Plymouth Argyle Has Best League Two Groundsman
Billy White, Groundsman at Plymouth Argyle Football Club’s Home Park Stadium, has recently been awarded the ‘League 2 Groundsman of the Year’ for the 2014/15 season.
The Home Park pitch was inspected by Dr Stephen Baker of the STRI and Billy was chosen as the worthy winner, after being highly commended in category last year.
Billy has been working at the club since he was 16, starting out as a match day divoter, and has been in this full-time position for the last 5 years. With only one other groundsman on the team, and a fairly limited machinery fleet at their disposal, the win is even more impressive. Headland Amenity’s Richard Shapland has worked closely with Billy on a nutritional programme that has been instrumental in the award-winning pitch condition.
“Our main aim is to keep the playing surface up to scratch and provide the best surfaces possible with the resources we have available” says Billy. “With the fairly limited budget we have to work with, Richard has been great in assessing our requirements and creating a succinct programme that works.”
This consists fundamentally of Headland’s Multigreen temperature controlled release fertiliser and Blaukorn quick-release fertiliser. “We applied Multigreen following our May renovation work and then once again at the end of September to see us through the winter. A final application is planned in January which will last us until the end of the season.”
With the pitch at Plymouth Argyle being sand based and of fibre elastic construction, it is very free draining meaning any product that is applied doesn’t last as long as it should. This issue is further compounded by players’ requests for a fast running surface meaning they’re watering a lot which leads to leaching. To keep the nutrient base topped up, a low rate of Blaukorn 15-3-20 is applied every 3-4 weeks.
Billy says he gets good feedback on the quality of the surface from the team members every week, but also regularly gets compliments from away teams, referees and linesmen. “The support from Headland has been great. Richard pops in at least once a month to check everything is going okay and we know he is always at the end of the phone if we need him.”
