STUDENTS UP FOR THE CUP!
SALTEX winners at Wembley
A four-man team from CAFRE College in Northern Ireland who won the College Cup at SALTEX last November, helped prepare Wembley’s pitch for Saturday’s FA Cup Final.
CAFRE Sports Turf students Michael Dundee (left) and John Kennedy (right) before they headed off to Wembley Stadium to prepare the pitch for the FA Cup Final. Their tutor Paul Campbell is pictured centre. Photo Andrew Towe Parkway Photography
The team won the opportunity to be part of the grounds team by winning the competition at the NEC last year, which saw sports-turf students from across the UK demonstrating excellent academic abilities and turf skills.
“Taking part in the SALTEX competition was in itself great experience for us," Michael Dundee from Antrim told The Ballymena & Antrim TImes.
"The two-hour competition included an exam on turf management and using live test samples to identify potential threats to the health of turf. When we heard we’d beaten all the other teams, it felt like we’d just won the FA Cup!”
The team undertook a number of roles on Saturday including putting up the nets, assisting in lining out and were on divot duty at half time.
Greenmount’s Sports Turf tutor Paul Campbell said, “Winning the opportunity to work at Wembley with their top groundsmen and in front of millions of people world-wide, is such unique opportunity for the team as well as Greenmount Campus. It allows us to showcase our students’ skills to the industry and promote the first-class facilities we have at the Sports turf and Golf Academy.”
|
