The complete Newlands Rugby Grounds story - watch the grass grow!

'DIE BURGER' 18 June 1999
Gauteng grass is rolled out at Newlands

CAPE TOWN - Altogether 2000 m² of grass on the Newlands Rugby field which was mechanically lifted 2 days ago, is being replaced by Kikuyu grass which has been "imported" from Johannesburg.

..."for the past while, the extremely tough Rugby Matches and a heat wave which often pushed the temperature above 30°C has badly affected the growth of the grass"...

...Mr Quinton Kruth from Robertson was at Newlands yesterday. He is a distributor of an American product called YIELD-PLUS. The product helps plants while experiencing stress when high temperatures or other environmental factors influence the growth negatively...

'DIE BURGER' 29 June 1999
Now the big canon is at Newlands

Quinton Kruth and Hendrik le Roux from the company YIELD-PLUS are seen here with the latest weapon being used to get the mixture of imported New-Zealand grass and Kikuyu at Norwich Park Newlands ready for the Currie Cup match on 11 July between Western Province and the Mpumulanga Pumas.

The canon operates on gas and sounds every morning and late afternoon to prevent doves and other birds from eating the approximately 600kg of germinating grass seed. Driaan Vlok, grape and peach farmer from the farm Remhoogte in Riebeek-Kasteel has lent the canon to YIELD-PLUS...

'DIE BURGER' 7 July 1999
Baby napkins, fertilizer and a canon save Newlands

CAPE TOWN - Newlands' mixture of Gauteng Kikuyu and New Zealand grass has changed remarkably in just a few weeks - thanks to a remedy of fertilizer with a chicken base, an American anti-stress product (YIELD-PLUS), a canon which chases doves and even baby napkins.

In the midst of doubts in the ranks of Western Province Rugby (Pty) Ltd over the possibility of Australia and the Springboks playing at Norwich Park Newlands on the 14^th August the grass surface has shown a remarkable improvement, especially over the past week...
...this deadline was established when 200m rolls of Kikuyu grass from Gauteng were used to replace 2000m² of damaged grass. 600kg of grass seed, fertilizer and an American product (YIELD-PLUS) which aids plants in stress situations were then applied to the newly planted grass. During the last few days, a porous material from which baby napkins are made, was used as a covering over certain areas to get the grass ready for action.

When 'Die Burger' photographed the canon used to chase birds away last week and Tuesday, there was little improvement visible except for a greenish appearance to the Kikuyu. Yesterday, however, the grass was surprisingly green...!