Earning his Spurs - Pitchcare

Jim Buttar and Darren Baldwin on
the White Hart Lane pitch
“I’m honoured that both our
chairman and Harry Redknapp
really listen to what I and my
team have to say, and that
they respect my opinion and
professional judgment”
Hart Lane in 1996.
“I knew I always wanted to be involved
with football,” he says, “and, at 18, I
realised that it wasn’t going to progress
at the playing end, so decided to focus
on groundsmanship, which I was really
drawn to as a career.”
“Joining a Premiership side proved a
real baptism of fire though and I soon
realised that I’d been thrown into the
deep end at a very tender age -
something I’m now very grateful for,
however.”
Working alongside Darren is Jim
Buttar - head groundsman at White Hart
Lane - who takes over much of the
responsibilities of the first team pitch
throughout the season. Jim has a deputy
and two assistants to aid with the
punishing task of maintaining the Desso
Mowers for
Professionals!
PC060710
16
����������������������
���������������������
�����������������������������
��������������������������
T: 01420 478111
RMX
Grassmaster reinforced pitch.
Paul Jones takes the role as the second
of the club’s two head groundsmen, his
responsibilities resting with the upkeep
of the current training grounds at
Chigwell, Essex.
So, Darren has overall responsibility of
managing and overseeing no less than
four separate sites and projects - White
Hart Lane, the development of the new
training ground (he’s in charge of a
£10m plus spend), Chigwell and the
recently acquired interim training
ground at Frenford in Barkingside - the
two-year deal signed with the sports club
means Darren and the team will also take
over the responsibility of maintenance of
all the club’s sports pitches for the
duration of their time there. What a
boost for a site in much need of the kind
top-class roller mowers
��������������������������
www.wessexmachinery.co.uk
of specialist input that Spurs can bring.
I walked out through the tunnel into
blazing sunshine and a most unexpected
experience. “Isn’t the ground small,” I
blurted out. Darren laughed. “That’s
what most people say when they first see
the pitch. It’s the television camera
angles that make it appear so much
larger than it is. Everyone used to
remark on the size of the old Highbury
pitch when, in fact, ours is only an inch
shorter.”
That said, the 36,000 capacity will
swell to more than 52,000 in the new
stadium, due to open next door in
2012/13 (subject to planning
permission).
With post-season renovation completed
just days before, the surface structure of
the Desso pitch was clearly visible - neat
rows of freshly germinated ryegrass
interspersed with sand, and germination
sheets still shrouding the shady south
end, where, to coin a phrase, the sun
refused to shine.
White Hart Lane is not alone in
battling the effects of lack of sunlight -
many modern stadia, with their arena
seating towering above the pitch, suffer
similarly.
“We have to work to produce the best
surface we possibly can, regardless of the
constraints,” says Darren. “That’s what
we’re paid to do, not to get a pat on the
back when something goes right. We
have to be constantly on the top of our
game.”
The bulk of the post-season pitch
renovation began here on May 12th.
Plastic reinforced pitches are now
common in Premier League clubs - about
half of them are Desso Grassmaster, and
nearly all with some sort of syntheticbase.
The plastic blades of grass stitched into
the turf keep the ryegrass growing
upright and help the root establish itself
in the early stages after germination.
The artificial roots are embedded
200mm deep and the grass stitched in at
20mm intervals with seed sown in
between - the one rootzone aiding
establishment of the other, giving a
playing surface less prone to movement
and divoting.
The sand construction also allows for
much freer drainage, explains Darren - a
TGX
the outfront
flail mower
�����������
����������
A Broadwood International product