Marshalling his troops - Pitchcare

challenges emerged. “We, like other
departments, have to cut our cloth
accordingly, and we were faced with a few
problems last season, finding suppliers
being one of our most troubling,” he
reveals. “Once people find out you are in
financial difficulties, they don’t want to
deal with you.”
Some take the longer view though, and
Mark is fulsome in his gratitude for the
help that one key contractor provided
when all seemed lost. Staring at the
prospect of an end of season without a
pitch renovation, Mark has nothing but
praise for Keith Kensett, who set about
the task without any clear prospect of
being paid for his troubles.
”Luckily, we’ve been fortunate to have
Keith help us out a lot last season. If it
wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have been
able to do many of our renovations,
including the koroing, which we have ‘off
pat’ now,” Mark discloses. “It’s always
good to have people that keep the faith,
and stick with you. Keith has been one of
those guys, and I suppose it helped that
he’s a Palace fan himself.”
Selhurst Park has gained notoriety as
one of the windiest venues in the football
leagues, a dubious honour, due largely to
the stadium’s history. Constructed in
1922, it was built out of a former
brickworks after being bought from the
Brighton Railway Company for £2,570.
Designed by Scottish stadium architect,
Archibald Leitch, it was built by
Humphreys of Kensington for around
£30,000 and officially opened by the
Lord Mayor of London on 30 August
1924.
46
Kensett Sports koroing off
the stadium pitch and, left,
decompacting the training
ground goalmouths
”We’re exposed to the elements here,”
says Mark. “But, on the positive side, we
don’t have any problems with air
circulation like some modern stadia.”
Years before multi-use venues became
the norm, Selhurst Park was playing host
to both Wimbledon FC and Charlton
Athletic FC, who used the site for home
matches at various times from the mid-
1980s until 2003. As you’d imagine,
when as many as three games were
played on it in a week, the pitch proved
difficult to manage at times.
Although, by the time Mark arrived,
Palace was the sole user and he was
pleasantly surprised by what he found.
“Construction of the pitch was, in fact,
very good when I took over. The dual
usage did not have too adverse an effect,
but one of the problems I did inherit was
a significant proportion of Poa annua in
the sward.”
He’s well versed in dealing with the
weed grass now though. “We usually
know to expect a surge in the third week
of August, so are able to take the
appropriate measures,” he explains.
Mark controls the invasive species with
a treatment of growth regulator Primo
Maxx, applying the chemical monthly
throughout the season and cutting before
the annual meadowgrass has the chance
to seed.
The Fibresand pitch he inherited,
installed in 2001 by Premier Pitches, is
still in place, and Mark believes it is
suited to the weather conditions and
unique microclimate in the stadium. “As
we’re an extremely windy site, we have
no problems with airflow but, in the
summer, the warm winds provide ideal
conditions for disease to spread,” he
adds.
“About five weeks after the post-season
sowing, leaf spot starts to show up on the
sward as the grass growth accelerates.
Leaf spot can be tricky, as not everyone
knows how to diagnose it correctly. The
grass appears wilted, so some
groundsmen will often water and feed
the turf, which only exacerbates the
problem. My solution is to apply Primo
Maxx first, then Chipco Green, through
the spring and summer, and Daconil in
the winter.”
The post-season work begins in earnest
“It’s always good
to have people that
keep the faith, and
stick with you.
Keith Kensett has
been one of those
guys, and I
suppose it helped
that he’s a Palace
fan himself”
after the last home game and the club’s
various corporate commitments, which
include a marquee erected on the pitch
for two weeks, hosting both the player of
the year awards and local business
events.
This year, reseeding was late because of
the uncertainty over if and when a buyer
would emerge. The process finally got
underway on 28th May, using a DLF Pro
81 seed mix, one that Mark favours for
its fast germination.
“We only had six weeks to get the seed
established before the first home friendly
match against Chelsea,” he explains.
“That was a tough call, but the club
needs the money. I tend to stick with
what I know when it comes to seed.
There’s really only a fag paper between
the major producers so, for us, given our
tight margins, a rapidly germinating
seed that turns around quickly will get
my vote every time.”
He usually aims to achieve a five-day
establishment, yet he tends to force the
grass through a little in the pre-season
preparation, especially if certain areas of
the pitch need thickening up.
“The goalmouth at the Holmesdale
Road end causes us most problems, as it’s
in shade nearly all the time, so the grass
struggles there - and we cannot run to
the expense of grow lamps like
Premiership clubs can.”
Ironically, the support of the loyal
Palace fans merely aggravated the issue,
he reveals. “They protested over the
possibility of club being liquidated, and
all their jumping up and down at that
end of the ground resulted in
compaction in the goalmouth.” If it
doesn’t rain it pours.
My thoughts turn, once more, to the
windiness of Selhurst Park as I note the
build-up of litter around the pitch
perimeter and, what I take to be, the
three-foot high fence erected to stop it
blowing onto the playing surface.
”No, this is an electric fence to keep
the foxes off the pitch,” reveals Mark. “It
maddens you when you arrive in the
morning to find they have dug up the
surface all over the place. Their urine
burns the grass too. Urban foxes are a
fact of life, so we had to take steps to nip
the problem in the bud. I bought the