Sportsturf Irrigation under Andy Burbridge has been managing Fulham FC's irrigation for over four years.
He has supplied a Rain Bird system for the club's Craven Cottage home and also for the Motspur Park training facilities.
Sportsturf Irrigation's technical knowledge coupled with excellent response times have been key to our long standing working relationship,” says Dave Tatnell, Head Groundsman.
Fulham FC sought advice on how to improve the existing irrigation at Motspur Park as a whole to make it more effective and able to meet the needs of modern football training regimes. “We used our experience to provide seamless integration of irrigation across the whole facility. The proposal was based on Rain Bird technology which we feel leads the way in sports turf applications,” says Andy Burbridge.
The first Rain Bird ESP-LXD controller controls the irrigation for three training pitches constructed from sand and soil or sand and fibre. A second unit controls the more demanding irrigation requirements of two hybrid SIS grass pitches. High durability Eagle 950 pitchside and 8005 on pitch turf top sprinklers were selected for use throughout the facility.
Rain Bird IQ Cloud desk top management system offers many functions including stopping and starting irrigation programs and increasing or decreasing watering schedules in accordance with predicted weather. “We can also be asked to “slick up” just certain parts of the pitch for certain periods of time or even for training sessions with certain players. We do this easily pitchside with our customised mobile Rain Bird app. It is so easy to use and very reliable,” comments Dave Tatnell.
At Craven Cottage a Rain Bird irrigation system was required to provide comprehensive coverage for pitch preparation and to “slick up” the new hybrid pitch in just four minutes at half time on match days. Irrigation is all securely controlled using another Rain Bird EXP-LXD decoder based controller which allows PC, smart phone or manually operation pitchside by the groundstaff.
