have experienced in the last year we did lose two fixtures, but there’s nothing we can do about it; we just have to let nature take its course.” On average, the pitch hosts sixty plus games a season, accommodating first team fixtures, cup games, the second team and the local schools’ finals. The club are also looking to set up a youth team which will add more pressure on the pitch and Paul. “It is very rare in the football season that we don’t have a game on every Saturday, plus training through the week.”


Paul would like to be able to carry out various other maintenance tasks on the pitch to help improve the surface, but he is limited in what he can achieve. “Our Jacobsen Tri King ride-on cylinder mower


is our main piece of equipment, which has just come back from being fixed again this summer and the blades sharpened. We will cut at a height 25mm in the summer and lift the height of cut to 28mm in the winter. I would like to scarify the pitch at the start and during the season, and it is something we are looking to hire in. We are also looking to get some new machinery in as the machines we have are quite old, and we do not have anything that can do the scarifying. We don’t even have a brush for the pitch at the moment; this is where we need to be investing some money going forward.” At the beginning of summer, they managed to take out a mini renovation on the pitch. “We had a contractor come in to verti-drain, overseed with the disc seeder, using MM seed, and fertilised with Evolution. With the recent weather, the pitch has really taken off and we have struggled to keep it under control!”


The club recently had a visit from Simon Johnson, Regional Pitch Advisor (Southwest) for the Grounds Management Association. “He came and took soil samples, then provided us with an advisory report on the pitch and one on machinery as well. One of the advisories we had, which came as no surprise, was that our machinery is old, and it would be wise to invest in some new equipment. There is a grant available where


What’s in the shed


Jacobsen Tri King 1900D ride-on mower


Honda V-twin 2315 mid-mounted rotary ride-on mower


Mountfield manual petrol mower Honda petrol strimmer iGO mini linemarker Mac Allister hand blower


- Treat Your Turf


    


PC August/September 2020


echneat 65


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