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Next Game: Pre-Season

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Edgar Street Pitch To Be 'Ripped Up' on Saturday


The Edgar Street Pitch is to be ripped up on Saturday in preparation for seeding ready for next season.

"We'll get all the kit here on Friday to rip up the pitch on Saturday," Head Groundsman Ben Bowen told BN.

"On Saturday we are going to take about 15mls off and then we'll seed it with 500kgs of seed because the pitch has deteriorated so quickly in the last eight to nine weeks then top dress it with 90 tonnes of top dressing.

"When we take the top off it is 15mls. You can't go any deeper because if you go any deeper you hit the ryegrass roots and we don't want to do that.

"We are going to try and take the meadow grass out which the pitch is full of. They are the shallow roots, ryegrass is deeper rooted.

"You'll hit the drains if we go any deeper. It's big money to deal with drains.

"We're trying to get a good carpet and good growth of grass all the way over and then we'll up the fertilising, the worm-cast sprays and the aeration.

"So for next season we're hoping it will be a little bit better than what it is now.

"We're not doing anything with the drainage this year. It's a major job. Everybody can see the drains are really suffering.

"There's talk of maybe next season of dealing with it but for this season what we'll do is get a carpet across them."

With no lease extension to Edgar Street yet agreed, it's difficult to justify spending too much money on the pitch at present.

"That's out of our hands that one!

"We don't know about that sort of thing.

"If they get a thirty year lease then yes they can start spending a little bit of money but I totally understand they are not going to spend that money at present. If they haven't got a big lease they are not going to spend thousands on the pitch.

"We could do a lot of work, get those drains open because they do not work."