Watford Football Club has been awarded the Grounds Team of the Year Award for 2017/18 in the Premier League.

The club’s head groundsman, Scott Tingley, and his team won the award for the pitch at Vicarage Road after assessment from the Premier League’s Playing Surfaces Committee and the independent assessor Dr Stephen Baker from the Sports Turf Research Institute.

The award is based on a number of factors including marks from referees and match delegates, usage of the pitch and the environmental conditions, an end-of-season pitch quality assessment and the resources and resource management at each club.

“The award is testament to the pitch’s current condition, the result of much hard work and dedication from the club’s grounds team,” said club chairman Scott Duxbury.

“As with everything here at Watford FC, we are now looking to the future and the challenge of maintaining award-winning standards – both at the stadium and at the ever-developing training ground.”

Watford has also announced it will join in the fight against single-use plastic in football. Scott Duxbury, added: “As a club we are committed to looking at where we can make changes to our operations to reduce plastic usage.

“We are working with our partners and suppliers to form a sustainable plan to minimise and, where possible, eradicate any reliance on single-use plastic. This is a global issue and it is important that we lead by example to encourage our community and fans to also take action.”

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