EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS


We worked full time hours and the priority was basically keeping the grass down. The team was not back up to full strength until August, but we also managed keep a couple of grass wickets open


”


One of six main rugby pitches; James hopes to topdress and reseed in the spring


Leaves! The bane of every groundsman’s life in autumn


“Like most grounds teams, we were down on numbers through the spring due to furloughing and there was the constant feeling of uncertainty over when pupils would be back, and whether pitches needed to be prepared to training or tournament standards,” he comments. James’s team at the Foundation’s base in Cheltenham is small, with two staff, Neil Carter and Mark Smith, dedicated to grounds and sports fields, Paul Yates, Callum Smith and Gala Delbrooke-Jones in the gardens, plus landscaper Steve Jones, looking after fifty acres.


Groundstaff at Dean Close St Johns in Chepstow and two Dean Close nurseries in Gloucestershire and Wales, which have extensive gardens and forest schools, also report back to James. “During the first lockdown, we were down to two here at Cheltenham with one man at Chepstow on reduced hours,” he says. “We


worked full time hours and the priority was basically keeping the grass down. The team was not back up to full strength until August, but we also managed keep a couple of grass wickets open.” Key workers’ children remained in school, so there was also the need to provide safe play facilities for them. “We were unsure whether to set the rugby pitches up or not; in the end we had a couple of weeks’ notice to get every sports facility ready, although the synthetic pitches got more use initially. We marked out a 100m athletics track and made a long jump that could be used in ‘bubbles’.”


Despite all the hard work, a feeling of


‘something missing’ lingered with the lack of competitive fixtures, apart from those for bubble house groups. “On the positive side, the pitches have had less wear than in a normal year. We have been able to renovate the cricket squares


Pitches have additional markings to help coaches group pupils into ‘bubbles’


Cricket lanes have been fitted with rodent fencing to prevent hedgehogs getting trapped in the nets


94 PC December/January 2021


Wickets were kept ready for the return of pupils and have now been renovated ahead of next season


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