Steve Winterburn’s role at Brighton & Hove Albion FC may have
changed over the years, but what has not altered is his incessant desire to
produce the best pitches – at the Premier League club’s training ground as well
as at its AMEX Community Stadium.
Since he joined the club in 2001, his role has developed from
being head groundsman at the club’s (former) stadium in Withdean to one today
that, as head of grounds maintenance, means he oversees a team of five
full-time grounds staff at the stadium in Falmer as well as 14 full- time
grounds staff at the club’s Lancing-based training ground – where there are
eight grass, two hybrid grass and three 3G pitches, plus several grass and
hybrid grass training areas
He also works closely with the nearby University of Sussex, where
the club’s women’s first team now uses up to four pitches every season for
their training needs, and the club’s stadium grounds staff’s input into the
maintenance works on these pitches.
Today, he admits, he rarely gets ‘to pick up the tools’ because
his role is focused mostly around numerous strategic issues of grounds
maintenance across the sites, especially concerning staff training, development
and progression – “giving people something to aspire to is vitally important”,
he says – as well as ensuring that all the grounds within his remit are using
the best available products and maintenance techniques to ensure the consistent
availability of top-class playing surfaces.
“I’m forever experimenting with a variety of amenity products,
especially at the training ground,” he continues. “I’m always willing to tweak
things to ensure we are always on top of what’s best in terms of both working
practices and the resulting pitch performance.
“One example concerns the use of nutritional products as well as
controlled and conventional release fertilisers. I always want the best – and
at the best price!”
That said, one amenity supplies company in particular has stood
the test of time, he affirms, “and that’s Rigby Taylor, from which we source a
host of products”.
Steve’s connection with the South Coast club extends back to 1993,
however, when the Seagulls’ squads used the University of Sussex Sports Ground
for training. Steve joined the university initially as a groundsman then became
head groundsman there three years later.
His move into groundsmanship came after his career path led him
from experiences in civil engineering, drainage and landscaping before he
joined the East Sussex National Golf Resort as a greenkeeper for two seasons,
during which time he started to gain his Levels 1, 2 and 3 qualifications as
well as accreditations for spraying and chainsaw use, for example.
After a spell working at a private school, Steve joined Brighton
& Hove Albion at the Withdean Stadium (a converted athletics track owned by
the local council) and he brought with him an extensive skills set “especially
in terms of varying playing surfaces (artificial and grass, from sand- to
clay-based) for a multitude of sports”.
While he naturally applied this experience to the maintenance and
management of the Withdean Stadium pitch, his expertise really came to the fore
when the club decided to build a new stadium (the AMEX Community Stadium) and
Steve became an integral member of the team which specified the construction of
the new pitch for the club’s 2011/12 season.
“All new pitch projects are a case of marrying what’s ideally
required with the available budget, of course, and this was no different,”
Steve reflects. “We opted for a fibrelastic surface, using grasses that I was
used to working with – mainly Rigby Taylor’s R14; a 100 per cent perennial
ryegrass containing the cultivars Columbia, Poseidon, Duparc and Berloiz 1.
“That pitch has performed very well over the years but this summer
[2018] it has been replaced by a hybrid surface – two similar hybrid pitches
are in place at the training ground alongside hybrid surfaces for goalkeeping
and training areas - but, again, we are sticking with the R14 as part of the
seed mixtures used because it gives me everything I need, including rapid
establishment, good colour, a clean cut and good disease and shade tolerance.
“The position of the stadium (elevated but on the South Downs)
represents quite a harsh environment in terms of temperature, shade and air
flow – the stadium design means we lose a lot of light on the pitch in the
winter, perhaps having only a 3 metre wide by 10 metre long strip of sun on the
pitch by mid-winter. R14 continues to perform well in conjunction with grow
lights and a number of other Rigby Taylor products.”
Underpinned by regular agronomy advice from STRI, R14 is just one
of a host of Rigby Taylor products on Steve’s shopping list. He also uses, for
example:
A variety of fungicides:
- A range of fertilisers such as the Microflow-CXS
controlled-release liquid – containing chelated trace elements including
copper, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc;
- Amino Form LX amino acid-based supplement for stress relief;
- Activate XL microbial biostimulant; and
- Breaker Advance wetting agent.
Working closely with Rigby Taylor’s Regional Sales Director Mike
Ring – who, in fact, was a winger in the Seagull’s squad from 1981 to 1984 (he
also played for Hull City and Bolton Wanderers, for example), Steve adds: “I
actually started doing business with Mike when I was at the university, and
we’ve always worked hand-in-hand testing and using the products for the most
successful results.
“But Mike’s history with the club does not have any sway on the
way in which I select the products I use today. Lots of different products from
different suppliers may well make a pitch look good, but that doesn’t always
mean it will play well. And, of course, they may not always be the most
cost-effective purchases. My job – and the job of all my groundsmen – is to
ensure we satisfy all these demands.”
