The OxyShot from Charterhouse Turf Machinery has been hailed a saviour for FC United of Manchester, enabling a fixture to be played just 48 hours after the pitch was deemed to be unplayable. The relentless heavy rainfall in February meant that many Grounds Managers, including Graham Byrne, were unable to conduct any decompaction work which left the club with no option but to cancel valuable fixtures. One visit from local contractors Bancroft Amenities Limited and their OxyShot air injection unit saw things swiftly back on track.
“I was aware of one particular area, a goal mouth, that was displaying signs of reduced drainage capacity for some time,” explain Graham, who has overseen the pitch at Broadhurst Park since it opened five years ago. “The ground has been too wet and soft to get anything onto the pitch.”
The OxyShot being small and lightweight was able to be used, with the tractor and compressor, left on the side-lines. “The OxyShot effectively shattered the compaction to improve the drainage down through the profile. There’s no denying that if we had not brought the OxyShot in, the game would have been postponed and that would have been critical income that we as a non-league club just cannot afford to lose.”
Graham says, “Since the OxyShot work was conducted, we’ve noticed the ground in the affected area to be firmer and surface water is no longer gathering. It’s an outstanding machine.”
The OxyShot is ideal for ‘on-the-spot’ treatment of compaction, in a variety of situations from walkways, touchlines and arboricultural operations. It uses a single 25mm probe to inject air into the soil in four directions, at a pressure of up to 110psi and to a maximum depth of 500mm (20″). It can also be fitted with an optional 14mm probe, to reduce the working depth to 250mm.
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