Jim continues the work on the pitches
After Andy Thompson left for pastures new, the club have been searching for a replacement who can carry on the good work at the sporting complex that is Keepmoat Stadium plus the Cantley Park Training Ground. These two locations are vital for the success of Doncaster Rovers with the head groundsman and his team having to keep both in tip top condition whatever the weather throws at them.
After extensive interviewing, Rovers settled on experienced groundsman Jim Davison, who formally was at Rotherham United. Rovers matchday magazine RTID caught up with Jim as he was ready to travel up to Cantley Park.
How did it feel when you got the job?
It’s an absolute honour and is a position I have always strived for in my career as a groundsman. It’s good that I have been given this chance after following such a good groundsman as Andy Thompson and I have to make sure that the standards that Andy kept are continued to be achieved.
This complex has a lot of different challenges?
Yes, we have 3 sorts of pitches here with a Desso pitch as the main one but also fibre sand pitches and a soil based pitch. We also have all the surrounding areas to maintain including astro turf and walkways. All have differing challenges and problems to overcome to keep work going on at the stadium. We also have great pitches at Cantley Park to cover under the instruction of manager Paul Dickov, who will advise us what we need to do for his training sessions.
This has been a different type of weather system than past years. How has this affected your work?
As many people know this has been probably the wettest year since records have been kept, which bring an all new set of problems to get round. In previous years it’s been a battle with frost and snow to keep games on and the training complex open but this winter we have only had two really bad cold days with the rest being wet. I feel so sorry for all the people who have lost their homes in floods as we are just having too much water. We have invested in some machinery including a pedestrian spiker which has helped drain the main pitch of standing water to allow first team football to go ahead. We will continue the battle as the forecast is for more water over the next few weeks.