The synthetic pitch at Falkirk Football Club's stadium is in use for 10 hours a day, seven days a week which means Joe Wallace is kept extremely busy. Fortunately he has a range of SISIS products to lighten his load.

Wallace had to buy a new range of products when the synthetic pitch was installed two seasons ago and having been impressed with Dennis Mowers when home games were played on grass, looking at SISIS products was an obvious choice.

"I knew that SISIS products were built by the same company and I’ve used other pieces of SISIS equipment in the past on golf courses," Wallace, who started his career as a greenkeeper, said.

"The machines I used were always reliable and they are manufactured here in the UK which I think is important - parts are incredibly easy to come by," he said.

The pitch at the Falkirk Stadium is used by the local community and is a popular venue for local concerts when the first team are not using it.

Tom Jones, Elton John and Rod Stewart are among the names to have played in the last two years with Wallace and his assistants Bob Lochhead and Cameron Clydesdale responsible for making sure the pitch is thoroughly cleaned after each event.

For this they use the SISIS SSS1000, a tractor-mounted sweeper which can be pulled by any machine. No tools are needed to adjust the brush or angle of the draw bar, which lifts to an upright position for ease of storage.

With an aluminium hopper with stainless steel mesh, any infill that is collected when using the machine returns to the surface leaving it free from contamination of debris.

"We get a lot of debris on the pitch after concerts and because we have so many children playing on the pitch we find a lot of bottle tops and other things like that which contaminate the pitch.

"We use the SSS1000 twice a week to keep the surface nice and clean and it stops the actual crumb from getting contaminated," Wallace explained.

He also uses the SISIS Twinplay tractor-mounted implement frame which can be fitted with a number of implements for synthetic turf maintenance.

His implements of choice are the SISIS straight brush and the SISIS Zig Zag brush to even out the rubber crumb before attaching the SISIS Flexicomb, which maintains infill levels at a constant depth to give a consistent playing characteristic, which Wallace says is perfect for Falkirk.

"The length of the pitch here is only a 50mm pile whereas most other artificial pitches are 65mm long.

"Because of this we don’t use wire tines. Instead we use the Flexicomb because it’s a little bit more aggressive than the brush but it’s not as aggressive as a wire tine.

"It loosens up the surface and reactivates the pitch without being too aggressive on it – which is perfect for our situation."

And Wallace has found another use for the Flexicomb as well, ensuring it is a tool for all seasons.

"On two occasions this winter we’ve had maybe two or three inches of snow and we put the Flexicomb over it to brush it all off.

"We couldn’t use a plough because it would have taken the crumb off but the Flexicomb pushed the snow off and left the crumb on the pitch. So it doubles up as a snow plough which is great!

"Overall I would certainly recommend SISIS products. I think the simplicity and the strength of the products are two of the best features."

© Cricket World 2015