Earning his Spurs - Pitchcare

policy of prepping a number
of wickets in advance,
allowing for changes in the
fixture list. Mark prepares his
wickets up to three weeks in
advance, this is the only way
he can accommodate the
large amount of cricket
played at the school and to
the level required.
During the season they use
a renovator fertiliser 10:2:4,
normally on used wickets
after being topdressed with
Kaloam and seeded. Early
wickets will be reused later in
the season.
An appropriate timescale
for preparing a wicket,
including rolling and
preparing, can be as many as
twenty hours per wicket. They
use a Lloyds Paladin, a Sisis
brush scarifier, a Hako brush
and a Dennis 24” mower with
a scarifier attachment, plus a
1.5 tonne roller as equipment
for the preparation of a
wicket.
The squares are rested in
early July following the end
of the cricket season, and
Autumn and Winter Sports
then the whole sequence
begins again.
Players at all levels have
been inspired by the quality
of the pitches and, having
David Hemp, the former
Warwickshire batsman, who
captained Glamorgan for two
years and is the current
captain of Bermuda, as fulltime
cricket coach, enusres
that cricket is high on the
agenda at Solihull.
Summer is also a busy time
with athletics featuring
prominently on the summer
calendar, A six lane grass
athletics track is marked out
on the sportsfields, with
initial marking taking a
couple of days with the aid of
carrot markers. The lines are
marked using a Bowcom
Trike linemarker on a weekly
basis. Field events are also set
out on the playing fields.
Mowing of the sports fields is
carried out with triple
mowers at 13mm,
two-three times a
week, depending
on grass growth.
Once the school returns from the summer break it is straight
into a heavy winter sports programme, with rugby, football
and hockey being the main sports played.
There is just enough room to fit five senior rugby pitches,
one senior football and seven junior football pitches on site.
Hockey is played on the all weather pitch.
Rugby is very popular,
with ex Harlequin,
Stephen Thompson,
being the head of
sport. With over one
hundred matches
played, along with
daily training, the
pitches take quite a
hammering. Grass is
mown at 80mm using
a Trimax rotary
mower and marked out on a weekly basis.
Regular spiking and brushing helps keep the pitches in good
condition, whilst a feeding programme of granular fertilisers
(Scotts 24:5:11) helps maintain grass vigour.
The school also runs a seven a side rugby tournament that
sees three days of play on all the pitches. Once the playing
season is over the extent of the renovations is governed by
what budgets Karl has available at the end of his financial
year. Emphasis will be given to cleaning them up, using their
Amazone, plus deep spiking and use of an earthquake and
topdressing if budgets allow.
The school also has large
areas of formal gardens
and ornamental lawn
areas, maintained to an
excellent standard by Ian
Ross and the gardener
Paul Groom. These
provide essential amenity
value for the school.
The C-Range
Each ‘easy-change’
cartridge becomes an
integral part of the
machine without loss
of quality results.
Provides a wide range of professional turf
maintenance needs from one machine.
Hangar 5, New Road, Hixon, Stafford, ST18 0PJ.
Telephone 01889 272095, Fax 01889 271528,
Email sales@allett.co.uk, web www.allett.co.uk
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