Owen Evans and Lee Blagden

As the squad prepare for the trip to Meadow Lane on Wednesday to play the rescheduled fixture against Nottingham Rugby, the ground staff are already working on the pitch in preparation for the London Welsh game.

Various TV news and sports channels have run lead stories on hundreds of fans and volounteers taking part in snow clearing days at clubs up and down the country. Sky Sports news ran a whole news report on fans clearing the pitch at Portsmouth FC and locally groups of fans got together to clear the snow and ice from South Yorkshire pitches.
At Castle Park there was no need for all that fuss and fanfare, as the “Dynamic Duo” of Owen Evans and Lee Blagden once again knuckled down to clear weeks worth and snow and Ice with two shovels and a brush.

“We know the deadline and how to target the work” Owen Evans explained as another trailer load of snow was removed from the Castle Park pitch. “The first team did the best thing they could do for us and train on the pitch, which broke down a lot of the snow “he continued.

Groundsman Lee Blagden told us “We had the opportunity to ask for help, but with the team breaking down the snow training on it we reckoned the two of us could put the hours in and clear the pitch. If it snows again we may ask the fans, but as it stands we’ll get the job done on time”.

The Doncaster Knights squad have carried on regardless with training despite having three consecutive fixtures cancelled. As this article is being written on Friday 15th of January the squad is carrying on regardless despite knowing that evening’s fixture against Bristol Rugby has been cancelled due to the weather. The squad are keeping up match sharpness as the rescheduling of matches means they will head into periods of 3 games in seven days which is a punishing schedule in any sport never mind Rugby Union.

The work ethic and Doncaster Knights go hand in hand whether it be playing staff, office staff or Grounds Staff.