After weeks of heavy snowfall and frost across the UK the countries pitches are now being hit by heavy rainfall. Up till now those clubs that have under soil heating have been able to play games during the cold snap and even facilitated training sessions at their main ground. To a lesser extent those with frost sheets have had a degree of success in keeping pitches playable enough to get games on. But what happens when it rains hard. Watching the Carling cup final today (Sunday) it was refreshing to see rain covers on Wembley. Covers have been used on pitches for a while with clubs usually going for frost protection. But in recent seasons we have had as many cancellations from rain as we have had from snow and frost. The cover used at Wembley is similar to ours and offers protection against all the weather elements that can cause a cancellation. The Football League will introduce criteria to their member clubs at the start of the 2010/11 season insisting that clubs have frost covers. It is a positive step forward but could go further in ensuring fixture schedules are kept up to date by insisting that the cover the clubs chose can give all round protection.

 

The perilous states of the finances in the game have been in the news again this week with Portsmouth going into Administration.  Cash flow is vital to clubs getting through a season. The right covers can help and although getting every game on will not solve the money problems on their own they can help to keep things going. At Portman Road we know the pain Portsmouth are going though as we went through the same pain back in 2002. It is a horrible situation to find your club in and I hope Portsmouth can find a way back. Sadly I think more clubs will find difficulties before the situation gets better. I for one hope the Football Authorities can bring in regulation similar to that in Germany and Holland to force clubs to run on an even keel. Suddenly winning the Champions league is everything to some clubs and being in the Premiership is the be all and end all. I enjoyed our stay in the Premiership. Full houses every time we played at home and the games big names on my pitch every week was great. But when we went into administration everything went sour. Many local companies suffered as well as alot of my former colleagues. Don’t get me wrong I would love us to get back among the big time but this time to be able to do it on a sound footing that won’t risk the club going bust. There are many fine clubs in England with a proud tradition but we risk losing our game totally if some financial common sense is not brought in soon.

 The week ahead promises to be drier and hopefully we can get out onto the pitches and start to catch up on some much needed maintenance. This weekend all the games were cancelled on the training centre the first time this has happened in the ten years the centre has been opened. We did play at Portman Road on Saturday against Bristol City and drew our 17^th game of the season. The short break certainly worked for us and despite some heavy rain going into the game the pitch played well and looked well.  We now have 9 days to our next home game against Cardiff and with the drier milder weather with us I hope to over seed with Mascot R314 to get things moving. Two to three days tidying up the outfield and a light roll and we should be good to go. 

 

As the 4th major snowfall of the winter hit the UK towards the end of the week groundsmen around the country faced another difficult weekend. This winter seems to go on and on and is now the worst for over half a century. Coming at the end of half term week those having home games to prepare for will have had one of the busiest weeks for some time. My saving grace is that the fixture computer coupled with our early exit from the FA cup has seen us with no home game for three weeks. Portman Road is one of the oldest pitches in the Football League and has benefitted from its short break. It would have struggled had we had games over this period. We certainly used the break to our advantage. The pitch looked a bit sorry after the youth cup game against Fulham and the Championship game against Boro. The day after the Boro game we removed the North goal mouth and re turfed it. Footing was difficult for the keepers in the middle of the goal and it had to be put right. Thick cut fibre sand turf rolls 5 metres long and 40mm deep were laid. The new goal mouth has had a good period of time to bed in. I have had it rolled out three times and top dressed and it is now feeling good under foot. The pitch was also aerated using the Wiedenmann fitted with a 12mm solid tine working on a centre of 60mm x 40mm and 175mm deep. Playing games on any pitches during wet conditions is never good and is even worse on our old soil based pitch. The root zone will benefit from an injection of air. I have heard it said that air is the best fertiliser of all and it is free. It is a statement I whole heartily agree with. The surface was also brushed to clean up loose debris from the games. After repairing the small damage over a three day period the pitch has been left to rest. If you can manage it sometimes by doing nothing is the best thing you do for the pitch. I am confident the pitch will be in good shape for our game next week against Bristol City. The training grounds have taken a hammering over half term week. Weather conditions have been awful but we managed to play 7 out of the 9 games scheduled as well as hosting numerous training sessions. Damage has been heavy and renovating work to tidy the pitches up will get under way on Monday. We have already re turfed one goalmouth in the first team field and will do a second this week. I am desperate to get the pitches opened up but finding a suitable window to get the aerator out has been difficult. I am pleased that we have managed to keep the first team working. Dan Oliver our first team groundman at the training ground has done an admirable job. Our win at Sheffield Wednesday yesterday lifted us out of the bottom three and was welcome after the disappointment of losing at Peterborough in mid week. The games are coming thick and fast for the first team with two more this week. On Tuesday we play away to Scunthorpe. This is our game in hand and victory would lift us up several places. The league is so tight and a couple of back to back wins can make a huge difference. If effort counts for anything then we will be ok as Roy Keane and his team are putting in the hours on the training ground as well as clocking up the miles watching future opponents.

