Magazine - Articles by Tom James

Frenford Sports Club 'cock-a-hoop' with Spurs involvement
5 Jan 2012 - Football - Tom James - Issue 40 - Dec / Jan 2012
Paul Jones and his groundcare team are giving grassroots sport in East London a much-needed helping hand, whilst Tottenham Hotspur use and maintain the facilities at Frenford Clubs for use by the academy sides.

Vine Lane is the home of RAF Cricket
28 Dec 2011 - Cricket - Tom James - Issue 39 - Oct / Nov 2011 - 4 comments
At seventy-three years young, Doug New came to groundsmanship late in life, following a career in Fleet Street. Here, he tells Tom James about the mistakes he has made along the way, and the support he has received from local professional groundsmen

Funding Grassroots Sports
9 Oct 2011 - General Sports - Tom James - Issue 38 - Aug / Sept 2011
In a Q&A session, Alex Welsh, Chief Executive of the London Playing Fields Foundation discusses the Olympic legacy and suggests that professional sportsmen and women have a duty to support grassroots facilities

A Capital Investment
7 Oct 2011 - General Sports - Tom James - Issue 38 - Aug / Sept 2011
As grass-roots sport struggles to thrive in the face of austerity, Tom James visits a centre that has developed a model for success in its community

Sowing the seeds of love!!
7 Sep 2011 - Cricket - Tom James - Issue 38 - Aug / Sept 2011
Valentine’s Day encounter ends in love for Andy Mackay but, this time, it’s for coated grass seed .

The curse of the Giant Hogweed
30 Aug 2011 - Consultancy - Tom James - Issue 37 - Jun / Jul 2011 - 3 comments
... and other invasive species. A four-year project to treat and manage large tracts of invasive weeds in Ayrshire will realise an early adoption of the Coalition’s Big Society vision.

Eastern promise ...
8 Aug 2011 - Football - Tom James - Issue 37 - Jun / Jul 2011
The East End of London has undergone a swift and radical urban upheaval since news broke that the 2012 Olympic games would be held in that part of the capital. Tom James meets Colin James, a man just a stone’s throw from the developments, both on and off the pitch!

A Devil's Own Job!
23 Jul 2011 - Football - Tom James - Issue 37 - Jun / Jul 2011
The other Red Devils, Crawley Town, are newly promoted to the Football League and planning to rise far further. In this exclusive interview, Tom James caught up with their new head groundsman just after his appointment

Death by a thousand cuts?
19 Jul 2011 - Bowls - Tom James - Issue 37 - Jun / Jul 2011 - 1 comment
Is the sport of bowls in terminal decline? The picture’s a mixed one, as Tom James discovered on a recent investigation in the North-West, where he finds contrasting fortunes for the region’s clubs, and an MP fighting the cause

The Person-al Approach ...
30 Jun 2011 - Schools - Tom James - Issue 36 - Apr / May 2011
With forty years service, Graham Person, Head Groundsman at Summer Fields School in Oxford, still has a twinkle in his eyes

Fair wind or foul for bowls?
12 Jun 2011 - Bowls - Tom James - Issue 36 - Apr / May 2011
Bowling clubs are on a knife-edge of survival, with tales of closures and mergers all too frequent over the last decade. So, is the sport tailor-made for the Coalition’s ‘Big Society’ vision?

Diamond Geezer!
25 Apr 2011 - Schools - Tom James - Issue 35 - Feb / Mar 2011
An internship at the Ohio State University has proved a platform for transforming the career of a groundsman now in charge of an American school’s sports provision over here.

Ali has earned her stripes
5 Apr 2011 - Schools - Tom James - Issue 35 - Feb / Mar 2011 - 3 comments
Tom James meets Ali Polawski, Head Groundswoman at Roedean School, one of the most sought after independent girls schools in the UK

Great Danes ... and Pepsi!
21 Feb 2011 - Schools - Tom James - Issue 34 - Dec / Jan 2011
Danes Hill School are adding twelve acres of new sports facilities to their site, a project that Head Groundsman, Tony Steadman, says shows the ongoing commitment to sports provision and the work of his team.

The Ladies Men ...
4 Jan 2011 - Golf - Tom James - Issue 33 - Oct / Nov 2010
On the eve of the AIB Ladies Irish Open at Killeen Castle, Tom James met the agronomist who is steering the Ladies European Tour on preparing venues for women’s golf

End of the season - turn, turn, turn
28 Dec 2010 - Cricket - Tom James - Issue 33 - Oct / Nov 2010
In the first of a series of exclusive reports from Old Trafford cricket ground, Frank Fielding discusses the scale of the undertaking to turn the main square by 90 degrees under, what is, a wholesale revamp for the historic setting

Hammers going west?
19 Dec 2010 - Football - Tom James - Issue 33 - Oct / Nov 2010
West Ham United, have their eyes firmly set on making the Olympic Stadium their new home once the 2012 games are over. It is a move that will see them return to their spiritual home. With a new training ground also being built, these are exciting times for Head Groundsman, Dougie Robertson

The King of Queen's
27 Sep 2010 - Tennis - Tom James - Issue 32 - Aug / Sept 2010 - 1 comment
Barely a month after the Aegon tennis championships, Centre Court at The Queen’s Club is back to its resplendent best. Tom James meets Head Groundsman, Graham Kimpson

Ups on the Downs
5 Aug 2010 - Racing - Tom James - Issue 31 - Jun / Jul 2010
“There’s a place for figures and science in the industry, but you can’t always go by the book, sometimes you have to deal with matters as they come up”. So says Nigel Whybrow, Head Groundsman at Epsom Downs Racecourse

Earning his Spurs ...
2 Aug 2010 - Football - Tom James - Issue 31 - Jun / Jul 2010
Tottenham Hotspur Grounds Manager, Darren Baldwin, is playing a pivotal role in the club’s new stadium and training facilities. These are exciting times for the North London club as Tom James finds out