Doing the ground work
Created on 17 June 2010
Whilst new Bucks’ boss Andy Sinton is busy assembling his squad for the new season, another man with plenty of work to do is New Bucks Head groundsman Mick Conway as he prepares the playing surface for the new campaign.
Mick works for Telford and Wrekin Services and has been working full-time at the New Bucks Head now for five years having previously spent time looking after bowling greens, cricket squares and running tracks for schools. He actually fell into the job by chance, but Mick has no regrets about that. “I came in here to help the groundsman out,” Mick explains, “but when we came to help him out he left and we stayed. I enjoy it. I took a groundsmanship when I left school and got a City and Guilds for that. Then this job came up and I fell into this, which is quite handy really.” Mick now concentrates almost exclusively on the New Bucks Head and is clearly very proud of his contribution. “The Bucks Head is the main one now for me. I was going out doing other football pitches - council pitches - but they’re just rough and ready because you can’t spend time on them. This ground has prestige and is the main one for me.”
The summer is obviously a busy time for Mick as he seeks to regenerate the pitch ahead of another long season. “At the moment we’ve got new grass seed coming up so it’s a matter of fertilising it and then mowing it. The more you mow, the thicker the pitch gets, so mowing is the big thing now. In theory you could mow the pitch from now every day to the start of the season.” As well as seeding and mowing, however, there are various other issues for Mick to deal with. The goalmouth areas, for example, are inevitably always worn by the end of the season and they have needed special attention. “Over the season the goalmouths had been pushed back into the touchline so this time we’ve rotavated them, pulled all the goalmouths forward, re-seeded and re-top dressed it. We’ve done the same with the centre-circle and all the pitch has been re-seeded and irrigation has been done.” With this process complete, it’s now all about mowing for Mick until the middle of July when he’ll initial mark and then over-mark the pitch ready for the season. During the season itself, of course, Mick’s role takes on a slightly different complexion. “In the winter months, after a game for example, it’s about taking out divots, mowing, marking out and the occasional fertilisation as well. I still have to ‘top’ the pitch but at a higher level because you need a certain amount of grass on the pitch, otherwise it would kick off.” Mick is very much a one-man band as far as preparing the New Bucks Head is concerned, so the job certainly keeps him busy. “If I need somebody to come in I can ring somebody, but basically it’s just me. I’m here for the best part of the week. During the week I’m here marking out, mowing and doing general duties on the pitch. I also come down on a Saturday when there’s a match on in case the referee needs anything.”
Supporters may remember that the New Bucks Head had some drainage problems in the early days following the redevelopment of the stadium, but these problems are now a distant memory following extensive work on the pitch by Mick. “In the part of the pitch down by the tunnel where the players come out especially, we’ve drained that all the way through to the half-way line. The other thing I do through the winter is verti-draining, which is like punching holes into the pitch. If you can do that at least once a fortnight, it gets the water off the top and gives the playing surface a bit of a break for the water to get through. Otherwise you can get compaction, with water lying on top, so verti-draining is important through the winter.”
Mick is rightly extremely proud of the number of games which the pitch has been able to sustain in recent seasons, as well as the lack of postponements. “I think we’ve had 80+ games on the pitch last season, maybe a bit more. Finding time between each game to get the pitch right, take out divots and get the surface back is the biggest problem, and getting the surface back ready for the next game sometimes doesn’t give a lot of time.” However, Mick enjoys the challenge. “What I get out of this pitch is job satisfaction, so if I can play that number of games and only have one cancelled then I’m doing something right. It’s a challenge sometimes, but I do enjoy it.”