Turfed
out!
By Matt Pitman
Friday 21st January 2005
WEYMOUTH Football Club has terminated the contract of its
groundsman - after he was spotted working for rivals Yeovil
Town.
Shocked Terras boss Steve Johnson spotted self-employed pitch
expert Mark Reynolds while visiting the Somerset club, which
is managed by his brother Gary.
He then discovered that Reynolds had spent two months working
for the Huish Park team without telling Weymouth.
He said: "It's one of the strangest things I've come
across in football.
"I sat with my brother Gary when I went up to watch Yeovil
recently, and I saw someone repairing divots on the pitch
who looked familiar.
"As he came nearer I noticed it was Mark Reynolds, our
groundsman at Weymouth.
"I asked Gary what he was doing having our groundsman
at his club, and he said Actually, he's ours'.
"I then bumped into Mark a few minutes later, and said
'What are you doing here?'.
"He couldn't really deny it and he came clean and said
he had been working for Yeovil for a couple of
months.
"I'm not sure how he thought he could get away with it
knowing I visit Yeovil's ground quite a lot to see my brother
and it was obvious he would be found out sooner rather than
later."
Mr Johnson added: "For a while, I nearly fell out with
my brother - all over a groundsman.
But we're laughing about it now."
Yeovil manager Gary said: "Steve told me this bloke repairing
the pitch was Weymouth's groundsman and I thought 'What are
you on about? He's ours', because he's been working here for
a few weeks now.
"The situation was really bizarre." Mr Reynolds,
who is continuing to work at Yeovil, was referred to as 'Bruce'
by a number of staff at Huish Park, according to Terras bosses.
Weymouth chairman Martyn Harrison said the club had now terminated
Reynolds' contract.
Full-time ground duties at the Wessex Stadium will be carried
out by Pete Lee until May.
"Mark worked for us on a self- employed basis and we've
now terminated his contract because of him being spotted at
Yeovil," Harrison said.
"We thought something was strange when he asked for time
off over Christmas, which is traditionally a busy time in
football and we needed him to work here."
Reynolds said he started working for Yeovil because he felt
'mistreated' by the Terras following last summer's pop concert
at the Wessex Stadium.
"As far as I'm concerned, I've done nothing wrong,"
he said.
"The club told me I could carry out work for other people
as long as it did not deflect from my duties with Weymouth.
"I was fully dedicated to the Weymouth job, sometimes
working up to 20 hours a day.
I didn't tell them about the Yeovil work because I didn't
feel I had to.
"I gave Weymouth the best pitch they have had in years,
as many people have told me, but they did not give the support
I needed.
"I'm currently working up at Yeovil to help them out,
but I'm not sure what my long-term plans are."
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