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Field Notes
Fresh air is good for a hangover…………..apparently
With the club’s Hog Roast being scheduled for a Friday night I had two options, either be sensible and have just a couple of social drinks before retiring early so that I could complete my groundsman duties with a clear head the following morning, or just hope for the best! The options were cut down to just one, hope for the best, as due to a few ‘pre-Do’ drinks at home it meant I had gone over the social drinks quota before I even made it to Forresters! By the sight of a couple of random bodies asleep in my house on Saturday morning when I was heading up the ground I can only assume we had a good night. Now clearly (not a word I would have used for my head that morning) pushing a white liner isn’t the hardest job in the world but push it in a straight line when you aren’t feeling tip top is definitely more of a challenge! Having reviewed my work the next day when my vision had improved I have to say I was fairly impressed with my handy work. Unfortunately, once I had completed my line marker duties I wasn’t able to take myself home for an afternoon nap, as the Vets had a game against the league leaders who only put 8 goals past us a few weeks previously. Thankfully my centre half colleague and Chairman of the club was far more sensible than me on his Friday night exploits and had decided to go down the option one route, which meant we got a draw out of the game, cheers mate.
12 / 12 / 2011
The Runaway Roller
With the damp but not wet conditions we had at the weekend it was the ideal time to roll the pitches for the first time this season, as they have been fairly bumpy recently, well that been my excuses for the miscontrols and missed placed passes! I rolled the 9-a-side pitched first without any dramas and then moved onto the main pitch with the kids training happening on other 2 pitches. Now everything was going smoothly other than the odd ball that I had to dodge until I was on my last run up the pitch, when halfway up the quad felt very slightly different and out of the corner of my eye I saw my roller heading towards the girls' training session! The bolt had somehow come out, thankfully other than crushing a few water bottles no damage was done. A replacement bolt was found and the rolling of the other 2 pitches was completed without incident but I did wait until all the training had finished! Finally a very big thank you to Merf, Chocco, Chocco's mate and Wayne for clearing all the scrub at the top end of the field, as well as looking a lot better, this will hopefully avoid balls getting punctures on the thorns and more importantly it gets rid of the cover that rabbits love to have and therefore they may relocate.
14 / 11 / 2011
3 days Annual Leave means 3 days at The Hill
Don’t tell Mrs H but I used up more holiday for the club last week, as I was off Wed Thurs Fri and spent the majority of the time at The Hill topping up my tan in the Autumnal sun. Wednesday was spent marking 4 ‘Mini Soccer’ pitches out in red inside the main 2 pitches ahead of the Essex FA schools’ tournament the next day. I had a new assistant helping who did spend a lot of the time on his phone, yes I can’t believe he could get a signal either, Canty never made any calls! One slight issue with the marking out was that I picked up the wrong pieces of paper and therefore all the pitches were slightly smaller than they should have been but I don’t think the County FA noticed. As well as drinking a fair bit of tea while the lovely dears were playing their tournament, I did use the time to mark out a couple of the pitches to save me some time on Saturday and also finally get my ‘marking out rope’ back on it’s drum once I had mended the drum. We were also able, once the dears had finally gone, to get the winter fertilizer spread across the 3 pitches on the main playing area. And then there was Friday, the job was to go to ‘The London Soccerdome’ formerly The David Beckham Academy in North Greenwich to pick up 10 second hand but top of the range target goals for the price of 1 and half brand new ones. With transport arranged for the goals, thanks Yabo, Parky and I headed up to the smoke not sure if we would get what we thought we would be getting, as the negotiations had been one phone call and a couple of texts but me of little faith: the goals were there even if the guy that we had been in contact with wasn’t. It was good to see all of the goals in fully use on Saturday morning even if they had been put on the lines that I was trying to remark, I also got the fertilizer spread down The Pit on Saturday morning just the 9 a side pitch to do. So all in all a good few days, fingers crossed the pitches will be still in one piece after the fun days!!
1 / 11 / 2011
All 5 now done!
With the end of the cricket season finally upon us, I was able to mark out the club’s 5th different pitch. The cricketers have agreed that we can trial the use of their outfield for a season, as now that the FA are wanting to go from mini soccer (7 a side) to 9 a side before going finally to 11 a side, we needed space for a different dimension of pitch. And with the news a ‘circus’ was coming to town I decided for the majority of Saturday morning I would hide behind the hedge. My morning started nice an early as I need to go and pick up the u7’s new kit in Chelmsford from the couriers, so I was out of the door at around 6:45, allowing me to get to our ground for 7:45ish giving me time to go over the lines of the 3 pitches before ‘Billy Smart’ and his gang descended onto it. Now the actual marking out of the 9 a side pitch went very well, other than my reel that I keep my rope on had broken, years of abuse by me throwing it around, but this meant I spent around an hour with a ball of knots. The only problem with the pitch is that rabbits must have had an end of cricket season party on it during the week, as there were holes everywhere, thanks needs to go to Mrs H, as she spent her afternoon filling all of them in ahead of her girls’ game the following morning. Unfortunately the early start and being on the go all morning in rather hot weather (plus potentially the heavy night I had out in Leeds during the week) seem to have an affect on my footballing abilities in the afternoon (check out the Vets result!). I have rewarded myself with a little present for completing the marking out of all 5 pitches, I (the club) is now the proud owner of a chain harrow, which will be making it’s début outing next Saturday down The Pit at around 9:30 tickets are free!
