At your service

Photo: PICTURES: DARREN ROBINSON

SNOW PROBLEM . . . Boundary Park groundsman Chris Bailey and his staff have been kept on their toes during the winter weather.

1 More Image(s) In Gallery

THE PHONES never stop ringing at Boundary Park.

“Are you doing a pancake race?” enquired one news organisation. This may have been a week with no Tuesday night game, but with preparations for Everton currently non-stop a batter-based battle was not top of the agenda.

Those sorts of weird and wonderful questions are of the kind Athletic’s media department are used to fielding by now.

Publishing manager Gordon Lawton and website manager Tony Bugby even have to deal with fans wanting to purchase match tickets.

“The queues at the ticket office window have a knock-on effect,” Gordon explained. “With the girls so busy, calls to the office end up being diverted up to us.”

Gordon has enough on his plate as it is. As well as having to add in a further 16 pages of editorial

programme content — he asked us to point out that every page is packed full of interest, by the way — he is constantly liaising with ITV, who are broadcasting the FA Cup, fifth-round game live from Boundary Park.

“I feel like I have a personal relationship with one of the girls at ITV, I speak to her so often,” said (the already spoken-for) Gordon. “I might ask to marry her soon.”

Even Al Jazeera have been on lately, querying how exactly you go about spelling Bouzanis, Tarkowski and Wesolowski. They will be taking care of showing the game live in Asia, which goes to show just how far and wide Athletic’s reach has become in the past three weeks.

Millions will be watching around the world - most hoping for another giant-killing act.




Battling nature all in a day’s work for Chris

COVERS on, covers off, snow on, snow off: the life of Athletic’s head groundsman Chris Bailey has been eventful over the last few weeks.

Manning the forks at ‘Ice Station Zebra” is testing at the best of times.

And in the lead-up to the Liverpool game in the fourth round of the FA Cup three weeks ago, it was particularly difficult.

“We had to shovel off two lots of snow,” said Chris (26), who also saw the pitch dome go up twice to help melt the frost.

“It was like a pond in some areas, but we had a machine to put holes in to assist the drainage.

“The pitch held up well in the end.”

Expensive renovation work in the summer helped a lot, said Chris. Without it, Boundary Park’s surface would be a lot less presentable.

The volunteers who have rolled up armed with shovels have also proved invaluable. They may be needed again soon — depending, as ever, on the weather.

“The weather always determines what we do,” added Chris, who last night pegged out the 38 separate sheets that make up the frost covers to guard against the cold.

“Sometimes we check the forecast six or seven times a day. It can change by the hour,” he said.

Such is the life of the man in charge of the pitch at one of football’s most isolated outposts.