Dave Saltman gives his monthly update on the state of the pitch
Dave Saltman of Maxwell Amenity Ltd says it’s a challenging time of year for groundsmen all around the country as the winter weather begins to kick in.Dave said: “The weather can change – one day it’s raining and fairly mild, and another it’s freezing and we’ve got frost everywhere and the ground’s frozen.
“The team have worked hard on getting the pitch repaired after games, but also trying to make sure that the pitches are playable when they come in to do their training.”
The Christmas period has seen temperatures plummet and Town’s training pitch has been frozen solid which has meant training has had to be done on the main pitch.
“It makes it more difficult – obviously we’re trying to balance everything so we’ve got an eye on the forecast, we’re trying to get the pitch prepared before games and repaired afterwards.
“We’re also trying to make sure the ground has nutrition so the grass still has what it needs to grow.
“All in all it’s a challenging time of year, it’s all about damage limitation which makes it more difficult when the players need to be on the main pitch because they haven’t got anywhere else to train.”
Due to the temperatures dropping no grass is really growing and the increased demands on the pitch have begun to take their toll.
“We’ve got grass which is being killed all the time, so the grass is thinning out as a whole. Everything we do is about trying to get through the next few months before warmer weather returns.
“The training pitch is standing up well – but we’ve only got one set of frost covers and I don’t want to move them onto the training pitch because the main pitch needs them to ensure it’s looked after.”