THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK
Life President⭐⭐🦐
That's what I've been saying all along, that's it's to do with the science behind growing a new pitch. Either SUFC have not payed for the right materials to do a good job, or the groundsman has got it wrong. The pitch is clearly too spongy and the top inch or so seems to be sliding/rolling on the sand/soil mixture underneath. The bits that slip are then divots because the grass roots are not holding on deep enough.
This is what John Ledwidge the head Grounsdman at Leicester says.......Ledwidge, now 29, may not have gone on to traditional further education, but his academic ability has certainly helped him in a career that is about so much more than just 'mowing the lawn'.
Gone are the days when pitches would be worn out by the end of autumn and the image of one man and his fork desperately, but futilely, trying to repair huge divots in a pitch at half-time are a thing of the past. (Made me laugh that bit. He should come down to Roots Hall at half time)
These days a modern groundsman must be a scientist, accountant, artist, a great communicator and a man manager as well as a horticulturist.
"The role has changed quite a lot in the 16 years I have been around it," he says.
"I have seen it evolve from the perception that it is one old man with a gammy leg pushing a mower and rolling mud.
"There is still that stigma attached but, if you look around the Premier League and into the Championship now, the standard of the pitches has risen enormously and the science involved is quite in-depth.
"We are well-respected now and there is a young generation coming through, but I guess we will always be perceived as just grass cutters."