The cold snap that has affected the majority of the country in recent weeks shows no sign of letting up. Groundsmen around the country are facing a tough task week in week out in getting stadium pitches prepared for league and cup games. This is a vital time of the season for clubs chasing promotion or getting to the latter stage of the cups or just trying to stay in the league they started the season in. Groundsmen are very proud people and we all like to have our pitches in pristine condition every time they are played on but conditions around the country since the start of the year have made this difficult. It’s not only stadium pitches that are difficult to maintain at times like this training grounds can be just as difficult if not more difficult. Most clubs have some form of pitch protection at their stadiums and when the training grounds become unplayable the professional squads fall back on the main pitch to train as well. I can honestly say no grounds man likes having regular training on his pride and joy but at some point of the season it is necessary. This winter has seen stadium pitches pressed into use as training pitches on a more regular basis. By watching TV pictures from grounds around the country you can see the extra wear being inflicted on the pitches. Groundsmen around the country are working overtime just now trying to keep their teams going. Recent articles in trade press have highlighted some heroics at grounds over the festive period. You have to take your hat off to people like Jason Booth at Leeds Rhinos who organised a crew to clear snow of the Headingly pitch at 10pm on Christmas day working through the night in order to get there Boxing day game on. Or Dave Mitchell at Carlisle who pumped thousands of gallons of water of the Brundon park pitch after heavy flooding to get a game on.  Holiday games are big earners for the clubs and groundsmen are often the unsung heroes in keeping these games on and maintaining vital cash flow. Sometimes putting a game on brings more problems. Excessive wear in key areas such as goalmouths can lead to essential mid season repairs. We have just finished re turfing our North goal mouth. The four games since New Year left the North goal difficult for the keepers. When pitches I have prepared are played on I like them to be fair to both teams and safe for all the players. Having re turfed the goal will get us back to that.  We are fortunate that the excellent autumn weather allowed us to go into the winter in a strong position. We fortunate t have a break in the stadium schedule. Our exit from the FA cup coupled with three away games on the trot will give us the time to get the main pitch back in order. As well as the North goal the pitch has been brushed and aerated. An application of 4:0:8 invigorator will help pick the sward up and put some colour back into it following the cold snap. The rest of the time will be spent repairing the first team pitches on the training grounds. At least four goal mouths will require attention as well as picking up damage in the outfields. We are fortunate to have the 11 pitches at times like this. The works can be done while still keeping the team working. Next week is half term. This is an important time for the academy as they look to sign new players who will take up professional scholarships. It is also a time when younger players will undergo trials and try to join the schoolboy ranks. We have 9 games scheduled for the training grounds next week as well as numerous training sessions. This is the busiest half term of the year and we will be pulling out all the stops to ensure all games can be played. My hope is that the weather picks up soon and we can all get back to normal.  

After three weeks in Angola I arrived back at Heathrow on Monday afternoon 18 hours after leaving Luanda. The African experience was certainly one that I am glad to have to have done.  

I arrived back at Portman Road late on Monday and immediately sought out my team. They were busy preparing the pitch for Tuesdays FA youth cup game against Fulham. A slight frost was almost out of the pitch and the final preparation was left to the match day. Fortunately the pitch had been rolled out following the last game and most of the small damage had been re instated. The youth cup has become a sore subject for me in recent years. I think the competition is great and offers the young pros a chance to play in the country’s top stadiums. At least that’s how it is supposed to be. In recent seasons many of the big clubs have been given permission to play the early rounds away from their main stadium only playing at home from the quarter final the idea being to protect the pitches during the winter. The quarter finals don’t take place till March. In the last round we played Arsenal at Barnets Underhill stadium. No disrespect to Barnet the pitch and facilities were superb for the time of year but our kids should have played at the Emirates. Three out of the last four seasons we have played a youth cup tie at home days ahead of an important first team game. Tuesday night in Ipswich was wet and cold with Heavy rain falling throughout the game. Most grounds men will tell you that the damage from a kid’s game is much worse than the damage from a first team game. This is because the kids tend to slide in more often. We duly picked up quite a bit of damage. It will repair but the pitch won’t be in its usual tip top condition for Saturday’s home game. Clubs like ours enter into the youth cup in good faith accepting we will have to play games in and around the first team schedule at a difficult time of the season if drawn at home. This can be problematic and something I am trying to change. I am in favour of the youth cup taking a winter break of two months through January and February. This would allow clubs to reduce the usage during the worst period of the year. We also play the majority of our reserve games there so January and February can be quite congested. Such a break should find favour with most clubs and should allow then to play the games at home and not a third party stadium. It would put us on a level playing field.

