After an indifferent start to the season where we were rooted to the bottom of the league for weeks we ended the year on a high with an emphatic 3-0 win over QPR on the 28^th. Portman Road housed our second biggest crowd of the season 25,300 and the majority left the ground very happy. The team are up to 19^th in the league and moving in the right direction. In this league there are enough games left to still get around the play offs come May. All the hard work to keep the game on was worthwhile and I can’t praise my young team enough for the way they stuck at the task.

 

 The mood around the club on Tuesday was also much brighter. The plan we set out at the start of the week worked well. I always felt that because the game was scheduled for the Monday the extra 48 hours would work in our favour. The heavy snow that fell in the build up to Christmas was melted away from Tuesday under the cover. By Christmas Eve all 6 centimetres had disappeared The controlled thaw under the cover prevented the pitch becoming water logged allowing the surface to stay firm. We continued to pump warm air via our natural gas burner right through till Sunday morning (27^th). We took the covers of the pitch and carried out a full pre match before covering the pitch in the afternoon ahead of the frost forecast through the evening.

 

Matchday morning saw the frost hang around till 10.00 am. At 10.30 am we removed the cover from the pitch and put the goals back in. The covers did their job once again and have never come close to letting us down in the ten years we have had them. I continue to be surprised that more clubs have never taken the system on as it is user friendly and is the only cover system that is effective against rain frost and snow.

 

The New Year is almost on us and I am fortunate to be off to Africa to help advise on the pitches for the African Cup of Nations being held in Angola. It is a unique opportunity for me and one I am looking forward to. Through the wonders of modern technology I am hoping to continue my posts from Luanda in Angola. The first team are heading for Blackpool in the 3^rd round of the FA cup weather permitting. In football things are always on the go and 2010 shows no signs of being different.

 

Happy New Year everyone.

 

The build up to the festive period is well under way. Away from the main seasonal renovations the 10 days coming up can be the busiest of the season. Two matches in three days then into the FA cup can be a defining time in the season for a lot of teams. The perfect Christmas present for any grounds man leading into this period would be a mild dry spell as both training pitches and stadium pitches have to be prepared. Contrast this then with some of the worst snow seen in Britain for years. In Suffolk last week’s fall was the worst in 18 years and saw the County grind to a halt. Fortunately for us the fixture computer has been kind and our holiday game at home is not till the 28^th. Holiday games are generally well attended and can be big revenue earners for the clubs. Pressure is then on the grounds man to ensure the games take place. At Portman Road we protect the pitch with our McLeod Coverflex pitch cover. The system is made up of seven sections of sheet supported by an inflatable tube running through the centre of the pitch from goal to goal. When fully inflated the tube has a ceiling height of 5.5 metres. With the sheets zipped together the entire playing surface is protected. I have loved this system since I first saw it being used in Holland 10 years ago. Along with the Manufacturers I have helped to develop the system and in my opinion it is the only cover system that gives the grounds man full control over the surface conditions running into a game. When the system is fully operational you create a micro climate within a micro climate but one that you are in control of. Rain, Frost and Snow can be managed.

 

The trouble with the holiday period is just that most people are on holiday. This means that plans for games have to be made several days in advance to ensure a smooth match day. Most suppliers are looking to wind down in the days ahead of the big day. Last Tuesday I attended the pre match meeting for the QPR game along with my co coordinator. Normally I would let her attend the meeting on her own but the severe weather has made the build up to this game complex. At the meeting are all departments within the club responsible for putting the game on. As well as advising the general meeting agreements with key departments such as stadium and security are vital to my own team to ensure we have as free an access around the pitch and to our work area as possible on the Match day.

 

Ahead of every I keep a close watch on the weather. The club pay for a detailed service each year and the information is very accurate. I can see a 24 hour period hour by hour or a five day period every three hours. I can also see a longer term forecast over 12 days. This information is passed onto my colleagues to enable the right decisions to be made. Largely based on this I set the plans for our preparation accordingly. I decided to deploy the cover system early in the week because the volume of snow was so great. Just over 7centimetres covered the pitch last Monday. At this point we still had a fair way to go to our game. We have in the past melted snow from the pitch and played games but never this much. The heater was switched on at 2 pm Tuesday and 45 hours later the pitch is ready to go. We will probably remove the cover on Sunday to complete pre match preparations before covering it again on Sunday night.

All we need now is a win and we have the perfect Christmas.

 

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

For the first time in a long while the team are out of the bottom three thanks to a 3-1 victory against Blackpool last Saturday at Portman Road. Needless to say everyone at the club was on a high on Monday as just seeing the team above the relegation line has given everyone a huge boost. When a team spends a while at the bottom like we did rumours about budgets and jobs abound. It’s part of the crazy world that is professional football and sadly I have seen and heard it all before. I am not one for focussing on negatives and there are not many teams at the bottom of the league that can boast only one loss in 15 games. Work is well under way on the planning for our 2010 renovations. All the renovation equipment is now away at various workshops being reconditioned ahead of the works starting in March.

