While you sit back and enjoy the final games of the Six Nations, take a minute to look at the pitch. Do they all look the same?
Each is unique, the pitches in Murrayfield, Twickenham, Cardiff, Dublin, Paris and Rome may look similar, but the work required to create them is varied and talented green keepers are needed to maintain them.
The pitches get a huge amount of wear and tear and the conditions on one pitch are completely different to another, meaning the type of turf, type of mower, type of lawn seed, type of soil and watering requirements are all individual and there is an real art to keeping them useable.
This art also extends to schools’ sports pitches. To ensure children can get the best from sporting activity the playing fields require a lot of expertise, from measuring pitches and line marking, to mowing at specific times or regenerating long jump pitches or shot put fields.
Chequers supports all types of green space up-keep and its grounds and landscaping director Naomi Childe even dabbles in refereeing under 10’s football matches.
And she often has a handful of topsoil and seed in the back of her car in order to repair pitches if she sees that they need it!
