these Open Championship Clubs choose to relief grind - Pitchcare

Winter Sports
Growing in
“The decision
to change the
Wembley
Stadium pitch
to Desso
GrassMaster
was a bold one,
but one that
has worked for
the stadium
business plan”
First cut
60 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012
ever met and worked with, and having
someone like John in your corner on
such a big project is a comfort.
St.George’s Park is unique in that it
offers four different pitch profiles on one
centre. As well as the Desso GrassMaster,
the centre will boast four fibresand, five
natural and two 3G synthetics. It offers
England teams the ideal base from which
to prepare, as the pitch profiles on the
centre are the main ones currently being
used throughout the world game.
All the natural pitches have now been
constructed or renovated, and have just
come through the first phase of the grow
in. The mild autumn was a huge boost to
the project, as it has allowed us to go into
the winter period with much stronger
swards than we had dared hope for.
Although the winter has been mild to
date, we do not see ideal conditions
returning until late March when we will
start the final push towards opening
through the second phase of the grow in.
As well as turning the pitches around,
the last six months has been as much
about building up the rest of the grounds
department. Remember, this is a project
that has restarted from a blank sheet of
paper. Key partner companies have been
identified to support the grounds team
across all of their business. Being in the
National Forest, the mowing operation
will run beyond the pitches to verges and
meadow land - in total eleven different
mowers will be required.
The majority of the mowing equipment
has been supplied by Ransomes
Jacobsen, whose wide product portfolio
makes them ideal to supply the majority
of the mowers. Tractors and renovation
equipment has been supplied by Campey
Turf Care. Campey are now recognised as
one of the market leaders in the supply
of such equipment and, given the
diversity of the maintenance required,
makes them the ideal partner in this key
area, especially with the majority of the
renovation works being done in-house.
Although the project has decent
budgets to work with, in all key areas of
the programme they are still very tight,
and the biggest challenge, away from the
construction and renovation of the
pitches, has been to put together the
consumables programme. After much
deliberation, Rigby Taylor have been
selected as the key consumables partner.
The grounds team will be able to draw
on the technical resources offered by the
company, as well as having the benefit of
additional support from PSD.
The grounds team will also work with
leading nematode authorities, such as
Kate Entwhistle, to monitor closely
nematode populations in the various
sand dominated rootzones. With five of
the pitches fitted with undersoil heating
and requiring to be watered before play
and training, all those connected with the
project are conscious of the ideal
environments being created for
nematodes. With this in mind, it is very
much a case of prevention being better
than cure.
There is much still to be done. One of
the key tasks will be to complete the
grounds team, which will start with a crew
of eight on the pitches supported by two
gardeners. These numbers may be
viewed as light, initially, but will be
reviewed as the centre goes through its
first year.
Like many of the
superb mature trees
that surround the site,
the St.George’s Park
project will take time to
grow and mature but
will, hopefully, be
around for many years
to come.