Nick Marsh
Nick has 17 years’ experience as a groundsman, and started his career in 2006 as an apprentice groundsman, working at reeds school in surrey, in total he remained there for 11 years and becoming the deputy head groundsman at a very young age.
Reed’s school offered grass sports surfaces such as rugby , athletics and cricket, cricket was a big facility for the school with 5 squares and also two sets of grass practise nets, the cricket squares where Widley renowned as some of the best wickets in surrey, and was one of the reasons it was home of surrey cricket for all the junior ages and also the ladies 1st team, as well as having the men’s 1st team often using it for training sessions.
Fields
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This level of sport offered Nick an amazing opportunity to learn the art of fine turf at a very young age and at a very top level, nick had a passion and desire to take his career further and the school matched him by providing him with many training courses, whilst working at the school he achieved. level 2 sports turf (Horticulture and amenity) level 3 management sports turf (horticulture and amenity), PA1,PA2,PA4 and PA6 pesticide training course, powered access licence (nifty lift), chainsaw maintenance / felling small trees (NPTC , aerial reduce course.
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Nick was very fortunate to have had Philip Mayers has his lecturer at college for 4 years during is level 2 and level 3 sports turf courses, Philip was highly experienced and qualified in the sports turf industry and was later head hunted to be the main pitch advisor and agronomist for the world cup pitches in Qatar , as well as being in charge of the world cup pitches being constructed and maintained leading up to the world cup, he was Also the head groundsman for “Al Bayt Stadium” which was the opening ceremony stadium and main stadium for the world cup. Having this level of lecturer and training was invaluable for nicks learning and career moving forwards, and nick keeps a regular dialogue with Philip, he’s been very privileged to receive this level of training in his career.
in 2017
Nick decided to hand his notice in on his job at Reeds school as a deputy head groundsman, which was a big move , many thought he was mad, given it was a fantastic package including accommodation, but he was determined and driven and he wanted to take his career further and learn more at different venues and fine turf surfaces, and felt this was the move to push his experience and level of knowledge further In the industry.
2016 - 2022
Nick worked self employed working at various sports venues , some he had been helping whilst working as a deputy head groundsman, notably his biggest success was working at East Molesey Cricket club from 2016 to 2022 as the head grounds team, When he began with East Molesey they where a small club and where in the surrey championship 1st division and regularly played ping pong between the top two leagues.
On arrival to his position the ground was in quite a bad way with the outfield predominantly moss and the wickets had virtually no bonce, some 8 years later he was extremely proud to have made the ground into one of the best in the league with consistent wickets and scores, the 1st team cemented there place in the surrey championship premier division as one on the best teams, winning back to back league titles in 2020 and 2021 season and the outfield being awarded the best In the league in 2022, as well as the arrival of a second ground for the season of 2022 for the club which he also maintained, it was some achievement given tight budgets and covid and it was a proud moment for nick and his team, Also seeing high profile players playing at Emcc on his wickets over recent years such as the likes of Adam Zampa, kane Williamson, Henry Nichols and Ben Mc Dermot is a great achievement.
Sadly all good things must come to an end and it was clear East Molesey cricket club needed there own full time employed grounds team, nick had designed them and helped oversee the build of their new ground shed and facility, and they now had the finances to buy all their own equipment.
The end of 2022 season saw the end of 8 years successful partnership and nick left with his head held high after 8 years of great success and huge growth both with the ground and the club.