Tony and his team ready to pitch in

WITH another cold snap not out of the question, Athletic head groundsman Tony Owen and his team of helpers can’t afford to take their eye off the ball for a moment.

Tony and his team burned the midnight oil - literally - in their efforts to ensure games were played during the recent icy snap.

Owen put in one 28-hour stint for what was to prove a failed bid to get the home Coca-Cola League One fixture against Hartlepool played.

He stayed throughout the night to make hourly checks on the pitch as there were oil heaters under some of the covers to try to thaw out the frozen surface.

“I started at eight o’clock on the Friday morning and left at midday on Saturday so it was quite a stint,” explained Owen.

In the end a weekend thaw enabled the match to be quickly rescheduled for the Monday night, little over 48 hours after it ought to have been played.

Owen, who has been head groundsman since November 2005, admits it is a challenge at Boundary Park having previously had stints at Crystal Palace and Arsenal as well as at the All-England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon.

He has lost three matches - two football and one rugby - during the current winter. Two were caused through snow, the other by ice.

He says the protective pitch covers can withstand temperatures of minus two or three, but they struggle to keep out frost following prolonged cold spells.

Snow isn’t necessarily bad, he explained, as it acts as insulation for the pitch, though that can also cause problems with extra manpower needed to clear the surface.

Owen is assisted by full-time employees Warren Caine and Chris Bailey and volunteers Daniel Doherty, Liam Aspin and Sam Doyle while there are occasions when they send out appeals for volunteers for things such as snow-clearing duties.

In addition to the first-team pitch, the groundstaff also tend to the training pitches at “Little Wembley” and Chapel Road.

Owen says he and chief executive Alan Hardy use former television presenter John Kettley’s Weathercall service to monitor the forecasts.

He admits that his wife becomes irritated by his “obsession” with watching television weather forecasts, but he added it is an important part of his job and he has to be ever vigilant.

“If you look at the temperature for Manchester it is several degrees colder in Oldham, even though we are not many miles away. You don’t realise that we are that much higher,” he continued.

He added that the colder climate means that the growing season for grass is shorter than at clubs in the more balmy south of England, while there is also heavier rainfall this side of the Pennines which can cause problems.

It is a completely different ball game at some Premier League clubs as they even have undersoil heating on their training pitches as well as special lights to put on their pitch to mimic warmer weather and induce grass growth in the winter.

Mr Hardy praised the efforts of Owen and his team, saying: “All the best-pitch awards usually go to clubs in the south because they have a better climate.

“I rate Tony as the best groundsman in the Football League when you look at the challenges he faces as, apart from the weather, football and rugby both play on his pitch.