DRYING OUT . .
. . and praying for rain
by TurfPro Editor, Laurence Gale MSC, MBPR
 
Laurence Gale MSC, MBPR

What can we say about the weather?! 


It has been an extremely dry and cold start to the month here in Shropshire, as predicted by Mark Hunt of Headland Amenity in his weekly weather blog posted on the 12th April. He stated that there is not likely to be a decent amount of rainfall until the end of the month and that soil and air temperatures will slowly rise in the coming weeks to promote some much needed growth. 

 

 

This has been borne out with the current state of many of our local sports grounds. A recent visit to Shifinal, enabled me to catch up with two local groundsmen who were busy getting their facilities ready for the start of the playing season. 


Adrian Shelley at Shifnal Cricket Club and John Breeze at Shifnal Bowls Club are both groundsmen I have known, for many years.  Adrian has been the Head Groundsman at Shifnal cricket club for well over forty plus years having taken over the role from his father and was club captain in the 1981. He been a dedicated loyal servant of the club and during his time has transformed the playing surfaces, where they are now renown for being one of the best cricket clubs in the Midlands. 

 


I asked Adrian how this year’s pre-season rolling and pitch preparations had gone? Like many others, he said that he had enjoyed a good end of season renovation last October with plenty of grass growth. However, the recent cold and dry conditions had both reduced his pre-season rolling programme and reduced expected growth on the square and outfield.


Similarly, John had experienced the same conditions on his clay-dominated soil bowling green. The cold dry weather had slowed grass growth down considerably and the playing surface was starting to dry out, with the automated watering system not being operational (awaiting repairs). The club are reliant on the weather to change and bring in some much-needed rain.

 

Recruitment also drying up?

 

Whilst talking to Adrian, we soon got on to the subject of maintenance costs and the fact that sooner rather than later, the club will have to start looking to find another person to take over from Adrian once he decides to retire. This will be a task which will be hard to achieve for many sports clubs in the coming years. Replacing these seasoned volunteers is not going to be easy. 

 


There does not seem many youngsters who are willing to give up their time for free or even want to get involved. The second biggest worry is the fact there are not many clubs willing or have the resources to pay for a paid professional.


This issue is going to be a difficult problem to solve in the coming years. We need to get to grips with enticing new blood into the sports turf industry. This is of course very difficult when pay rates are deemed low combined with the long hours often required to maintain these sports facilities during a busy playing season. 


This is a topic that the GMA, BIGGA and other industry organisations are well aware.  For me personally, we need a national campaign with all relevant parties coming together to promote and invigorate the career opportunities we now have available in our diverse sports turf, amenity and horticultural industry. 

 


There is always going to be a cost to provide, run and maintain a sports club or facility, which I recently highlighted in a TurfPro article, Identifying The True Values


In total the man hours for one person to maintain a given sorts facility equated to the following:

  • A minimum of 362 hours to maintain a rugby / football pitch
  • A minimum of 258 hours to maintain a bowling green
  • A minimum of 1155 hours to maintain a (10 pitch) cricket club 

Once you apply costs to these hours coupled with the cost of materials and machinery required the maintenance of a typical grass roots facility can be a considerable amount - which often the club’s annual subscriptions and match fees rarely cover. 

 

 

This was highlighted in a recent interesting debate thread, taking place on one of the social media platforms. 


Annual membership tends to range from anything between £30-£120 in general, with a few clubs charging what I would call a reasonable fee of around £200. However in reality, sports clubs should be charging at least £300 annually for seniors and £100 for juniors, to raise anywhere enough money to pay for the running of their clubs. 


If you or I were to join a modern fitness club/ gym, we would be expected to pay at least £500 a year. I personally think as a player and supporter of any grass roots sports facility we should be prepared to pay a lot more to help pay for the upkeep and maintenance of these iconic facilities. 

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