Hi My name is Mohammed Robson I'm the groundsman here at Spencer Community Trust in Northampton
I've been with the club I think it's about six years now
originally just as part of the committee. I was the chairman for about a year of the club and
then eventually got into the groundsman's role because there was no one else to do it really and
then it's just taken off from there. So the club's based in Northampton it's a little bit tucked away
sometimes people struggle to find where we are but we've got mostly youth football down here at
the minute I think it starts under tens going all the way up to under 14s it's five or six teams and
then in the years to come I think we're trying to add adult football and girls football. We used to
have a Toro ride on mower here but unfortunately the club got flooded quite badly and the machine
was going to cost far too much for us to repair and luckily we already
had a brilliant relationship with Steve at The Mower Shop in East Haddon and he heard
and said he'd like to help us so he took our Toro away for us and and did a part exchange
for this RM34 which was one of the ones that was used in the Rugby World Cup
at Twickenham and Coventry I think on the training pitches and then I still had my eye on trying to
get a C34 which happened about six months later thanks to my constant badgering of our chairman
and him giving in. Yeah so challenges we sort of face at this club and the location.
We are quite close to a river here sometimes we are susceptible to flooding
which does have an impact on the on the playing surface waiting for it to drain and then
leaving debris and affecting the grass in that way and there's a nature trust
that runs right around the club so wildlife sometimes also plays a a part in my daily
duties of filling in rabbit holes and trying to get rid of them and repairing the fencing.
So I love the C34 I'd had my eye on on one for for quite some time even when I had the older
Toro machine. I love the versatility that it comes with the cassettes that Allett provide obviously
you get a fantastic cut with a cylinder I have a brush cassette as well to tidy up the pitches
which I use every so often and the verticut cassette as well which is great for picking
out old grass and roots and stuff and cleaning the pitch up ready for seeding and that kind of thing.
It's great to use I love how in comparison to a big ride on mower I feel more in tune with the
grass and cutting you can feel divots and all sorts of things as you're going along mowing
it's a lot easier to get around the pitch with and I'm a lot fitter because I'm walking now
I'm not sitting on a ride on mower. So I love the RM34 as well it's great for doing some of
the work that the C34 can't do you know it's great for picking up debris or cleaning up after matches
or recently we've had tournaments down here so it's been great for tidying the pictures up.
The rotary cut is great at cutting some of the stalkier grass that can sometimes
come up so it helps to clean the pitches up and provide a better presentation that way.
It stripes really well and yeah it's a pleasure to use. So my advice to anyone wondering what a
groundsman does or if you want to get involved if you're already a parent at a club or you've seen
people like me cutting grass on YouTube or social media is I'd say just just ask. Groundsman like
me at grassroots level are crying out for help we would never ever turn it away come down and have
a go. There's more that goes into just cutting the pitch than people realize and using machines
like this you know there's all the different cassettes there's loads of science that goes
into growing grass and keeping it looking nice for for teams to be able to come down and play.