Ian Card is Head of Grounds and Security at Ardingly College, an independent, mixed school set in a beautiful 230-acre campus in the West Sussex countryside. In 2014, Ian returned to Ardingly and now leads a skilled team of nine maintaining the grounds and twelve grass pitches, three squares and two all-weather artificial turf pitches. Football is the dominant sport alongside rugby, cricket, hockey, athletics and tennis.
As is expected the standards of all facilities must be maintained to an exemplary level and the pitches are pounded seven days a week by the school’s 400+ students. The amount of use and the high quality expected of the grounds certainly keeps Ian and his team on their toes.
The finishing touch and stand out feature of any sports pitch is the white line presentation. This school year saw Ardingly become a customer for Bristol-based sports paint supplier, Pitchmark. Their Eco System appealed to Ian and his staff, as he explained: “I like the marking machine. It’s very simple and easy to operate and has a nice user-friendly feel to it.”
Ian continued: “Pitchmark’s assistance before and after I became a customer has been excellent. One of their reps, Olly (Boys), comes to see me and the team, and we chat through how the paint and machine are performing and my general feedback. It’s something that was being overlooked with a previous supplier - good, friendly customer service.”
Pitchmark have been supplying Ardingly College with their ready-to- use paint Ecoline+ and this is having a positive effect on work efficiency. “The no mixing is very convenient. My guys don’t have to spend down-time mixing and getting messy. The product quality and finish is consistent, allowing us to spend more time on other tasks to raise the standards further.”
“Sometimes, the paint can be too good,” he said, jokingly. “We swap some football fields to rugby every January and I could still see the old lines weeks after.” Well, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Thanks to Ian for his time.
Pitchmark can be contacted on 01454 776666, sales@pitchmark.com or www.pitchmarkltd.com