1 / 10 / 2011
What makes a good assistant?
Now over the years I have had a number of people help me when I am marking a pitch out for the first time and though I don’t want to sound ungrateful but some have been more of a hindrance than a help! I have come to the conclusion for me a good assistant is someone is able to follow instruction without asking why they have been asked to do that, someone who pays attention fully to what they are doing and finally someone who clearly cares about the end product. Last Saturday I think I found my ideal assistant, Antony Canty. We were down The Pit marking the pitch (see picture) out for the first time ahead of football returning there on the 9th October and once one or two rabbit holes (!) have been filled in the pitch is ready to go. Whilst we were working on the pitch a few others were making the outside of the changing area looking more presentable. This coming Saturday I have to mark out the new 9 a side pitch on the cricket outfield, Canty are you available?
26 / 9 / 2011
Marking the pitch out around training
It’s been a busy few weeks now that the season for all the teams has started. With 6 teams training on a Saturday morning it requires some planning to get my jobs done around them, as apparently training is seen to be more important than me making the pitches look nice. I try and mark the pitches out in an order so that I can get around before the lines are covered in cones! (Cones on lines, is just below rabbits on my hate list!) I have also had to get the very old lawnmower out, as we have had some great grass growing weather of late and with the pitches only getting cut once a fortnight by the council the grass was too long to play games on. The probably is that the football pitch is a fairly big area and the lawnmower is very slow, so to cut the 3 pitches it took me 2 evening and about 2 hours on Saturday! But even if I do say so myself they did look good, it did highlight the issue that the lawnmower has seen better days, it doesn’t even have a cup holder for when a cup of tea was handed to me, so I think we will be doing some fund raising for a new one. So please help us as if nothing else I need somewhere to put my tea to avoid me getting 2nd degree burns. All the pitches have also had some fertiliser spread on them so, hopefully you should see the grass getting a little thicker and greener and this also meant getting the quad bike down to The Pit, on its shiny new trailer. There weren’t kids playing football that I had to avoid but grown men pulling tyres around! Also my new nozzles final have arrived.
15 / 9 / 2011
Back to normal – 20/8/11
With the main three pitches now marked out, this Saturday morning seemed like normality had returned to my duties. I had marked the mini soccer pitch out on Wednesday, yes another day off, lucky I had the time off as I had to spend the first hour tidying up my store again! It would seem that with the cat being away for a week the mice had decided that the best places to store stuff was right in front of the door, well I suppose it keeps me off the street. My usual routine for a Saturday morning at the moment is to get to the ground at 8:30 and initially remark out the pitches which should take no more than an hour, but normal takes up to a couple of hours as I have a catch up with most of the coaches as I go around and also some of the kids parents, going forward I will list the strangest question that I get asked each week, as believe me as the groundsman I do seem to get asked the strangest things. Other jobs completed on Saturday were filling 1 or 2 rabbit holes (anyone got a solution to these pests?) and also putting the netting up behind the goal to save our match balls from the combination of hawthorns and our strikers' shooting. Next big job scheduled in is the marking out of the pitch down at The Pit, this need to be done in conjunction with getting a leccie and plumber there to get the utilities on, so the leagues will allow us to use the changing rooms, if you can help please let me or the Chairman know.
24 / 8 / 2011
Useful Recipes
Pappardelle with rabbit ragoût Ingredients - Serves: 4 2½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil,2 onions, chopped,1 small bulb of fennel or 1 celery stick, diced,3 garlic cloves, chopped,55 g (2 oz) pancetta (about 3 slices), cut into small pieces,1 tbsp juniper berries, coarsely crushed,1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary or 2 tsp dried rosemary,340 g (12 oz) boneless rabbit, cut into largechunks, or 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) rabbit joints,250 ml (8½ fl oz) red wine,400–450 ml (14–15 fl oz) chicken stock,3 tbsp tomato purée,340 g (12 oz) pappardelle or other wide flat noodles,75 g (2½ oz) Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, to serve Preparation method - Prep:25 mins | Cook:1 hour 15 mins 1.Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan or flameproof casserole. Add the onions, fennel or celery, garlic and pancetta, and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened but not browned. 2.Add the juniper berries, rosemary and rabbit. Cook over a fairly low heat until the rabbit pieces are lightly browned; this takes about 5 minutes. 3.Pour in the wine and 250 ml (8 1/2 fl oz) of the stock, and stir in the tomato purée. Cover and cook over a very low heat until the rabbit is tender, about 15–20 minutes for boneless meat or 30 minutes for joints. 4.Remove the rabbit from the sauce and set it aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, cut the meat into small pieces or dice, discarding skin and bones, and set it aside again. 5.While the rabbit is cooling, increase the heat slightly and continue to simmer the sauce, adding the remaining stock in stages as it cooks. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the sauce is reduced to a coating consistency and well flavoured. 6.Meanwhile, cook the pappardelle in boiling water for 10–12 minutes, or according to the packet instructions, until al dente. 7.Return the diced meat to the sauce and heat it through. Drain the pasta, transfer it to a serving dish and lightly toss with the remaining 1/2 tbsp olive oil. Top with the sauce and serve immediately with the Parmesan cheese. Stuee's Rabbit Stew - Based on a Traditional Maltese Recipe INGREDIENTS:- 1 rabbit, 4 oz onions, 3 bay leaves, 4 oz fresh peas, 6 oz tomatoes, 2 tablespoons oil, fresh garlic, 4 oz potatoes, 4 oz fresh carrots, 1 glass of red wine, 2 glasses of water, salt and pepper. METHOD:- Cut the rabbit into pieces and fry lightly in a small amount of oil or butter. In a separate saucepan fry the chopped onions and garlic until golden brown. After which add the peeled, chopped tomatoes and bay-leaves. Add the water to the rabbit and leave it to simmer for about 15 minutes. Then pour in the wine and put in the peas, chopped carrots, chopped potatoes, salt and pepper leaving it to cook for another hour.