 

 Our training pitches have like most training grounds taken a real hammering over January. Having walked the pitches in the week I was happy that they were still in reasonable shape. There were signs of damage and the pitches that were cleared during the big freeze will need to be rested for several weeks. It is at times like this we are fortunate to have the 11 pitches. Several pitches had succumbed to Fussarium. This had crept in under the snow. It has been treated and on Thursday the pitches were fed with Scotts Invigorator fertiliser. The 4:0:8 analyses is ideal for the time of year to give the pitches a boost. The Iron content in the fertiliser also helps to lift the colour. After Saturdays game we have a break of just over two weeks in the stadium.  It is unusual for us to have such a break at this time of the year but we are out of the cup and have a run of away games in the league. We will use the time to tidy the pitch up and give it a well earned rest.

 

After almost three weeks of intense football the 2010 African cup of Nations has come down to the last two nations. On Sunday evening Ghana will take on Egypt in Luanda for the right to be Champions of Africa. As the competition draws to a close we have been reflecting on what has been a busy time for the SIS crews. Taking out the three games from schedule after the tragic attack on the Togo team bus 28 games and approximately 24 training sessions have been facilitated on the four stadium pitches in three weeks. Many more sessions were held on the ten training pitches built by the SIS teams. On the whole the pitches have been well received by the players and coaches of the participating countries. During an interview with the worlds media this week Barcelona star Samuel Eto one of the highest profile African players playing in Europe praised the condition of the pitches saying they were best he can remember for an African cup competition. Even the two pitches in Luanda and Cabinda that were not quite up to scratch were deemed to be better than the run of mill pitches prepared in previous years. This sentiment was echoed by other association heads as well as FIFAs representative Walter Gagg. Walter is a senior member of footballs governing body and during the week he took the time to send an e mail to George Mullan the SIS CEO congratulating him on the company’s efforts. As you can imagine everyone has taken a huge lift from this although none of us are getting carried away. Following the close of the competition all the crews will be asked for their views good bad or indifferent. Critical self analysis like this can be a good thing and can help with the planning for future events. We know for instance the pitch in Luanda is not what it should be. We know the reasons why but it was the hand we were dealt and we simply had to get on with it. The Angolan climate has been as much a challenge as anything. Fierce heat in the mid thirties and humidity levels that left the stadium resembling a steam room were a daily challenge. My lasting memory of this was the game between Algeria and Malawi which kicked of at 2.45pm in temperatures of 42oC and humidity around 94%. I have never experienced anything like it and you really felt for the players that day. The performance of the Bermuda grass variety Princess 77 has continued to surprise me. The pitch in Luanda has been abused beyond belief yet despite being so young it has held in and continued to make progress. Stability has been the main issue in Luanda but the continued improvement of the Bermuda has helped the pitch through the three weeks. I honestly had my doubts after the second game. The feeding programme has been an education. Prepared by my colleagues from Sporting Lisbon I have never seen so much fertiliser applied. There judgement was spot on and the main reason I believe the pitch is still going. Beyond Sundays final the final piece of the contract will begin. Renovating the pitches and at the same time training local grounds men will go on over the next two months. I believe that when the company finally leave Angola all the pitches will be top condition. Just as Sunday’s final is kicking off I will be taking off from Luanda heading to London via Dubai. We have two games at Portman Road next week the first when our youth team continue their run in the FA youth cup against Fulham. This is followed by a home game for the first team on Saturday against Middlesbrough.

 

As I have been faced with fierce heat on a daily basis my crew have had to deal with the opposite as Britain has suffered its worst winter for several years. They have done brilliantly getting the two first team games on when many around them were going off. The two reserve games scheduled for the month did not take place. The first was as much down to conditions outside the ground while the second was moved to the training ground to help the crew maintain the pitch in good condition. We are one of very few top clubs still playing reserve games in the main stadium. In recent seasons we have sought to move January reserve games to the training centre to help maintain the pitch. Playing reserve games in the stadium is a costly business and sometimes it makes sense to move games. Once home February will  be a busy time as we finalise our Spring programme and I catch up on meetings that have been held as we prepare to host Pink in the summer. These concerts are huge and planning starts early. I know most people back home are having a moan about the cold weather but if I walk of the plane on Monday morning and it is freezing I will be delighted. I will know I am back home.