Manchester City FC grounds manager Roy Rigby reports that the club’s Carrington training ground pitches are performing “tremendously” since being sown with specialist grass seed breeder Barenbrug’s BAR 7 mixture.

The 60,000sq m site has been transformed by Rigby and his team as part of a £2.5million development programme spanning the Premier League club’s main stadium, as well as its Carrington and Platt Lane training grounds, with Carrington benefitting from a brand new pitch construction featuring three additional training pitches.

Central to Rigby’s specification for Carrington is Barenbrug’s BAR 7 perennial ryegrass sports mixture, sown exclusively across the training ground’s pitches. With the stadium already using a tailor-made mixture similar in composition to BAR 7, plus the mixture previously used at Carrington and now in use at Platt Lane, BAR 7 has very much become Man City’s seed of choice.

“Why BAR 7? Well, I’ve used it for the last eight years here at Man City,” Rigby reveals. “It’s always come up well and has never let me down provided it’s looked after properly, which it is. I know how to get the best out of it. We’ve never had any complaints in all the time I’ve been here and I like that it plays so well under stress in winter months. That’s why I’ve stuck with it.”

Having been sown in summer 2008, the surfaces are now well established and – says Rigby – have performed just as he expected. “The pitches have performed very well,” he continues, “especially considering the amount of rain we’ve had and the amount of wear and tear they’ve been subject to. All the coaches, staff and players from the First Team to the Reserves that play on here are very happy with the pitches.”