AHEAD OF THE GAME
The Kutaisi main pitch in February (above) and (left) in June 2017
Martin Maytum (far right) and Colin (centre) with Avchala groundsmen
UNWELCOME GUESTS
Fair weather at the beginning of May saw my final inspection visit to check whether any last-minute adjustments needed to be made. One or two training pitches were giving cause for concern; the turf had not bedded in properly or the irrigation systems were not working. Out of it all, only two training pitches did not make the grade and alternatives were found. The AIA Arena, which had improved considerably, was still looking a bit bare in places. So, I recommended a further programme of overseeding, fertiliser and an increase in the watering programme plus the use of grow sheets (plastic covers). To my delight and relief, I returned at the end of May to find that the groundsmen had worked their magic. The pitch was a good colour and had a good thick sward of grass. My only concern was how would it play? Would there be a sufficient root system to cope with scrums, for example? There was. However, back in Tbilisi, another problem was developing in the form of Mole Cricket infestation. The problem comes when the eggs of these digging insects hatch in
“The eggs of these digging insects hatch in the spring” spring. The nymphs live happily beneath the surface munching on the grass roots and when I walked the surface at the beginning of May, although there was quite a thick sward it felt very unstable underfoot. Nobody in the UK seemed to know much about these creatures, and the insecticides that were used in the past have now been banned. Ecological solutions, like parasitic wasps, are difficult to administer, so the only answer was to make life difficult for them. The plan was to aerate and fertilise – we had to try to keep the roots growing faster than these beasties could eat them. It worked; by the time of the first kick-off the root system had stabilised (though the insects may have grown wings and flown on). On 29 May, I flew into Georgia with Martin Maytum, another volunteer pitch advisor. Martin would look after the Kutaisi complex while I took on the Avchala stadium. We
ABOUT COLIN Colin Wooster has been head groundsman at Charlton Park Rugby Club since 1990, is an RFU volunteer pitch advisor, worked as a volunteer groundsman at Twickenham during the 2015 Rugby World Cup and continues to work closely with the Georgian Rugby Union.
34 THE GROUNDSMAN August 2017
worked with the local groundsmen who were mostly elderly guys and very set in their ways. Convincing them to use things like spray markers instead of painting the lines by hand met with varied degrees of resistance and success. It was pleasing to see that at both complexes the grounds guys had managed to stripe the grass on the pitches. This was no mean feat and again took a long time as they only had one cylinder mower at each ground. Martin told me it could take 12 hours to cut the Kutaisi pitch two ways. Repairing the pitches between games also threw up a few problems in trying to get the local guys to use forks to mend stud tears and divots. Instead they preferred to stamp them down with the heel of their boots.
RIGHT RESULT
In the end, though, the tournament was a great success and the pitches looked and played well. Tournament director Simon Kibble of World Rugby and Georgian Rugby operations director, Lasha Khurtsidze, took time out to thank the grounds teams and said how pleased they were at the way the pitches had turned out. The good news is Georgia wants us back, both on the education front and on improving the products they use for their pitches.
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Colin Wooster can be contacted by email: blackgsps@aol.com