6 / 8 / 2011
To do a rain dance or not?
Well after a couple of good weeks of weather the pitches were starting to look a bit brown again, so clearly I was hoping for a bit of rain but to have it come on Wednesday night during training and then again on Thursday wasn’t in my plan. With a couple of annual days holiday booked I was planning on doing a bit of pottering up at the ground, so to see the rain pouring down on Thursday morning wasn’t a great start to my 2 days, but then again the pitch needed it! Having check my faithful website raintoday it was meant to clear up in the afternoon, so with waterproofs on I start marking out the ‘middle pitch’ at about 1, to be fair it did stop raining at 4 about half hour before I finish, so that’s 2 pitch marked out 3 to go, or is 4 as I may have to do one a Howbridge School too! Day 2, involved getting things working. Firstly I finished the Meccano set, you’ll remember those last few bit, sticking the transfers on etc, that and putting the axle on the right way! So the Quad bike can go off to the doctors for a bit of a check up, I did attach the exhaust back on, as it was sound a bit rough. Both lawnmowers need some attention, the white one, need the diesel taken out of it and petrol put back in! and the green one need a bit of tuning as the flames coming out of the exhaust were become a bit of a concern. The last bit of equipment that need my magical touch was the whiteliner and after having a bucker full of soapy warm water pumped through it, it should now be ready for the start of the season. The final job of the day was making sure some of the team kits are ready for action, so this meant going through each kit back and throwing away the random pants that been collected over the season, make sure there is enough pairs of shorts and socks and the most important job put the shirts in numerical order. Right I off for a week, so now doubt the groundsman store will be a messy on my return and kit will be everywhere but then it will give me something to write about in a fortnight! PS Independent confirmation of mixie, happy days.
5 / 8 / 2011
Pythagoras' Theorem
This is the first of hopefully a regular blog from your grumpy groundsman, Stuee H. I thought I would let you know what I do each Saturday morning and at other times, other than walking around with a scowl on my face looking at the ground and moaning about rabbits (that's enough on rabbits for this 1st blog but I'm sure they will crop up on more than one occasion in the future!). After the efforts of, initially, a gang of waterers and then, in the last couple of weeks, the 'natural' watering system the grass has been flourishing. But it's time now to ruin the greenness of some of it by painting it white. In the past we have always marked out the middle pitch first to save the main pitch for a few more weeks and also to help those with fitness issues by playing the first few friendlies on a smaller pitch! But this year we decided to allow the goalmouth on the middle pitch a few more weeks for the new grass to establish itself - the decision us groundsman have to make! So, what do you need to mark out a pitch from scratch other than a white liner? Well I use a reel of string, a rusty fire bucket fire full of pegs, a lump hammer, a 30m tape measure, a spray can of paint (any colour will do though green doesn't show up too well) and a working knowledge of Pythagoras' theorem concerning right-angled triangles: "In any right-angled triangle, the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two legs (the two sides that meet at a right angle)." Finally something I learnt at school has become useful! So four hours after an 8:15 start by banging the first peg in on Saturday morning, I turned what could be described, by an uneducated eye, a grass field into a football pitch. Just another four pitches to mark out. This season as well as the usual two adult pitches and the one mini-soccer pitch that we have had in the last few season, we are trialing the use of the cricket outfield from October for a 9-a-side pitch and finally we now include the pitch at 'The Pit' in Great Totham. My day wasn't finished, but I had saved the best for last, as myself and Parky were able to relive our youth and play with Meccano. Well when I say Meccano, this was big boys Meccano - a new trailer for the club, so when needed I can transport my groundsman equipment (quad bike etc.) to The Pit, as believe me it needs some work on it.
25 / 7 / 2011
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