We traveled to Denmark on Sunday to a town called Randers, near Aarhus. The pitch to be renovated belonged to Randers FC, a Danish Superliga team who will be competing in next year's Europa League.

Immediately after arriving at the pitch we saw that it was full of Poa annua, which grew well in the summer but checked out in November and December.

The Sporting Director for Randers FC, Peter Christiansen saw they had a problem and, along with the city council of Randers, decided to take action and let us come in and improve their pitch with a Koro renovation.

Before we could do that, a couple areas had to be removed with an excavator due to petroleum contamination. A couple years ago, overexcited fans threw oil onto the pitch and lit it on fire. It had never really fully recovered from that, so it was dug out and new soil was brought in.

Excavating and removing contaminated soil.

We completed the renovation in two days, using the Field Top Maker, Imants Rotosweep, Speedresser, and Recycle Dresser. There has been rain in the area for the past few days, so seeding will start once it is a bit drier.

Had to drive a short distance down the road to fill up first.

The renovation in progress.

All ready for seed once the weather clears and the soil dries up a bit.

There was also a demonstration day at the stadium and various council members and groundskeepers from around Denmark came. A good crowd of about 60 showed up to see the machines in action. We even made the news here in Randers as many people were wondering what we were doing to their pitch. Many of them were impressed with what they saw and let us know that.

Demonstration of the Koro Field Top Maker

...and some classroom time.

Creating a quality pitch requires the willingness of people in power, like Peter from Randers FC, to take action, and knowledgeable groundsman to maintain the pitch after the renovation. The often-accepted way of "As long as it's green, we're good..." needs to become a thing of the past.

All loaded and ready for the drive back to England.