Aston Villa stays sharp with super Atom

Jonathan Calderwood, grounds manager of Aston Villa Football Club, needed a fast solution to keeping the pitch edges sharp when the new stadium surface was built two years ago.

"After the new pitch was laid the edges became flush with the rubber track surround," said Jonathan, a former Groundsman of the Year, who was at the old Wembley Stadium and Wolverhampton Wanderers before joining Aston Villa five years ago.

"Using traditional edging tools up to the concrete divide would take us an hour. Then we discovered the Atom Professional Edger from DJ Turfcare - and the job now takes just five minutes."

He was so impressed that he has bought two more for the Aston Villa training ground at Bodymoor Heath.

The new training ground has three full size pitches, three goal kicking areas and a warm-up pitch.

Alongside this are five full-size pitches in the old training ground, which is to become the Football Academy.

"The main training pitch is based on the same Desso Grassmaster system as the stadium and the team can train on the same surface," says Jonathan. "There are also two fibresand pitches which are used for training just before a game."

Edging the pitches has been made a lot easier since Jonathan and his team, including deputy Paul Mytton, have been using the Atom Professional Edgers.

"It used to be a real chore, but the edgers make it a pleasure and we get really clean lines," says Jonathan.

DJ Turfcare managing director David Jenkins says: "We are delighted that Aston Villa have had such success with the Atom Professional. We have had similar reports from groundsmen and contractors all over the UK."

DJ Turfcare on 01483 200976 sales@djturfcare.co.uk

Image: Aston Villa's Paul Mytton, deputy head groundsman, with the Atom Professional Edger at the training ground.