WINNING FORMULA
CONTRIBUTORS
KAREN MAXWELL Editor of Grounds Management magazine
DR ANDY CARMICHAEL Freelance writer and sports-turf academic
ASH WILLS GMA PR and communications manager
DAVID LYNCH Freelance writer
WELCOME
Supporting excellence
In this edition, we celebrate the GMA Awards, held at the home of newly crowned League Champions, Liverpool FC (see interview on page 20). The awards showcase the incredible diversity of our profession, from dedicated volunteers at grassroots clubs to top-tier professionals – all representing best practice across the industry.
Each year, our judges – all current or former practising grounds managers
– face the welcome challenge of reviewing an everimproving standard of nominations. Their peer-reviewed insights ensure that finalists and winners truly reflect excellence in grounds management.
This year, the awards ran alongside another successful #GroundsWeek campaign, which continues to grow in reach and impact. Our award winners provided powerful case studies picked up across TV, radio and print media, helping shine a light on the work that enables sport to take place at every level.
BEYOND THE AWARDS, THE GMA CONTINUES TO CHAMPION THE SECTOR THROUGH A WIDE RANGE OF INITIATIVES
ANDREW TURNBULL Bioagronomist, South West Agronomy
KELLY-MARIE CLACK Agronomy and technical manager, Origin Amenity Solutions
DAN PREST GMA technical and learning lead
IAN SOMERVILLE Regional pitch advisor (rugby union – north)
Beyond the awards, the GMA continues to champion the sector through a wide range of initiatives. In this issue, you’ll find updates on GMA Learning, our partnership work with national governing bodies, the expansion of the Pitch Advisory Service in Wales and the launch of GMA Connect, with events in Bristol and Durham.
We also feature GMA 35 under 35, sponsored by ICL, celebrating the next generation of talent. And we proudly recognise Hall of Fame inductee Andy Jackson of Stoke City FC for his outstanding career and commitment to grassroots sport. There’s a host of other features for you to read and enjoy as we spring into a summer of sport.
Geoff Webb, GMA CEO
GROUNDS MANAGEMENT
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BRIEFING
7 INDUSTRY NEWS
The latest developments from across the grounds-care sector
9 GMA UPDATE
GMA 35 under 35 initiative honours young talent; GMA Connect learning and networking events; training opportunities in the spotlight; GMA Awards celebrate the best in the grounds-care sector
17 PAS UPDATE
How the Pitch Advisory Service is helping raise pitch standards at Ambleside RFC
18 NGB UPDATE
Welsh grassroots football is benefiting from the Pitch Advisory Service Wales programme
FEATURES
20 GMA AWARD WINNER
Liverpool FC’s Warren Scott explains how his grounds team dives into the data to create award-winning pitches
25 GMA HALL OF FAME
How Stoke City FC’s Andy Jackson is dedicated to sharing expertise to raise standards at grassroots clubs
28 GMA AWARD WINNER
Will Rigg talks about rising to the challenges of keeping Ilkley Lawn Tennis Club courts in pristine condition despite frequent floods
50 60 SECONDS WITH…
Head groundsperson at Worcester
Racecourse Bryony Garness on her journey from eventing and grooming to grounds care
TECHNICAL
33 MANAGING TURFGRASS HEALTH IN VARIABLE LIGHT CONDITIONS
The impact of limited sunlight on grass and managing shaded areas
37 HOW TO PLAN A NUTRITIONAL PROGRAMME
Why understanding the various nitrogen sources is key to choosing the correct fertiliser for your needs
40 IN ACTION
Products and services used by Hibernian FC, Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Greenstripe Groundcare, Watford FC, Haileybury School and Walsall Council
43 MAINTENANCE TIPS
Summer operations
47 PRODUCT NEWS
Product news and launches from GKB, Baroness, MyPitch, Makita, Agrovista and Fiata
HARD WORK PAYS OFF
Warren Scott discusses his team’s award-winning, sustainable, data-driven pitch management processes at Liverpool FC
BY DAVID LYNCH, FREELANCE WRITER
Warren Scott (centre) with members of Liverpool FC’s grounds team, which deservedly took home this year’s GMA award for Professional Grounds Team (Elite) of the Year
EVERY BIT OF OUR COLLECTED DATA IS ANALYSED, WHETHER IT’S LINKED TO THE NUTRIENTS IN THE GROUND, HOW MUCH MOISTURE IS IN THE GROUND OR THE AMOUNT OF WATER THAT WE USE
This page: Sustainability is key at the club Opposite: Team members gear up for mowing
Those who do not follow football particularly closely may not be fully aware of Liverpool Football Club’s recent return to greatness.
The short version goes that this historic club was closing in on 30 years without a Premier League title when it was taken over by US consortium Fenway Sports Group in 2010.
Since then, a data-driven revolution in recruitment has pulled the club back to the summit of the English game and, at the time of writing, put it firmly on track for a second league title and an eighth major trophy under its new ownership.
However, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the story is that this analytical approach is not solely restricted to the players’ achievements on the pitch.
Attention to data also underpins the work of a grounds team that recently picked up their own silverware in winning the Professional Grounds Team (Elite) of the Year Award at the 2025 GMA Awards.
Warren Scott, who is in his 26th year at the club, heads up that 34-strong team in his role as senior grounds manager, ensuring that the 18 pitches, which cater for the club’s first team, academy and women’s sides across multiple sites, are in top condition.
And he says that, as has been the case for the aforementioned recruitment department, the success he and his staff have enjoyed owes much to following the numbers closely.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DATA
“I am, and I’ve always been, a stickler for data,” Warren says. I’ve wanted to collect it, learn from it and keep collecting it. In fact, most of the work we do here at Liverpool FC is data driven.”
Warren explains that data collection is all about minimising waste and resources. “Every bit of our collected data is analysed, whether it’s linked to the nutrients in the ground, how much moisture is in the ground or the amount of water that we use.
“We’ll also look at the data from a player safety point of view by testing pitch compaction, energy restitution or the traction of a player’s boot on the playing surface.
“A lot of the club’s players over the last 10 years are into that themselves, so they know when the pitch isn’t right for them, and that helps the grounds team to make changes in pitch management where needed.
“For example, we analyse leaf tissue in the grass and data from the soil, and correlate the findings.
“If you can analyse collected data, you can apply exactly what’s needed, where it’s needed. This means that we’ve made big reductions in the amount of chemicals and fertilisers that we use across all sites.”
The reduction in wasted materials comes with an obvious financial upside, as evidenced by the club’s 40 per cent drop in pitch care expenditure over the last three years at Melwood, the former home of the first team, now occupied by the women’s side.
THE RED WAY
The environmental benefits from the grounds team’s sustainable management techniques – across all sites – played an important role in Liverpool earning recognition from the GMA.
The club launched its own sustainability programme, The Red Way, in 2021, and grounds staff are at the forefront of a club-wide push to support this ethos.
For example, last summer the club partnered with Husqvarna, which was announced via an amusing video suggesting grounds staff now had time to learn the violin, paint and play golf, thanks to their new robotic mowers. However, Warren explains that this collaboration has had a genuine impact in both environmental and workload terms across several sites.
He says: “This partnership has resulted in a massive reduction in our CO2 emissions. We think in the next three months the whole of our club’s landscape across all sites will be cut 100 per cent by electric technology
and about 80 per cent of this will be by robot mowers.”
And is that new free time really used to tune up the golf swing? Not quite.
“The one question that comes up is, if you use robots, do you need the staff? Well, the good thing about it is that time taken off those areas can be put into more sustainability projects to increase our biodiversity, take on landscape projects and increase our pollinator planting. The robots have enabled us to do that.”
Liverpool FC isn’t just paying lip service to sustainable solutions. The grounds staff are now also responsible for an allotment, an orchard and even keeping bees. Warren says: “We produced 450 kilos of fruit and vegetables this year from the allotment, and this amount increases year on year. We also brought bees into the allotment, so we’ve now got 12 beekeepers who aren’t just staff from the grounds department, they’re from all areas of the club. In fact, this year we produced honey, which is used in club kitchens.
“At the academy, we built a vegetable garden where parents can come and sit among the fruit and vegetable patches. We’ve got wildflower meadows across the site and we planted an orchard with 36 fruit trees this year.”
Warren pays tribute to services manager Christine Fawcett for her role in running the allotment and ensuring the wider community also benefits from it by bringing local schoolchildren and veterans to the allotment.
As you might expect, recycling is also a key tenet of the sustainable approach Liverpool FC is looking to embed, and Warren says pitch recycling is an important aspect.
“With the help of our pitch contractors, Hewitt Sportsturf, the pitch’s plastic grass fibres are washed and melted down into plastic pellets, some of which have been converted into benches for the orchard and allotment areas. We also recycle the rootzone and the sand in the pitch, so we can reuse it on landscape areas around the site,” Warren explains.
JUST REWARDS
Clearly, it takes a huge team effort to pull all of this off and to get through the less-glamorous work of, for example, shovelling snow from pitches in order to get games on.
Warren is a big believer in that collective approach, as could be seen in him bringing most of his staff up to the podium to collect their award at the GMA Awards ceremony, hosted in the familiar surroundings of Anfield Stadium in March (see page 14).
He says: “It has been drummed into us over the last seven or eight years that we’re the team behind the team. We used to be split sites, so because Melwood was a bit further down the road, we wouldn’t really mingle a lot. The academy did their work, Melwood did their work and Anfield did theirs.
“However, since we moved up to the new [AXA] training ground at Kirkby, we’ve worked hard on integrating the team, so staff members can move across all sites to help each other out, especially through the winter and during difficult weather conditions.
“We’ve always wanted to be just one big team and I couldn’t have asked for anything more from everyone this year, so it’s nice to get recognition from the GMA with an award for our hard work.”
