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Winter's Arrived
The winter so far has been very kind to us with no rainfall of note in December and just 21mm in January. To match the good fortune of the weather, fixtures have fallen nicely too and the stadium pitch going into February in as good as condition as we could hope.
Although time mowing and line marking is reduced during this time of year as the grass isn't growing much, we spend most of our time repairing pitches after play, knocking back, pulling frost covers on and off.
A typical day in January when we are having a cold spell is removing covers in the morning, if necessary mark the pitch, put goals in place ready for training. After the training session, we might use a Dennis G860 brush to clean up, if time and a quick repair of any divot markes etc before re-covering for the following day. If all goes smoothly, re-covering should take no more than two hours and taking the covers off in the mornings just 45 minutes.
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| Clearing snow off covers at the training ground |
When snow has fallen on the covers, as it did last week, it can take many hours to remove the snow, depending on how much has fallen. Fortunately, we had less than an inch this time and a full pitch was cleared by 1030 training. If there is a decent amount to fall, it is unlikely a whole pitch will be d in this time without many people helping.
Managing the stadium MaCleod covering system is different. Snow is easily pushed to the side as it slides nicely across the material, once deflated. The down side is that there isn't anywhere for it to go to around the edges of the stadium pitch. If we have time, we will wheelbarrow it out of the stadium. If we don't have time to do that because of an impending match, then it is is put over the edges of the pitch area in to the stands and the lower area is closed off for fans. If the snow isn't moved from the edge of the cover, we can't get the cover off as it buries the straps which are anchored around the outside of the pitch.
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| MaCleod system |
This month, all the mowers have been sharpened to ensure we are cutting the leaf as cleanly as possible. It is important this is done to maintain plant health and the grass isn't torn when cutting as it will make it vulnerable to disease. Water and nutrients are also used more efficiently by the plant.
As soon as we notice it isn't cutting the paper cleanly when checking the mower over before we start, it is brought in to the workshop for grinding. We are fortunate enough to have our own grinders and experience within the grounds team to sharpen them ourselves. This is one of our strategies of maintaining our turf as healthily as we can with out regular chemical applications.
Planning for renovations is well under way and will begin in mid April. A timetable of which pitches are taken out is worked out mainly on a date to which they will be required back in play. Because of the concert this summer, the stadium pitch will be renovated in June and will be our last pitch to be renovated during the spring/summer as it will be required to be back in play at the latest date.
