The heat is on but Matt aiming to be pitch perfect

NOTTS County’s head groundsman Matt Hallam has given an insight into what it’s like working on a pitch while dealing with record-breaking temperatures.

The UK has seen unprecedented heat over recent days, with the Meadow Lane pitch still in need of preparation with a friendly against Nottingham Forest scheduled for next Tuesday as well as the National League season opener against Maidenhead United on Saturday, August 6.

“It’s a tough job sometimes,” Hallam told the club’s official media. “We’re facing all conditions – we’re never happy really.

“It’s either too hot, too much rain, not enough rain. We’re never really happy, groundsmen.

“We’re five weeks in now at Meadow Lane and then we’ve done three pitches at Home Road so, heatwise, it’s been really tough the last couple of weeks. We’ve just had to change the way we work a little bit so we’re coming in at half past five now instead of half past seven.

“We try and cut the grass before the extreme heat comes through and then obviously spraying. It’s just a little bit more difficult because we don’t want to be putting products on anything over 22 degrees.

“I’ll come in about 9 o’clock, 8 o’clock at night so basically the product can get through on to the plant and then can rest during the night so it gives it time to get into the plant.

“We try to keep the water going through the night. Three cycles instead of three in the day so we’re trying to keep the plant nice and dry during the day otherwise it’s like a magnifying glass. It would just burn.”

With financial support from Lifeline, Hallam and his team have been able to improve the standards of the Meadow Lane turf over the summer. The groundsman said: “The pitch will be a lot stronger this year.

“We’ve also introduced sand slits. We’ve found over the last couple of years sometimes during heavy rain that the pitch hasn’t coped as well as it should have so that’s going to help us with the water getting to the drains quicker.

“We’ve also updated the irrigation system during the middle so the fans should see a massive difference this year with the sprinklers actually getting to the outside of the pitch.

“The lads want it constantly wet and slick and the middle was getting wet but the outside and the wings weren’t, so by upgrading that we’re actually now getting water on the wings so, hopefully, the whole pitch should be wet.”

With the Forest friendly under a week away, final preparations for the first use of the pitch are underway.

“We will mow it,” Hallam added. “We’re double cutting it now from Wednesday onwards so during the heatwave we’ll just cut it once.

“But then from Wednesday we’ll double cut and put a few more products on. Just basically give it a nice look and feel and then, hopefully, nothing will go wrong and, hopefully, next Tuesday we’ll be fine.

“We’ve got the main bit so we’ve just got the halfway line to do now and the centre circle so then we’ll start burning the lines in so the stripes look pleasing on the eye.

“I’ve got to mention Jay and Sean as well. Obviously I don’t do this on my own – it’s always a team effort. They’ve been absolutely fantastic – a really, really good effort from them both.”