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Work starts to relay Welford Road pitch

The Welford Road pitch has been a hive of activity this week as Leicester Tigers’ grounds staff overhaul the playing surface ahead of the new season.

Working with Lincolnshire-based Premier Turfing and County Turf, head groundsman Ed Mowe and his team have been stripping the surface back to its sand base as part of the annual pitch renovation.

Welford Road uses an Eclipse Turf System with an artificial membrane to hold the natural grass fibres in place, which means that the Tigers turf can stand up to the forces it will contend with over the next 12 months.

Mowe said: “To enable us to get to the stage where we’ve got a good, healthy pitch, we need to get back down to clean sand before starting all over again.

“We’re lucky enough to have Premier Turfing and County Turf here to help us with the renovations, and we will strip all of the top material off before it gets dressed with more sand, seeded and then fertilised.

“We can get grass germination within three days if the climate’s right, but we like to give it 10 weeks to get the surface back ready for the players.”

The Tigers squad will get their first taste of the new surface ahead of the opening fixture of the 2019/20 season, which kicks off in mid-September.

See the full interview with the only man in Leicestershire hoping for rain this summer exclusively on LTTV, below.

Follow the pitch renovation by keeping an eye out across the Tigers website and social media channels for updates, or watch live via our Welford Road webcam by clicking here.