Players, opponents and team management have praised the quality of the playing surface delivered throughout the season by a revolutionary new seed mix at Walsall FC’s Bescot Stadium.

Paul Mason at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium.

Following this praise the club has re-seeded again with Barenbrug’s BAR 7 RPR to help achieve similarly impressive results for the new season.

Paul Mason, who is the club’s training ground manager and responsible for selecting and purchasing the seed products for the club’s grass surfaces, said Walsall had initially used BAR 7 on its pitch.

But after speaking with Barenbrug representative Matt Williams, he opted for BAR 7 RPR for the 2013-2104 season which saw them finish 13^th in League One.

“We put 20 bags of BAR 7 RPR on the pitch and during the season another five bags in areas that needed patching,” said Paul Mason. “Everybody was delighted with the pitch especially considering how wet it was over the winter.

“It stood up well and was still looking really good at the end of the season. we had plenty of compliments from opposing sides and our own players were very pleased.”

Former team Captain Andy Butler, who has now moved on to Sheffield United, told Paul that it was one of the best pitches in League One and that home players noticed the difference when they played matches at the club’s own stadium.

During the first week of June, the pitch was fraise mowed to remove all unwanted grasses and sprayed to remove the old playing surface, before being re-seeded with 22 bags of BAR 7 RPR, as well as having 65 tonnes of sand spread on the pitch and within a week, the grass was already showing through.

Key to the success of RPR is it produces determinate stolons. Normally, perennial ryegrasses exhibit a purely tufted growth habit, with limited lateral growth only possible from standard tillers.

The stolons deliver clear benefits in terms of sward strength, surface traction, drought tolerance and nutrient uptake – resulting in fast establishment, excellent wear tolerance, a dense sward and impressive wear recovery.

“We had no hesitation in using BAR 7 RPR again after having such a good season with the pitch,” commented Paul.

Most significantly, team manager Dean Smith was delighted with the quality of the pitch. “If the manager is happy, it takes the pressure off the ground staff,” said Paul, who has 20 years’ experience working with soccer pitches and oversees the club’s pitches renovation work.

“The manager likes a nice flat playing surface, he wants his players to play the ball on the ground so it is great if we can deliver a pitch which he is happy with and enable the team to play decent football on.”

Paul, who uses BAR 7 on the training pitches, said he has regular contact with Matt Williams as Barenbrug’s Regional Manager for the North West.

“Every time I need more seed or some help or advice, he gets it to me or is there on the end of the phone. If we are worried about anything, we can talk to him about it,” added Paul.

Matt Williams said Walsall FC has used Barenbrug products for many years. “They had a really good result from BAR7 RPR last season and we are confident this year Paul and his team will have an even better pitch.” said Matt.

“Paul and I have worked together for a number of years and have a very good working relationship.”

In addition, Barenbrug has its own “envoy” to keep tabs on the performance of the team, and the pitch.

Matt explained that Carol Esten, who works in the customer care department at Barenbrug in the Bury St Edmunds office, is a Walsall FC fan and travels there to see home games.