 

Christmas is a busy time in football with games coming thick and fast. For the first time is long time we are away on Boxing Day. Our next home game is on the 28^th against QPR. I am really glad about this as the heaviest snow in 18 years has fallen in Suffolk. The forecast is for things to slowly pick up to wards the end of year so fingers crossed. Although the team are away for the next two games we still have to provide training pitches. This will keep us busy over the holiday period. I am also taking the chance to deep aerate the pitches at the academy when the boys are of for their Christmas break.

I am really enjoying writing the blog and will have more interesting posts in the New Year.

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

                                      

We are at a time of the season when stadium pitches get little light and maximum play.  One of the most important ingredients’ for promoting green plant growth is sunlight. Today’s modern stadiums are magnificent theatres for watching football. They have all the creature comforts the modern day fan could wish for. A far cry from yesteryear. But while they are good for the fans they have become a nightmare for the grounds man especially in the winter months. To try and ease the problems of losing total grass cover in the months of December, January and February clubs have initiated various measures to combat this. The first and the most obvious were to reduce the number of games played on the pitch in a season. Many of the top clubs now play all of the second team games away from the main stadium. The average stadium schedule now is around 30 games. But perhaps the most revolutionary one has been the introduction of lighting rigs. Most of the top clubs playing in the premiership have had varying numbers of these rigs for the past three to four years. The lights have come from two companies one based in Holland and one based in Norway. To make a real difference a club needs around 4 rigs. At £50,000 per rig the cost to clubs beyond the big league is difficult. No one can argue the improvement in premiership pitches in recent years. Watch match of the day on a Saturday night and you won’t see a bad pitch.

But professional football is played beyond the Premiership and the same lack of light issue exists for many of the clubs throughout the Football league. At Ipswich we have a desire to have lights to help boost the growth in the darker areas of the pitch within the stadium but just as big an issue for us is the tight budget we have to work to. Although we can’t manage the larger units for now we have built our own mini rig for use in the South goal which is in darkness for virtually four months of the year from November to February. This is the second year we have used the mini rig and the results have been impressive. Our next challenge is to persuade the club to allow us to build at least two more to boost coverage in the South west corner.

We are in a busy week in the run up to the festive period. Tuesday night’s home game against Peterborough brought yet another draw. Saturday will see the second game on the pitch in four days when we entertain high flying Blackpool. My team are busy turning the main pitch around. Surface cleaning and divoting are the early order of the day before we start to roll the surface out for Saturday’s game. With the weather in our favour the first game went well and the forecast for Saturday is also looking good. Once we get the second game done we will aerate the pitch and rest it ahead of the busy festive period.    

 

After surviving the rain and wind during my recent visit to Cardiff to watch Scotland I returned last Sunday to watch Ipswich play their latest away game. Talking with Phil Williams the Cardiff grounds man before the game it’s hard not to feel sorry for him. Up till last Sundays game they had 29 consecutive days rain. Playing one winter sport on the pitch would be hard enough in such conditions but hosting two must be nearly impossible. It’s a credit to the team looking after the pitch that it is still playing ok. Being a reinforced pitch certainly helps but even with the latest technology it still leaves the grounds team with plenty to do. I have been through similar periods both in Ipswich and when I worked in Scotland. Groundsmen managing pitches in such conditions will always have to make difficult decisions. There will always be a pressure from clubs to get onto the pitch and carry out the many tasks that need doing and keep fixtures on. Gate revenue is vital to any stadium or club and it sometimes takes a spell like this to make other realise how important our job is. In almost most all situations like this working in really wet conditions will lead to problems later on. The sensible decision is to stay of the pitch and until the wet weather clears up. Groundsmen need to stay strong but clubs need to give them a break and not put them under any unnecessary pressure. Despite the bad weather Ipswich recorded their first away win of the season. The 1000 or so fans that made the long journey certainly raised the roof at the end of the game. Our autumn programme has been put on hold for most of the week. November has seen record rain levels fall across the UK and like the majority of the country we have had our share. Although training has carried on and we have managed to play the games on the training centre that were scheduled the work has focussed on re instating the pitches after each session and game by carrying out alot of hand forking. I don’t know a grounds man anywhere that likes doing alot of this work but it is necessary. In conditions as wet as we have experienced recently it is important to keep machines of the pitches as much as possible. I am sure things will turn drier and cooler soon. Our saving grace has been not having any first team games at home during the wet spell. That will change next week when we play two home games in the Championship.