Groundsman, Hertford Town Football Club

Baptism of water for new Hertford Town groundsman
Friday 20 February 2009
By Alasdair Gold

Originally published in the Mercury local paper. Click here for original article

.HERTFORD Town's new groundsman has had to contend with a 3ft deep lake where Hertingfordbury Park used to be, but amazingly the pitch could already be ready for action.

The football ground was flooded after the nearby River Lea burst its banks last week following the torrential rain.

Adam Phipps - who was only appointed as groundsman in the week - found out about the watery pitch invasion when he saw the dramatic image taken by photographer Mike Poultney in the Mercury.

"I rang Mick Clarke (Hertford's chairman) to talk about my planned overhaul of the pitch and asked how it was currently.

"Ever the optimist, he said it had a bit of water on it. I didn't realise the extent of it until I saw the back page of the Mercury," he said.

The 25-year-old groundsman assembled employees of his company Orchard Maintenance to begin work on the pitch and along with club officials and drainage company Garden Barber Services the mass of water was pumped away.

The last flood of Hertingfordbury Park in 2000 left the pitch unusable for almost two months, but Phipps believed that if Hertford had a home game tomorrow, the ground could have been ready to use already.
" There was a reasonable amount of natural recession and a lot of forking needed to be done," said Phipps. "There is a lot of work that has been carried out, but I think it quite possibly could have been ready for this weekend.
" It should be fine by the next home match (on February 28), but more work needs to be put into it."

The young groundsman and his team, used to tending to large scale gardens, are working free of charge - hoping to do something for the community and promote themselves through their baptism of fire on the first football pitch they have tackled.

"My family come from Hertford and I've been wanting to do something for the community for a while," he said.

"We're used to dealing with big stretches of grass and this is not so different. I've got big plans and I want to create a pitch the club can be proud of and the town too.

"There is no financial arrangement in place. This is not about the money. I want to see this pitch turned round more than anybody.

"If we can get it right for the long term then maybe it will lead to other clubs noticing our work, leading to business opportunities down the line."