The County Pitch of the Year awards were first established in 2017 to recognise the importance of the quality of pitches for GAA sports, which include Gaelic football, hurling and camogie.

The awards were set up to encourage administrators, officials and groundstaff to produce high quality pitches and to acknowledge those who produce the best playing surfaces and the first year winners were Semple Stadium, Thurles in Tipperary.

Stuart Wilson (left) and Stephen Baker (right) during a pitch assessment visit

The awards for 2018 have recently been completed and were based on two main parts. The initial assessment of pitches was carried out by the referees officiating at each game during the National League from January to April 2018. Five key factors were assessed: grass cover, the condition of the goalmouths, line marking, pitch presentation and playability. The combined scores from the referees’ assessments were used to determine the six best pitches to be visited.

Dr Stephen Baker (Head of Sports Surface Technology, STRI) and Stuart Wilson (Grounds Manager, Croke Park, Dublin) carried out site visits. In a statement, they said "It is important to supplement the scores from the referees with a detailed technical assessment of the quality of each pitch, so the second phase of the work was a detailed assessment of the many factors that influence the quality of pitches. These included the construction of the pitch, the quality of the maintenance programme and the level of use of the pitch.

"Furthermore, to give an objective assessment of the quality of each individual pitch a rigorous system of scoring is needed so that the results can be as objective as possible. Accordingly, a scoring system was developed based on over thirty different factors influencing each pitch and this was combined with a weighting related to the importance of each factor."

Four main components were included in the pitch scoring system:

1. Referees’ marks. Based on average marks for senior games played in January to April.
2. Pitch quality assessment during the technical visit in June 2018. The visits were carried out by Dr Stephen Baker of the STRI and Stuart Wilson from Croke Park in Dublin. Factors that were assessed included ground cover, root development, pitch markings, presentation and various aspects of playing performance.
3. Environmental conditions and usage. The marks for environmental conditions were based on shade patterns and potential air movement both of which affect grass growth and recovery. Usage figures were based on the number of senior matches played in January to May and additional information for the number of games and training sessions this year to the time of the visit.
4. Resources and management assessment. This was based on a range of different components with allowance for the resources available, the management programme, the condition of maintenance equipment and the quality of the pitch records. As summer 2018 had been particularly dry, the response of the staff to the drought conditions was also assessed taking account of the pitch profile and the watering resources that were available.

AWARDS

Based on the scores from the referees and the site visits, the results for 2018 were as follows:

Winners: Kilkenny – Nowlan Park

Nowlan Park, Kilkenny

Runners up: London – McGovern Park, South Ruislip

Highly commended:

Carlow – Netwatch Cullen Park
Roscommon – Dr Hyde Park
Tipperary – Semple Stadium, Thurles
Wexford – Innovate Wexford Park