these Open Championship Clubs choose to relief grind - Pitchcare

Rootzone top-up
The concept for a National Football
Centre was first put together over
fifteen years ago, before having to
be mothballed due to budget
constraints during the
reconstruction of Wembley Stadium.
During that time, other centres around
the world were put together by some of
the leading football playing nations in
the world game, giving them a superb
platform for success.
Leading European soccer nations, such
as France, Italy, Holland, Germany and
Spain had stolen a march and were
starting to reap the benefit from having a
proper base from which to prepare for
Euro Championships and World Cups.
They say that the proof of the pudding is
in the eating and, when you look at the
success over that time that each of these
countries has had on the world stage,
you see that it has worked. The hope for
English football is that St.George’s Park
will have the same effect.
With budgets in place and all necessary
planning permissions obtained, the
National Football Centre finally broke
ground just over a year ago.
The National Football Centre, when
completed, will boast facilities that can
be compared to only a handful of similar
centres worldwide. The preparation and
research has been meticulous to ensure
that the wait has been worthwhile. As the
framework for the 228 bedroom Hilton
and Hampton by Hilton hotels, as well as
other facilities on the site, such as the
sports science centre and indoor soccer
hall, began to take shape, thoughts
turned to resurrecting the pitches which
had been in situ for over ten years. In
that time only a handful of the ten
pitches had actually been used, the
majority never having had a ball kicked
on them in anger.
In the build up to the works actually
getting underway, I had the opportunity
to visit the centre in 2009. Then, you
could see that thatch levels had built up
to a stage where producing an elite
surface was not going to happen without
major renovation. You could also see the
enormous potential that the site had to
offer. I was delighted to be appointed to
role of Head Groundsman in August
2011 and, although seen by many as an
automatic choice, I was never the only
candidate for the role. Indeed, the
interview process was particularly
rigorous and one of the toughest I have
gone through.
Once on site, my first job was to review
the pitch strategy and come up with an
operational plan. Six months in, I can
safely say this is the biggest project I
have ever undertaken but, equally, the
“Although seen by many as an
automatic choice, I was never
the only candidate for the role”
Winter Sports
most exciting and, come opening day in
late summer 2012, probably the most
rewarding.
Part of the main contract with
construction firm Bowmer & Kirkland
was to create a construction similar to the
main Wembley Stadium pitch. The
decision to change the stadium pitch to
Desso GrassMaster was a bold one, but
one that has worked for the stadium
business plan. Mallinsons of Ormskirk,
who successfully oversaw the changeover,
were hired to install a GrassMaster at the
centre. The works to strip the other
pitches back to a clean rootzone were
tendered, and eventually awarded to
Mallinsons. I was happy with this, having
worked through two previous projects at
Ibrox and Portman Road with them.
Mallinsons, in my view, are unique in our
industry.
Back in the early ’90s, when we
reconstructed the stadium pitch at Ibrox,
I worked with, then, some of the best
people in the construction side of the
industry. Now, over twenty years on and
embarking on my third major project
with them, I not only cannot believe that
the same guys are still there operating
drots and hi macs but, in many cases,
they are teaching their sons to deliver
the same quality. John Mallinson is one
of the most professional people I have
Alan Ferguson, Head Groundsman, St George’s Park
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2012 PC 59