[ STADIUM PITCH RENOVATION ] MAY/JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2022

[Dazzler]

The last matches took place at Hayden Road a couple of weeks back, ending with the RHUFC Legends game on 7th May and AFCRD Community All Day Event on 8th May.

Pitch works were scheduled to start the following week of 16th May (and started Thursday 19th).

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[Dazzler]

Thursday 19th May - Scarify (remove thatch and thin out grass a bit, ahead of new overseeding etc..)

As this is specialist equipment we'd only use once or so a year, we use Rob at RS Groundcare for this work.

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[Dazzler]

Ready for an early start on the Friday - the first 20 Tonnes of Top Dressing were delivered (this year 100% Leicestershire sand - apparently same supply that Stamford Bridge is getting). The same again mainly to continue the work over the last few years to improve the drainage in the top part of the pitch as the sand works its way in.

Total Amount of sand this year 60 Tonnes.

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Pitch scarified and cleaned up ready for next phases on Friday.

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[Dazzler]

Friday 20th May

The main tasks on Friday were to put an initial 20T of sand down all over, then vertidrain (to push some sand into the top 6-10 inches), again improving surface drainage, then overseed (disc seed). After that the other 40T of sand to go over and be dragged matted in, followed by another run of seed, and fertiliser.

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[Dazzler]

Additional Work was done on the Goal areas, particularly the top end goal and box which had started to crack and become a bit sandy with various repairs done during the season. Additional top soil was added first thing before the top dressing/vertidraining etc.. so that also got incorporated into the profile.

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[Dazzler]

Final Delivery of sand arrives early PM to complete the coverage.

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[Dazzler]

All works complete - 12 hour day.

Top end all cleared and tidy again - all sand on the pitch.

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Initial works completed - now for some sprinklers and hopefully in the week some showers/rain.

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[Dazzler]

Sunday (Early)

Sprinklers in goal mouths...

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[AndyKirkup]

Great post Dazzler. Fantastic to see the results of all the hard work being done in such detail (and to have it recorded like this for posterity) and get a glimpse of what goes on in the closed season at Hayden Road.

The Club is lucky to have you as a volunteer, putting in all the thought, time and effort that you do to make these "behind the scenes" things happen.

[discodunk]

well done darren,great update,the pitch certainly needed some tlc,,,,great insight as to how its all gets done