RUGBY LEAGUE


It was hard work getting the pitch ready in a short space of time as well as disinfecting all the posts, post pads and flags before and after the games. After the last game at 8:00pm, we had to prep ready for Sunday’s games


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different formats, and I heard at the beginning of August of the finalised plans for the restart. I had managed to keep the pitch ticking over since March with minimal inputs of fertiliser, using what I could get my hands on and running the pitch lean. I had already started to bring the pitch back at the beginning of August when I was given the funds to get some fertiliser. It was at this point that I heard we would be holding the five games at the end of August.” “Working on my own, I have had to adapt the way I work by putting more hours in; starting earlier and finishing later.” The week leading up to the games seemed strange to Mel going from being on his own each day with not a soul in sight to a hive of activity around the pitch which meant extra work. “An example of this was we had the electronic signage being put in for the televised games. At the last moment, on the Friday night before the first game on Saturday, I had to alter all the pitch lines as the original markings did not give enough room for people to agree there was a three- metre gap between the touchline and the signs. So that meant both sides of the pitch and the dotted lines all had to be moved in and the original lines greened out. I have found that you have to give yourself that little bit of leeway for those incidents that crop up but again, with experience, you know how to work around those things.” Mel explains how the weekend went from starting early on a Saturday morning until the end late on Sunday night. “Until I arrived Saturday morning, I was unaware that I could not go on the pitch for three hours before the game. With the first game set to kick off at 1:00pm, that meant I had to be off the pitch by 9:30am, factoring in the warm- up period.”


“It was hard work getting the pitch ready in a such short space of time as well as disinfecting all the posts, post pads and flags with Huwa San from Agrovista Amenity before and after the games. After the last game at 8:00pm, we had to prep ready for Sunday’s games. Luckily, I had my assistant Adam Jackson, who came in on a volunteer


60 PC October/November 2020


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