RUGBY LEAGUE
It seems a long time ago; forty-four years now. I came out of a football career with a bad injury and found myself working for Cheshire Education in the Warrington area. We looked after all the school playing fields, and I learned a lot about the job and different aspects of life in my fifteen years there. Then suddenly, the Conservative government of the time put everything out to contract. I found myself unemployed for a short time until I was offered a job with the contracting firm that had taken over. I worked for them for ten years, and that was a real eye-opener. It was all about money and speed, which was not the right thing for me.” “At the end of that ten years, I was seconded to look after Warrington’s original stadium pitch at Wilderspool, whether I liked it or not! I was not too pleased as they had no equipment and would use the pitch frequently for training and games. But then I
thought well this would test what I had learned at Reaseheath College when I did my City & Guilds in Sportsturf and a Management Studies course in Crewe all those years ago, which I had never had the chance to put into practice.” “The people that ran the club, and the coaches, were very kind and respected me, so I actually jumped ship in 1999 and worked directly for the club.” Five years into Mel’s career at Warrington, they had a new stadium built which was partly down to pressure from the Rugby League who were not happy with the health and safety aspect at some of the old league grounds. Being from the area, I heard Tesco had something to do with the new ground which is situated right next to the stadium. I asked Mel could he clarify this for me. “Yes, it was all to do with trying to get a Tesco retail park built by BARR Construction who built this stadium as part of the deal but, in
all honesty, I wouldn’t let them build me a toilet. The land which was allocated for the stadium build was on the site of the old Walkers of Warrington Brewery.” “One of my jobs in 2003 was to monitor the new stadium build, and it broke my heart watching them construct the pitch. You do not construct a pitch in the way they did and, since opening the ground, we had many issues with it.”
Mel has been instrumental in solving the problems faced by the pitch from the start, whilst taking BARR to task alongside the club. “You don’t build pitches like this and get away with it, something I have learned being at the forefront of trying to solve these construction problems. With the help of John Mallinson and the STRI, we were able to highlight the problems that existed. We kept records of all their findings, which proved to be very important and enabled me to help the club haul the company over
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PC October/November 2020
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