Mark Ferguson has a job that makes him the envy of tennis fans the world over — spending every day of the Wimbledon fortnight up close to the action as the world’s finest players are put through their paces.
But Mark isn’t necessarily concentrating on the players… in fact, his job is pretty much watching the grass grow.
Mark is the General Manager of Research at the Sports Turf Research Institute, based at Bingley, West Yorkshire, and responsible for helping not just Wimbledon but sports grounds across the country be the very best they can be.
All through the Wimbledon tournament, a four-strong team from the Institute, which is nestled between a golf course and acres of woodland on a country estate, are from early morning ensuring that the grass on Centre Court and the surrounding courts is performing as well as the players.
Mark says: “We’re watching as many matches as we can live and on TV and concentrating on how the courts are performing. As soon as the rain covers come off in the morning we start taking measurements on the court, right up to the point where they’re putting the nets up and wheeling out the umpire’s chairs and putting out the players’ towels.”
What Mark and his team are looking for are indications whether the surface is hardening, which can affect ball bounce and speed, the grass coverage on the plains area, how the balls are rebounding off the turf.
This data is then all collated and passed on to the Wimbledon ground staff, headed up by Neil Stubley, to see what level of watering and mowing the grass will need before the next day’s play.
In short, they’re making sure that the grass that has been carefully developed at the STRI’s labs in West Yorkshire is enabling the best possible tennis.
The STRI has around 10 hectares of land, divided up into rectangles of turf being constantly sprayed, mowed, prodded and tested by scientists. The company employs around 100 people, mostly at Bingley but also out in Brisbane, Australia, Alabama in the US, and Qatar.
The company was set up in 1929 when the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews wondered if there was a way to make the game a smoother, more satisfying experience by giving nature a helping hand with the greens.
Now, the STRI’s scientists are constantly working on new blends of grass seed to improve the fields for football, rugby, cricket and equestrian events, as well as golf and cricket.
For the grass geeks among you, the current Wimbledon blend is a bespoke, tweaked version of a ryegrass seed called MM50, which includes three cultivars codenamed Malibu, Melbourne and Venice.
Mark says: “We are always looking at and testing new grasses at Wimbledon, generally on the outside courts, but we seem to have hit on a good variety with this one, developed exclusively for the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
“It’s very clean in that it doesn’t have much weed seed in it. There are some very good perennial ryegrasses which we’ve been looking at in the labs which are as good as this, but this is very good, there is good supply of it, and everyone’s happy with it.
“Part of the game is that players expect changes on a grass court over the course of a tournament like this. Bear in mind that Centre Court will get about 85 hours of play over this fortnight, while the average Premier League football ground will get 40 or 50 hours over an entire season.
“But we do strive with the grass we develop to have consistency with how the ball reacts with the surface, and there aren’t artificially high or low bounces due to the grass quality.
“The players all seem quite happy this year, though, which means I’m happy.”
