It’s not just Football anymore.
Published: 3/08/2010
Gone are the days when after Football finished in May we had around eight to ten weeks to get our pitches ready for the new season. For many of the clubs throughout the Football league hosting a non football event has become a necessary part of the Business plan. Even clubs in the Premiership are not immune to events with West Ham hosting a boxing match and Bolton hosting a major concert to name but two.
At Portman Road this summer we hosted the American pop star Pink on the 29th June. This was our 6th major concert in six years. As you can see from the date it was not ideal. Like most Groundsmen I do not like concerts on my pitch but realise that the club have to do it. Ideally I would rather have the gigs in May or Early June but sometimes the clubs are dictated to by Artists tour dates. This was the case with Pink.
Once our regular season as over we had a week of corporate football. The main renovation followed hot on the heels of this giving us just over 5 weeks to the concert. When the approach was made to the club back in December for the 29th June we thought we had negotiated a free run back into the season. This lasted until April when the club took a game against West Ham forcing a complete re think to our build up and post concert works. With the West Ham game a little over three weeks after the gig and are turf of the pitch ruled out on cost the pressure was on to come with a programme that could take the pitch into the gig then recover it in three weeks.
At Portman Road I am reasonably fortunate that I can get involved at the right times usually succeeding in getting what I need for the pitch. As most groundsmen who host gigs will tell you the pitch can sometimes get forgotten in the build up. As part of my build up I surround myself with a team of people that can help me get it right. We have a close working relationship with the Scotts Company and in particular Simon Barnaby. Simons job in the build up and recovery is to put together a programme that will help the plant through the gig then get things going right after it. I also work closely with the club Architect who will go through the stage layout then along with his team of engineers calculate the weight that has to be spread across the pitch.
This summer’s gig gave us different challenges from previous gigs. The time line was tight before and after. For the first time I decided to over seed the pitch ahead of the floor going down. My thought was to get back some time after the gig when we would have been waiting for the seed to germinate. Doing this was a bit of unknown as you never really know how the sward is going to re act under the floor for 5 or more days. The results were really good with an almost complete take. 11 x 20 kilo bags of R14 was sown. This was on top of the 8 x 20 kilos over sown in May and the 6 in March. I know it’s too much but it is really difficult to work out just how much sward cover you are going to lose. As it turned out we did not lose too much and now probably have to dense a sward but it’s a problem I am happy to have.
Three weeks on from the gig and you cannot see where the stage or delay towers were. If someone had said before the show my pitch would be back for the first pre season game in the condition it was for the friendly on the 31st July I would have cut their hand off.
Having done several gigs the team now have valuable experience and at the brain storming before each show some great ideas are thrown onto the table. We also visit the concert ahead of ours if it possible. I find this a great help. Looking at a stage on paper in one thing but seeing it in the flesh is another altogether.
Watching the show come to gether on your pride and joy can be daunting but if do your home work then it is possible to come out the other side with your pitch intact. Talking to other who have been through a show always helps. There is always something to learn. We get enquiries from other clubs hosting gigs for the first time and we will always help where we can.
Pre season almost on us
Published: 14/06/2010
As the greatest show on earth gets underway in South Africa on Friday most groundsmen in the UK are in the midst of renovations. Most professional stadium and training pitches will have been done and now being grown in but for the clubs with academies most will be half way through the renovation programme. At Ipswich our academy training went on for the majority of the month of May as the academy coaching staff stepped up their efforts to bring in new talent to the club. With the academies senior lads back on the 28th June with the first team and the schoolboys back on the 5th July the pressure is on to get the pitches turned round in time.
We have 11 pitches under our management and always have to keep five of them ready to use at any time. All the pitches are 100% natural and the main focus of the renovation programme is to rejuvenate the root zone. We do all the works in house something we have chosen to do since we opened the centre back in 2000.
Over the ten years the centre has been opened we have put together a renovation schedule to clean the swards out then introduce new dressing material while de compacting the root zone before over seeding. Over the same period we have been able to put to gether a state of the art range of equipment that allows us to do this. I am of the opinion that in the UK we have some of the best kit of any country when it comes to maintaining sportsturf. The first task of our renovation is to clean the sward removing all the rubbish that has built up over the season. Even boxing off clippings as we do I am amazed at the amount of rubbish we remove. We are currently using the Koro Field top maker to do this. The beauty of the machine now is that you have the option to fraise mow down to the crown of the plant or use the verti cutting rotar to clean intensely. I know if we fraise mow we will remove around 100 tons of material. Verti cutting at 20mm has seen around 40 to 50 tons removed. AS we now over sow in tall fescue we have tended to fraise mow only when we feel the levels and surface have been kicked about so bad that you have go back to square one. The last four years we have successfully been able to verti cut building on the success of the previous renovation. Even the removal of around 50 tons of rubbish is a real tonic to the sward. We have seen the poa population remain very low in the sward and as long as the percentage stays in single figures then I would be reluctant to fraise mow. The density we have been able to build up is impressive and has been well received by the players.
Aeration in any pitch is vital to the overall success and performance of the pitch and the renovation programme features two machines carrying out two intense operations. After applying a top dressing of between 40 and 50 tons of new sand I pass over each pitch with the Koro re cycler. We have the smaller 1.5 metre unit but even digging at maximum depth of around 150mm will bring another 21 ton to the surface. A further pass with our 1.6 metre Wiednemann fitted with 12mm diameter coring tines working at close centres will generate around 11 ton on an average size pitch.
All of the sand and material generated by the two machines are then put through a core recycler. This mixing allows all the material to be well integrated before being worked back into the pitch. By doing this it prevents the new materiel layering.
