Sand-slitting Main Pitch
Maintenance work goes ahead on the 1st XV pitch beside the clubhouse - report, video and pictures by Dave Rhodes
The 1st XV pitch has been re-sand slitted and some of the depressions that were forming have been filled in. The process of pitch maintenance has changed somewhat over the years and this process is a mixture of science and turf engineering.
The sand slits are dug to a depth of 30cm by a rotary blade on the back of a satellite guided tractor.
Click here to see this video of the machines in action
The cockpit of the tractor is not all what most of us think of as a tractor , with a screen tied into the EE phone network , that enables the slits to be positioned to within 1cm of their planned line, the tractor making continuous course changes along the line without human intervention.
On the first pass the slits are 2m apart , 5 cm wide and 30 cm deep.
They are then filled in to within 5cm of the surface with gravel.
And then topped off with sand and seed.
As you can see, once the area around the slits are tidied up there is little damage to the pitch. These slits will take 6-10 weeks to heal up depending on the weather and we will be back in business.
At the same time we have taken the opportunity to fill in a couple of depressions that were appearing around the pitch – this one was the centre circle area.
