BUILDING THE BUSINESS – GROUNDSMANSHIP
Perfect pitches and glorious greens If there’s one thing guaranteed to burst those rain clouds, it’s a feature on drought. So with apologies in advance, Club Mirror offers the publishing equivalent of a rain dance, with advice from the experts on dealing with dry weather conditions.
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BACK TO BASICS Correct watering and pitch maintenance is needed for more than just keeping this land green and pleasant. It’s important to: 1. Help pitches recover, encouraging plant growth. 2. To ensure that surfaces are the correct hardness – requirements for contact sports such as rugby may be different to, for example, tennis, where the bounce of the ball is all important. 3. The rolling of cricket pitches and tennis courts produces a hard, smooth surface with an even ball bounce. Be warned, however, as research has shown that rolling can in fact become ineffective should these rolled surface becomes too dry. 4. Don’t forget... clay tennis courts also need water to bind the surface together, otherwise it will break up and need costly renovation. 5. Plan to reduce reliance on mains water supply use abstracted surface and groundwater, rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling.
Q: How can the impact of hosepipe bans be minimised? If we get hit by bans again you can consider: • Limit unnecessary wear on the pitch. Could you close some pitches? • Avoid applications of fertiliser and pesticide which could scorch or stress the grass. • Limit the use of machinery to essential turf maintenance. • Be prepared to make sacrifices. Cricket outfields will brown, but will recover when rain falls, so focus on the square. • Advise and educate players on diving and stopping on hard ground where the risk of impact injuries and abrasions will increase due to the hard ground conditions. • Delay renovation work to the autumn / winter when rain is generally more likely. • Set up a procedure for regularly reviewing pitches to ensure that they are safe to play.
he quality of greens and pitches throughout the land is a constant source of pride (and anxiety) for clubs across the sporting spectrum – from the smallest cricket club to Wembley Stadium. So what’s the best way to keep greens green, and pitches at playing perfection?
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6. Reduce water consumption by monitoring consumption, reducing run off, selecting drought tolerant grasses and using covers to reduce evapotranspiration. Q: How can my club conserve water? Preparing your grounds for potential dry spells means providing the best possible environment for grass to survive when water resources are low. For example: • Increase mowing height. This helps to reduce water consumption and encourage deeper rooting. This will increase the volume of water (and nutrients) available to the grass making it more resilient in drought conditions. • Reduce mowing frequency to help reduce stress
on the grass. This also helps to reduce compaction. Do not collect clippings (where possible); they can return both nutrients and water to the turf and provide a bit of mulch to reduce soil evaporation.