The loose debris is then swept of before over sowing. Being on a tight budget and a tight time scale the pitches are ready to go again 4 to5 weeks after the works are complete. This is half the time if had to use the fraise mowing technique. Over the ten seasons we have had the centre we have enjoyed better times financially but I take heart from buying well in the good times which has allowed us to carry on producing quality pitches on a tighter budget.
Barcelona run dry in the San Siro.
Published: 26/04/2010
In a month when pitch watering was a very topical subject in the UK following the FA Cup semis, I was amazed to see two of the games’ top coaches not seeing eye to eye over a pitch that was not watered. The Champions League semi final between Inter Milan and Barcelona looked like a must-see game. No one can ever accuse Jose Mourinho of not doing his homework ahead of a game. Barcelona has proved time and again this season what a great passing team they are. With Lionel Messi in their ranks, they look almost unstoppable this season - just asks Arsenal.
In recent seasons it has become the norm to water the pitch in the build up to kick off. Jose realised that by watering the playing surface at the San Siro it would play right into the hands of Barcelona. It was clear in the warm up that the pitch was dry and when the game finally got underway the pace of the ball was very slow. Passes that would have normally zipped across the surface to their targets were falling short.
The dry surface clearly did not suit the Spaniards and the night went from bad to worse as they went down 3-1 to a confident looking Inter side. No team has ever come back from a two goal deficit in the semis and if Barcelona are to make the final in Madrid they will have to create another bit of history.
The post match press conference was fascinating. Pep Guardiola, the Barca coach, complained the pitch was dry. Jose replied that there was nothing in the rules to say the pitch had to be watered ahead of the game. As with most things football, Mourinho was right. As I sat watching the press conference I wondered how the groundsman felt. The dry top certainly seemed to cause a bit more damage to the surface and on any other night I am sure he would have watered. I know that UEFA are looking at the whole issue about pre-match watering and I am sure that Tuesday’s dry pitch in Milan will be on their radar. One thing I am sure of is that even if the sun is splitting the sky in Spain on the day of the return in the Nou camp, the pitch will be well watered.
With the renovations well underway I have finally been able to get our new Dakota top dresser out. The machine’s performance has been impressive on the two pitches done so far. We have bought the 412 model from Campey Turfcare and the Dakota has added quality to our operation as the two Koro machines did when they arrived from Campeys five years ago. I am always looking at ways to improve what we do and Campeys have been able to provide positive solutions for us.
Dealing with a real winter and Spring in our step.
From time to time in my job I am lucky enough to get to visit groundsmen in other stadia both at home and abroad. Last week I travelled to Sweden to see the re-turf of the pitch in the Rasunda stadium in Stockholm. The stadium is one of the oldest in the country and is home to the Swedish FA. It is also the most northerly natural pitch in Sweden and second in geographical location as the most northerly natural pitch to the one in Tromso in Norway. If we think the winter was bad over here and, let’s face it, it was bad it is nothing to what Robert Limpar and his team had to deal with. Winters in Sweden are cold and the Swedes expect nothing else, but with temperatures regularly down to – 15 and beyond and snow regularly falling and the its depth being measured in feet, trying to keep a natural pitch is nearly mission impossible. Robert runs his under soil heating (he has no option) and at the first opportunity into the New Year he started to overseed hoping the warm root zone would boost germination.
The new grass did come through but was very weak and had no chance of withstanding the rigours of professional football. The old pitch was duly removed on 6th April. Cultivation of the root zone to open it up and introduce some new material was carried out before the new turf was laid on the 8th and 9th. Sourced and supplied by Support in Sport (SIS), the new sward comprising 50% Poa Pratensis, 40% Ryegrass and 10% Fescue looked fantastic once the installation was completed. The first game was scheduled for 14th April and the pitch was expected to perform well.
SIS is one of Europe’s most experienced companies when it comes to re-turfing. With over 120 re-turfs to its name and the client list reading like a football club A List, Robert can look forward to his first game with a good degree of confidence.
Winter has not left Sweden yet and while going to and from the airport there I noticed there was still quite a bit of snow lying around. The heating was being kept on for a while and a temperature of 19 degC was being maintained in the root zone. I should just mention Robert is from a football family and his brother Anders, the former Arsenal winger, is now a coach in his homeland. Any Celtic fans visiting Stockholm should visit what can only be described as a shrine to the Glasgow club in the mess room.
Back home our Spring programme is well underway. Although we are short on number we are not short of enthusiasm and after a difficult winter my crew look forward to getting going. All 12 pitches under our management have been over sown with Mascot R14. This is something we have done for a while now and I feel it is good to replace as much cover as possible ahead of the main summer renovations. The first pitches to be done are the first team ones, ensuring they are in good order for pre-season. At this time of the season, the team is just ticking over so getting started is no problem.
Our programme focuses on a rejuvenation of the upper root zone and as our pitches are 100% natural is vitally important we get it right. There are eight elements to our renovation specification with two elements featuring a combination of aerators. The Koro recycling dresser is used following the application of top dressing bringing rootzone to the surface from a depth of 150 mm. On an average size pitch it is almost 21 tonnes of material. The Wiedenmann then follows fitted with coring tines and this fetches approximately 11 tonnes to the surface. This is all mixed on the surface before being returned into the top. Once the surface is cleaned, the pitches are over sown for a second time, this time introducing two tall fescues. The work takes a bit of time but the end results are worth all the effort. Like most clubs we get a lot of visitors through the year and we never tire of exchanging notes with other groundsmen.
