With plenty of work being done here at the Banks’s Stadium as well as up at our Essington based training ground, we recently caught up with head groundsman Paul Mason to discuss the work being done.
“The entire stadium pitch has been koro’d, sanded and overseeded,” he explained.
“The reason why we lift the entire playing surface up is so that we can get rid of all of the weaker grasses that have grown through.
“We lifted the old surface up in the middle of May and it’s now looking really good. We’ve had some great growing weather and have also invested in additional sprinklers on the main pitch, so by the time our first pre-season friendly comes round; it will be in showpiece condition.”
And on the work that is being done up at the training ground, Paul went on to explain that more drainage is now being put in place to help deal with the wetter winters that have disrupted training over the last few seasons.
“When we first moved to the training ground, we had pipes put underground for drainage with around 500 millimetres of gravel put on top and then a layer of sand or soil on top of that,” Paul continued.
“On top of those then you would have other drainage bands that would cross over those.
“With the winters getting worse and worse and it just getting wetter and wetter, the drainage unfortunately hasn’t been able to cope that well with the amount of water we have been getting.
“We have banded the entire area where our two main pitches and warm-up areas are at the training ground. These bands will link in to the main drains and eradicate the issues we’ve had in recent years.
“We are continuing to work tirelessly to improve everything at the training ground to make sure we have no further disruptions this season and I am thankful to the club for the money they have invested in the training ground and the pitch this year.”