Groundsman shares secrets to success
The turf industry is bristling with dedicated, innovative and passionate professionals, so receiving the IOG Groundsman of the Year Award – five times in one career – isn’t something easily topped.
Except that, Ian Darler, Head Groundsman at Cambridge United F.C. has also just received the Institute of Groundsman’s Award for National Unsung Hero – the first one ever presented.
We caught up with Ian to learn his secrets to success.
UK groundsmen best in the world
Ian says: “I feel honoured to have won the awards, but also very grateful to the other members of my staff over the years who have assisted me to make this possible. The groundsman in this country in my opinion are some of the best in the world and what is great is that they all offer support and advice to each other.
Ian has been a groundsman for 40 years and at Cambridge F.C for 37. He continues: “When I joined, I was the youngest Head Groundsman at a professional club in the UK. Cambridge United were playing in the old Division One, now known as the Championship. We were playing against the likes of Chelsea, Sunderland, West Ham Utd, Newcastle and Crystal Palace.
In four decades, Ian has spent almost £30k of his own money maintaining the pitch—from materials to machinery – and his loyalty and generosity to the club has seen it through tough times.
He says: “We’ve achieved a lot on minimal budget. There just hasn’t been the cash available to spend on the pitch over the years. But we’ve always worked hard to ensure the turf is at its most playable.”
The one common denominator
When asked ‘how’, Ian waxes lyrical: “The one common denominator over the years, has been our use of Barenbrug seed. We’ve used nothing else for 12 years. First time was a case of ‘oh, let’s give it a try’ never imagining it would make much of a difference. But once we made the swap, we never looked back.”
Recently the club has seen stratospheric growth, thanks to playing Manchester United in the FA Cup in 2014.
Ian continues: “During the close season of the 2014-15 season, the club made a commitment to have low cost part reconstruction carried out to the playing surface. We made the decision to have Mansfield sands fibre sand concentrate ameliorated into the top 100mm of the playing surface, A.T Bones won the contract and set about stripping the surface with a koro, and then cultivating and adding 360 tonnes of fibre sand concentrate. We had only one non-negotiable to the process … that the seed must be Barenbrug’s RPR Stadium.
Unprecedented establishment
When asked why, Ian says with conviction: “Because I’ve yet to see anything with faster establishment. The speed of coverage is exceptional. RPR Stadium also produces a dense sward and has an outstanding colour, while maintaining a good strong root. It’s proved to be very successful in the shaded areas of the playing surface, too. Even though we have a small stand, we have areas that are pretty well in the shade most of the day – and we don’t have the flexibility of lighting rigs. With RPR we’ve seen a massive improvement in areas that were previously very thin.
Seven weeks after germination, we played our first friendly against Ipswich Town. The Cambridge team manager declared the pitch: excellent. Amazingly, there wasn’t a divot on the surface. Considering such a short window of growth, RPR Stadium really showed its pedigree.”
Our 12th man
Ian has another trick up his sleeve, in the form of BAR 50 SOS. He says: “I call it my twelfth man. During the 2009-10 season the playing surface started to show signs of wear due to poor weather and volume of games and training sessions, I had a visit from the Barenbrug representative, who told me about this incredible new fast, germinating seed in cold weather. Again, I had a degree of disbelief, but gave it a try.
We reseeded areas of wear in January. Temperatures were low, but to my amazement we still had rapid germination. The surface soon looked completely re-established and by the end of the playing season it looked as it did at the start of a brand new season. Simply outstanding and for my benefit, an award winning pitch.
I think we were one of the first clubs to use it and again that year we won groundsman of the year. There’s no higher praise than that.”
