Source: FOOTYMAD
Ledwidge On Getting The Norwich Game On
City's Groundsman on getting the game on On a day when the Coventry Telegraph was running articles telling people only to travel if their journey was vital and emergency services were asking for 4x4 drivers to help get nurses to rural parts of Warwickshire, the decision for Coventry City's game against Norwich City was given the go-ahead.This decision, made for monetary reasons if you were to believe certain rumours doing the rounds, which did not go down well with some City supporters who were snow-bound in other parts of the country, meant for City's groundsman Jon Ledwidge a lot of work and a long day.Speaking to the CT, local lad John explained saying: "We had approximately 20 volunteers until 10.30pm on Friday shovelling the snow off the pitch. "Once they left, I and the rest of the team decided to paint the lines just in case there was a problem with doing that on match day."We finished around 1am and I went to bed, but I got up at 3.30am to check the heating was still on and the monitoring system was at the right temperature. "At 7.30am we started shovelling the snow again off the pitch and the pitch was looking quite good. We brushed the snow off twice and then the snow came again about two hours before kick-off."The referee did a pitch inspection about 10.30am and he said all the efforts we had made were fantastic and there was no problem with the pitch."When it started snowing again just before kick-off it meant we kept on working on the pitch until the teams started doing their warm-ups."Even when we had a cup of tea we held that in our hands while we were shovelling!"
