Spurs and Man City miss out on top groundsman award
6th December, 2011 by Colin Victor
The groundsmen who look after White Hart Lane, Tottenham Hotspur’s football ground, and the Etihad Stadium, the venue that Manchester City play at, have been beaten to the Institute of Groundsmanship’s (IOG) ‘Groundsman’s Groundsman of the Year’ award by a man who looks after the sports surfaces at Glamorgan University.
Darren Baldwin, groundsman at Tottenham Hotspur FC and Lee Jackson, Manchester City FC’s groundsman, missed out on the award won by Glamorgan University’s Les Gibbs, who looks after 22 acres of sports surfaces for students. Other defeated finalists included Jonathan Calderwood from Aston Villa, Dan Duffy of Swansea City, Phil Williams of Cardiff City, Ed Mowe from Leicester City, David Hodgson of Kirkstall Educational Cricket Club and Nick James from Heaton Mersey Cricket Club.
There was some good news for Manchester City however, as the club won the ‘Professional Football Training Ground Team of the Year’ award, as every pitch at Manchester City FC’s Carrington training site has this year undergone major renovations, and the club won the ‘Professional Sports Grounds Management Team of the Year’ award.
Elsewhere, Ashton on Mersey Cricket Club in Cheshire was honoured due to the installation of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, which have eliminated the club’s electricity bill.
The IOG Industry Awards, hosted by talkSPORT’s Mark Saggers, took place last night at Bolton Wanderer’s Reebok Stadium, with almost 350 of the UK’s and Europe’s leading groundscare experts in attendance. No golf club was successful, although many of the night’s individual winners are expected to work at golf clubs at some stage in their careers.