Norwich City FC Head Groundsman Gary Kemp has recently doubled his fleet of Dennis G860 cassette cylinder mowers for use on the stadium pitch at Carrow Road and also the nearby Colney Training Centre to four.


Gary Kemp, Norwich City Head Groundsman

Barclays Premier League side Norwich City's Carrow Road Stadium had its Desso pitch installed for the first time back in 2004. It meant that Gary had to have a re-think about pitch mowing.

The club had to keep pace with pitch presentation that met the demands of visiting clubs, players, and most of all the television audience.

With 25 years' service to the club under his belt, Gary always liked the Dennis interchangeable cassette system: "I've had two G860's working on the Carrow Road stadium pitch for a number of years," explained Gary. "The new state-of-the-art Colney Training Centre is a 26-acre site and £1.4 million investment. In simple terms, years of us making do have given way to getting top spec kit.

"The Dennis G860 mowers are part of that. At Colney; mowing had previously always been done by one man and a ride-on triple mower. Now it's two men and two G860's. It's a daily job, always to 25mm, and two hours is the mean average per pitch for that man and machine ratio. We've been doing it this way since April on three new soil/sand rootzone pitches in the' pro's' part of the training ground set-up."

Things really changed recently; when in August work on the fourth pitch at the training ground was completed, switching it to a Desso construction with under-soil heating. The idea was to replicate Carrow Road conditions in every aspect. The mowers' job is simply to get it and keep it playing and looking like the main stadium.

The four G860's at Norwich City are supplied to the club by Ben Burgess Garden Equipment.