Managing one of the busiest multi-sport facilities on the south coast is no small task – especially in a region increasingly defined by prolonged dry spells and intense seasonal wear. At Bournemouth University, grounds manager Alex McCombie relies on proven seed performance and trusted technical support to keep standards high across a hugely demanding site.
Alex has been in the post for four years, overseeing an extensive sports complex that includes eight football pitches, three rugby pitches, cricket squares and outfields, hockey pitches, a 3G surface and extensive surrounding landscapes. While the facilities serve students, around 75 percent of usage comes from the wider community, with Bournemouth Rugby Club, Bournemouth Sports Football Club and Bournemouth Cricket Club all calling the site home.
“We’re a university, but we’re also a massive community campus,” Alex explains. “We’ve got fixtures midweek and weekends, and on some days, we’ll have multiple matches on the same pitch. We’re talking around 5,000 users every week, so wear tolerance and recovery are absolutely critical.”
Situated on an extremely free-draining site, Bournemouth University benefits from excellent winter playability – but summer conditions are increasingly challenging.
“From Easter through to October we hardly had any rain at all,” says Alex. “That’s great in winter, but in summer it puts huge stress on the grass. We need something with genuine drought tolerance that can also stand up to relentless wear.”
That need led Alex to MM Tetra Sport, a specialist overseeding mixture consisting of tetraploid ryegrasses, designed specifically for high-quality sports turf.
“Tetra Sport has been a bit of a no-brainer for us,” he says. “It establishes quickly, it wears well, and it stood up incredibly well during a brutal summer. I was genuinely impressed.”
The mixture delivers fast germination, rapid sward establishment, and excellent winter and summer colour, while offering high disease resistance and strong wear tolerance. The inclusion of new, highly rated cultivars, exclusive to the MM range, has been particularly important at Bournemouth University, where pitches see continuous use.
Alex even took the unusual step of overseeding a rugby pitch in December.