Prior to the official start of this year’s rugby season (September-May) I had the chance to call in to see Neil Furness, an old rugby playing friend of mine. We both played rugby for Newport Rugby Club (Salop) back in the 1990s. Neil, a local farmer, has for the last twenty years took on the responsibility of maintaining the pitches at the club.
Newport RUFC is an English rugby team based at the Old Showground, just outside the town of Newport, Shropshire. They currently play in the fifth-tier league of the English rugby union system, Regional 1 North West, following their relegation from National League 2 West in 2023–24.
In 1981 Newport moved to the Showground site off Forton Road, just a field away from the old pitches at Chetwynd End. A new clubhouse was built, and four pitches were laid out. The Newport pitches are on sand and drain very well. Games are very rarely called off.
In recent years the club have invested a fair amount of money into improving the quality of their pitches. They now employ a local sports pitch contractor to undertake the main mowing, feeding, and end of season renovations. Regular line marking is done by Neil and friend John. Last year in June 2024, they invested in an Origin Tiny Robot line marker.
I arrived at the club at 3pm in time to see Neil and john marking out the pitches. John uses a rotary pedestrian mower with a rear roller to mow the lines prior to the Tiny Robot starting to mark the lines.
The club paid £15000 for the TinyLineMarker and pay an annual subscription fee of £1200 for software updates and servicing.
Neil was keen to show me the robot working, and how easy it was to use. It took five minutes to set up, which involved inserting the battery, setting the height of the discs, filling up with paint and using the app on a tablet to start up the robot.
Neil drove the robot to the side of the first team pitch using his tablet, and set it off to mark out the pitch, which was completed in just under 35 minutes. We then drove the marker to the second team pitch and again it completed the task in less than 35 minutes. Neil usually marks out all four pitches in one session taking just over two hours. As for paint (10 litres) a full tank will do between 3-4 pitches dependent on the nozzle set up. Neil uses Origin’s Impact Pro ready mixed paint that comes in a 10L container.
Neil told me he cannot praise the robot enough. It has revolutionised his work programme, drastically reducing both the time and manual effort it takes to mark out the club’s four pitches - with the added benefit that the lines are so much straighter.
Using the robotic marker has also freed Neil’s time to do other jobs on the pitches, such as mowing the banks and strimming around fence lines etc.
Neil has also acquired another robot, a Husqvarna mowing unit, to cut the grass banks around the first team pitch.
For me, it was great to see the club investing in their pitches. They look so much better and hopefully over the course of the playing season will inspire the players to win matches.
