Added: 21st august 2024
The Grounds Management Association have been closely involved with the project, with Regional Pitch Advisor Phil Kime (former Lincoln City Head Groundsman) and Senior Regional Pitch Advisor Julien Morris (former Coventry City Head Groundsman) pictured here inspecting the drainage installation.
Ashby Ivanhoe FC is an ambitious club that is looking to make meaningful investments in its home ground. A key objective in this regard has been the installation of a new pitch drainage system; this will not only improve the quality of the playing surface, but also guard against fixture cancellations brought about through waterlogging, which can have serious detrimental impact on the finances of a grassroots club – whether through fines, or diminished matchday revenue. To this end, the club sought funding from the Football Foundation, and expert third-party advice from a number of sources including as the Grounds Management Association. With Turfdry’s name cropping up time and time again, the club eventually got in touch with the firm to discuss the potential improvements to its home ground. Impressed with both the technical superiority of Hydraway Sportsdrain, as well as the passion and enthusiasm of Turfdry’s team, Ashby Ivanhoe FC was convinced that Turfdry was the best contractor to deliver the most cost-effective improvements to their pitch.
Although Turfdry prides itself on earnest and excited engagement with all of its projects, the opportunity to work on and improve this particular site was especially appealing, as it was formerly the site of former Aston Villa player David Hunt’s Soccer School – where Turfdry Assistant Manager Matthew Taylor got his first taste of the beautiful game. Whilst Matthew would be the first to admit that he was never an especially good player at this stage in his life, it was nevertheless the stage for some great memories and foundational life-lessons, laying the foundations for a lifelong love of football. Furthermore, whilst they were not aware of each-other’s involvement in the project until the installation was well underway, Turfdry MD Melvyn was delighted to run into Dave Morris – the former-chairman of the club (who now has a stand named after him) and a former team-mate from their time playing for Coleoreton Hall FC in the Charnwood Sunday League more than twenty years ago.
Whilst the value of quality sports facilities to local communities and end-users is central to Turfdry’s core philosophy, the specific connections between generations of local sporting activity the team has first-hand experience with on this site has manifested that principle directly, so we hope that our contribution to the improvement works can lay the foundation for generations of footballers to come.
A drainage system for the club’s main pitch was designed with Hydraway Sportsdrain laterals at 2.5m spacing, connecting to 100mm plastic pipe carrier drains running parallel with the southern and western edges of the pitch; the system outfalls via a 150mm plastic pipe carrier drain to the south of the site. Although Turfdry recommends Hydraway Sportsdrain laterals for the vast majority of its pitch drainage projects – owing to its increased intake rate and faster drainage performance in comparison to traditional drainage solutions – it was crucial to the successful drainage of this particular site due to natural gradients of pitch being much more shallow than the 1:100/1:50 length/width specified by Sport England for effective shedding of surface water. With a more shallow natural gradient slowing the natural movement of surface water, the effectiveness of a drainage solution’s intake of this water becomes ever-more crucial to its success. Moreover, whilst traditional perforated plastic pipe drains must be laid at a minimum 1:200 gradient to ensure the internal velocity of collected water is sufficient to flush out sediment particles that have infiltrated the drain, Hydraway’s laboratory-proven clog-resistant geotextile outer layer prevents sediment ingress into the drain, thereby allowing it to function effectively at much more shallow gradients.
With the installation now complete, Turfdry and the club look forward to the wetter months to put the drainage system through its paces, and hope the improved site can help whole new generations to fall in love with football.
