Pitch Perfect Award for Scottish Rugby Ground Staff

– Grass is greener with two-year turnaround for national stadium surface -The grounds team at BT Murrayfield Stadium have completed a miraculous two-year turnaround to score a national double at the Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) Industry Awards.The BT Murrayfield men scooped the ‘Grounds Team of the Year’ award while Head Groundsman, Jim Dawson, collected the ‘Groundsman’s Groundsman of the Year’ at the annual event hosted by the UK’s leading membership organisation for the management of sports pitches and landscape in the UK.Dawson joined BT Murrayfield after a 17-year spell at Falkirk FC, where his expertise as Head Groundsman twice earned him the title of Scottish Football Groundsman of the Year as well as being shortlisted for the Professional Football Groundsman of the Year – an award that considers the work of every football groundsman in the UK.The awards are particularly significant for the team who were forced to completely overhauled the main pitch after it was ravaged by a naturally-occurring turf parasite – nematodes – in 2013.The damage to the grass root structure led to the biggest single investment at the national stadium since it was reconstructed in 1994, with a state-of-the art hybrid grass pitch installed last year.The new pitch – which is reinforced by millions of artificial turf fibres – has been a huge success since its installation last autumn, returning the stadium surface to its former glory, while keeping it accessible across all levels of the game in arguably the most challenging rugby climate in the northern hemisphere.Scottish Rugby Chief Executive, Mark Dodson, said: “Our international pitch is famed for its quality so it’s a huge credit to Jim and his team to have it restored to the magnificent state we enjoy today.While the international game is the stadium’s showpiece, and the arena in which it is truly tested and judged, it’s the availability of BT Murrayfield to host more than 40 matches per year across all levels, as well high-profile concerts and events, that makes it unique among the UK’s national sporting stadia.”It’s a testament to the hard work of Jim and his team that this is able to continue and – added to that the huge volume of ancillary work in our stadium grounds and back pitches – makes them worthy winners of these awards.”The awards have acknowledged the expertise and success of both the team, led by Facilities Manager Garry Blackadder, and Dawson, for their work maintaining the international pitch, three practice pitches, a synthetic surface and all other grass within the stadium grounds.Commenting on the high standard of award winners, IOG chief executive Geoff Webb, says: “With a record number of entries, this year’s awards continue to demonstrate the high standards of groundsmanship throughout the UK, at both voluntary and professional level.”Winning an award against such stiff competition is testament to the skill, dedication and passion of the grounds teams and individuals whose vital contribution to the high quality of the playing surfaces goes largely unnoticed.”