The new year has started, 2020 is here and so has Operation Transformation, not for us but for the five pitches we have in ClareCastle. ClareCastle's GAA facilities are made ready for the new season with some great effort. Teagasc has analysed the soil and an agronomist has advised on how to improve the soil and the grass for the pitches so we have good training ground and playgrounds for the fixtures ahead.

Some cool facts,

1. The grass in ClareCastle GAA club is cut on average every 10 days during spring, summer and autumn. There are 4 acres of grass per pitch and we have 3 full-size pitches and 2 juvenile pitches.. the grass cutting takes about 5 to 6 hours to cut every 10 days. So over the cutting season April to October, we cut approx  300 acres of grass. That is more than some silage contractors will do.
2. Each year the full-size pitches in Clarecastle have approx 240 Tons of sand spread out on them. This is to facilitate the ongoing drainage which helps keep our fields in playable condition. We also spike and drain the fields using specialised machinery which we have to get an outside contractor to complete for the Club..
3. This year we will also be undertaking an overseeding of both fields. This involves using special machinery to plant new high-grade grass seed across both fields. This has not been performed in over 15 years at the Club.
4. The cost of these works will be around fifteen thousand euro but is an essential cost if we are to have consistent high-grade fields to play on that ClareCastle is known for.

This is one of the examples why it's important that we have volunteers to assist with maintenance and coordinated events to raise money for the Club, without your support the club cannot thrive to facilitate the talent we have coming up from the junior players ( U6 and older) and the senior players.
Please consider giving a helping hand where ever possible, when we are not asking its nice to be offered a helping hand.