Groundsman Abroad- Tom Nutting of Desert Springs in this blog l ask tom how he came to work in Spain, how easy was it to gain a visa and the pros and cons to being a Groundsman abroad.
Tom, please tell us a bit about who you are, how you got there and where you work!
I´m Tom Nutting, I´m 36 and I´ve worked in the sports turf industry all of my career. I´m currently Head Cricket Groundsman at Desert Springs resort in Spain and manage both the cricket and football facilities. I´ve been here in Spain for up to 2 years now after the opportunity arose and the timing seemed right for myself and my family to take it.
How easy or tricky is it to gain a visa to now work in Spain and how long does it last?
Not easy! This has been made quite difficult post Brexit and a process that is still ongoing for me. There are Visas available which are slightly easier to obtain that run for 12 months at a time but still require a lot of paper work and various trips to various government offices. I´m currently in the process of obtaining a residency permit which can be pretty open ended, but we’re hoping for a result soon. Spain still does offer a Gold Visa programme for certain industry professionals, surprisingly however, the cricket groundsman is still to be recognised as a highly qualified position!
What is your favourite bit of kit and what’s on your wish list?
Sourcing cricket specific machinery is not easy here and for some tasks we have to lean on machines from the golf course. I recently purchased a used Allett R34 from a dealership which is a great mower with multiple uses. It’s getting a lot of use currently cutting the new cool season pitches and also is fantastic for the clean up after a play. There are always lots on my wish list, but a couple of things I’m hoping to add to shed next year is a Sisis Rotorake and a new pedestrian sprayer.
How do you source the basics like topdressing and fertiliser and machinery there, must be a challenge?
Yes and no…. So as I just said, obtaining cricket specific machinery and equipment here is not easy as it either has to be imported from the UK at an inflated cost, or there are dealerships here that deal in brands like Dennis and Sisis but again, they are at a higher price point. Customs can also be a headache, last year I purchased some new flat sheet covers which came from the UK and the paperwork involved to get them to clear customs was a nightmare and ended up taking around 3 months for them to finally arrive.
In terms of the consumable items, this is more straightforward. There are various manufacturers and suppliers of fertilisers etc. I use a range from well known ICL products to products you wouldn´t be able to get in the UK.
All the cricket pitch surfaces here were constructed from and subsequently maintained with our own soil. Importing vast quantities of a UK loam was never going to be practical so we basically made our own. This is done by grading harvested soil from site and combining it with a set percentage of locally sourced clay. The result is a product not too dissimilar to some UK cricket loams and we get great results from it.
What’s the most challenging part of the role there and the most rewarding?
No matter where you are in the world, cricket pitch preparation and maintenance will never be without its challenges. There will probably be a misconception that it would be easy here given the sunny weather but there are plenty of obstacles.
The desert climate here is extreme, we are located in one of the hottest, driest parts of Europe. It rarely rains but if it does it’s usually very heavy and all at once, temperatures can be up to 40 degrees in the summer and almost down to freezing at night in the winter. We often have very high desert winds and the humidity is very high as we´re only about 4km from the sea. We also therefore have high salinity levels and the condition of the irrigation water can be very poor at times.
It´s a challenging environment in itself and one that obviously differs from the UK, but in the same way, finding solutions and overcoming challenges to produce high quality cricket surfaces is what is always most rewarding.
In England we get a six-month gap between seasons, how long do you get there and is that a challenge, being a much shorter recovery period for squares?
Yes, we don’t have ´seasons´ here like in the UK and we host cricket pretty much throughout the whole year. We have sections of the year that are very busy such as the UK´s ´pre season´(Jan-May) and ´post season´(Sep,Oct). These along with the seasons of weather dictate when we renovate the pitches but the climate here does allow us to turn things around and recovery surfaces quicker.
I believe you use ryegrass as we do, but also use bermudagrass. What are the reasons for this and how is it going?
Due to the extremes of the climate here and the need to produce cricket pitches year-round, we use a variety of different grass species. Throughout the summer months, the temperatures are simply too high for ryegrass, in my time here we have subsequently established a warm season, hybrid bermudagrass species on all of the cricket squares. It´s been a big learning curve for me and involved a lot of trial and error at times. Whilst this plant does thrive in the hot, sunny weather, it does not behave anything like ryegrass and takes a lot of management to produce cricket pitches with it. This will be very similar to the grass used on cricket grounds in the sub-continent and currently be used for the Ashes in Australia.
Also similar to the sub-continent, when Bermuda begins to enter dormancy, we then transition´ all the surfaces in the Autumn by seeding with a variety of cool season ryegrasses. This sees us through the winter into the Spring and then when the temperatures begin to really rise again around June, we help everything transition back to the bermudagrasses.
Doing this enables us to produce cricket pitches in August and also in January, and apart from the times needed to renovate etc. this along with the unique climate here means we can host cricket throughout the year.
What does renovations look like there at Desert Springs?
The principle of the renovation works are exactly the same and the same process as you would carry out in the UK. The differences being that we carry out at least two major renovations on all the pitches during a year in conjunction with the warm and cool season grasses. These are carried out in June and November at the same times as renovation works on the outfield, practice areas and football pitch. It can be quite a hectic, busy time to get everything completed and get the new grass growing in time for the next bookings.
How does pitch preparation differ from say in the UK?
Again, the process is the same but the climate and time of year etc. can alter things a little. When we’re in February and March for example on ryegrass pitches, the preparation method will be pretty much the same as you do in the UK in the Summer.
The main obvious difference comes with the weather. Irrigation systems mean there isn’t a problem inputting moisture into surfaces but then maintaining the level of moisture for preparation of the pitches is often the challenge. Even outside the summer months, higher temperatures and winds massively increase the transpiration rate in the grass. We water a lot more as you can imagine and use mats and sheets to help maintain that moisture at the level we need.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given and if you had one piece of advice to pass onto someone what would it be?
Like many groundsmen I’ve been given many pieces of advice over the years, the majority of which being unsolicited! But one piece of advice I would pass on is not be afraid to take a risk. Whether that’s simply trying something new on your pitches, a new qualification or taking new career opportunities. I think it´s easier to get comfortable in this industry and I´d always encourage people to keep looking to progress.
Tom Nutting
