Campey Turf Care Systems has supplied an Imants Shockwave to Freddie Brickland, head groundsman at Cheshire County Sports Club, who was recently named as The FA Groundsman of the Year for 2016.
The accolade is even more impressive when taking into consideration the fact that the site of six football pitches, one rugby pitch, two mini football pitches, one 9 v 9 pitch and two artificial hockey pitches is all maintained by Freddie and his assistant, Kyle Witley.
With only two members of staff and a packed fixture list, the importance of using the correct machinery is paramount in order to keep games on, and keep money flowing through the club.
“We’ve had a really bad winter, combined with a lot of games, and it’s not unusual for one pitch to have four games during a weekend, with morning and afternoon kick-offs,” Freddie began.
“With that much use on a pitch you’re always going to get compaction, so the aim was managing that.
“I spoke to various people before we purchased the machine and they all recommended going for the Imants ShockWave, so we had a couple of demos from Campeys just to show everyone at the club how well it could work for us, so after seeing it they were happy for us to get it, and we haven’t looked back since.
“It’s perfect for us, surface disruption is minimal and that keeps all the users happy, because there’s nothing worse when the ball bobbles over the pitch after work has been done to it, so that’s a massive advantage of the ShockWave.”
Like most groundsman up and down the country Freddie has had to endure a difficult winter, which has made compaction a more prevalent issue than usual. The Imants ShockWave is designed to revitalise heavy wear areas by relieving this compaction, whilst improving aeration and removing surface water.
The revenue brought in from teams using the bar after games is vital for the club, with some teams opting to rearrange games at a local artificial pitch, putting more pressure on the award winning team of two to ensure fixtures are played.
“Back in the day if a game was called off it would be rearranged for later in the season so we wouldn’t lose any revenue from the match fee and the bar revenue, which is the most important thing for us,” Freddie said.
“These days, if a game is called off due to rain, teams will go to the 3G option at the local University or wherever it may be, so keeping games on is really important, it’s probably more important now than it ever has been.
“The ShockWave has really helped us keep the pitches at a high standard, and the support we’ve received from Jason Lord at Campey has also been exceptional, be it bringing the machine for demos or giving us any information we might need.”
