ELITE FOOTBALL
”A 100-year-old soil-based pitch with no undersoil heating creates unique problems – not least drainage issues” football terms, I was really hooked once I’d seen the products (then from Scotts) being used in a stadium environment. It was the best pitch I’d seen.”
GAME-CHANGING PRODUCTS
At Bury, Gareth affirms that the introduction of the Primo Maxx growth regulator, in particular, has been “a game-changer”, adding: “At the stadium, for example, we used to take off 20 boxes of clippings at each cut – now it’s only three. The time saved in less cutting means we can get on with other tasks and are much more efficient. It also 20 THE GROUNDSMAN November 2018
means less wear and tear on, and less fuel for, the mowers.” That said, while Primo Maxx is not used at the training ground due to budget, this is not the case in the stadium in respect of the treatments (ie spraying and fertilising), which leads back to the Pitch Pension Pot idea. “You’ve got to work with what you’ve got – and the weather, of course,” says Gareth. “I try to ensure that everything I use is a management tool and, while we obviously trial everything at Carrington before introducing it to the stadium pitch, I am also conscious that amenity products and grass seed (the stadium is over-seeded with ICL ProSelect 1 Premium Pitch, for improved colour and wear tolerance, for example) can only go so far in maintaining top-class playability. So much also depends on pitch construction.” At the stadium, a 100-year-old soilbased pitch with no undersoil heating does, however, create unique problems – not least drainage issues, which in recent years have been addressed. Michael Curtis, head groundsman,
explains: “The work undertaken in the past was not altogether a great success until we introduced a concerted programme of sanding (300 tonnes lock sand), gravel banding (10,000 linear metres) and, this summer, 2,000m2 of top drainage work. “As a result, we can now move more water off the pitch than the main drain out of the stadium can take and during that very wet spell earlier this year, when 400mm of rain fell here in six weeks, we successfully staged six games in 21 days.” With a heavy workload and a restricted budget, both Gareth and Michael obviously love the job: “It’s great to look over and take pride in pristine playing surfaces, knowing that they are the result of our actions,” says Gareth. “We regularly receive good comments about the stadium pitch, which is very gratifying. Gigg Lane has always been renowned for it’s pitch. It is good, but it could be better!” To see the finalists of the IOG Industry Awards 2018, see The Groundsman, September, page 11.
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