Sherriff Amenity Launch Marathon TCR Fertiliser

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Sherriff Amenity has announced the launch of Marathon Turf Core Renovator, which is the latest addition to the popular range of Marathon fertilisers.

For a number of years, turf managers have reaped the benefits of Sherriff Amenity’s range of Marathon fertilisers – The Marathon Sport range of extended release fertilisers provide long-lasting, balanced growth on golf greens fairways, tees, surrounds, sports fields and ornamental lawns maintained at a height of 10mm and above. In addition to this the Marathon Golf range offers excellent longevity for fine turf areas, including golf and bowls greens.

It delivers a denser sward with deeper, healthier rooting but without the need of drastically increasing labour inputs.

The Marathon Sport & Golf range is characterised by a balance of nutrients, the analyses of each product being geared to a specific growth stage or season. With five existing products in the Marathon Sport range – Autumn, Pre-Seed, Spring, Summer and Lawn Mini Pack and three products in the Marathon Golf range – Spring, Summer, and Autumn – there truly is a solution for every requirement, no matter what the time of year.

Marathon TCR is the latest addition to the range and will be of particular interest to those who want to aid the recovery of turf after periods of stress and renovation work. It contains a mixture of nitrogen sources to provide both immediate and prolonged growth for recovery so that playing surfaces can be quickly returned to use.

This is an extremely versatile product that can be used on all areas of the golf course as well as sports turf pitches and ornamental lawns that need re-vitalising.

Key Benefits of Marathon TCR

  • Rapid recovery from essential maintenance
  • Helps deal with the stress and abrasion caused by re-filling core holes
  • Fast green-up of damaged turf
  • Ammonium nitrogen content allows use in cooler conditions
  • Simple and cost-effective

Sherriff Amenity has established a reputation as the industry leading supplier of professional products and specialist advice. The company’s commitment to research and development enables them to continuously provide innovative new products, ideas and solutions to their customers, year on year.

For further information, please contact Sherriff Amenity on 01638 721 888 or visit www.sherriffamenity.com

Successful Use of 3G in Non-League Stadia

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The success of Sutton Utd in reaching the fifth round of this year’s FA Cup has once again brought attention to the use of 3G in Football Stadia. Since Sutton Utd installed a FieldTurf Vertex pitch in 2015 they have achieved great success both on and off the pitch.

On top of their unprecedented FA Cup run, Sutton Utd have also achieved promotion to the National League and seen the Gander Green Lane pitch used as the venue for the England C U21 International Trophy match. Paul Fairclough, the England Manager, commented after the match, “Having played Slovakia U21’s and trained at Sutton United’s new 3rd generation pitch, it was the best surface I have seen, and this includes all those pitches I have ever come across in Europe as well”.

The financial benefits of installing a 3G pitch are well known but what has been most refreshing has been the positive reaction from media, players and managers to the way the pitch has played. The unique design of the Vertex surface improves both the aesthetics and playability of the pitch and coupled with the shockpad underneath ensures optimum levels of player comfort and safety.

Following the success of the Sutton pitch, the Vertex system has also been installed in the Stadia of Maidstone Utd, Slough Town FC, Harrogate Town FC, Tamworth Utd, Eastbourne Borough FC and Haringey Borough FC. The feedback from all these facilities is equally as positive and more and more clubs are now looking at installing a 3G pitch at their ground.

It is critical that clubs who are thinking of installing an artificial pitch are fully informed in all aspects of synthetic turf. With this in mind, FieldTurf is supporting construction partner S&C Slatter in running an education workshop with industry experts covering everything from testing requirements, maintenance, business models, funding options and pitch technology.

Winter Weather Disease Warning

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With this year’s wet and warm winter weather creating the perfect conditions for turf diseases such as fusarium, snow mould and anthracnose to thrive, maintaining healthy rhizosphere conditions is the first step in preventing infections from detracting from turf performance and appearance.

That is the advice from Richard Brown of Germinal who recommends that an early season application of a rhizobacteria enhanced fertiliser will not only provide plants with vital nutrients, but will also promote healthy root development and protect against soil borne seedling diseases.

“Apart from the occasional, brief period of colder weather, many parts of the UK have experienced unseasonably wet and warm weather throughout much of the winter,” says Richard Brown, Amenity Sales Manager for Germinal. “Whether this is simply a short-term weather pattern or a sign of things to come only time will tell, but turf professionals need to be wary of the dangers that these conditions can have on turf quality and performance.”

Mr Brown therefore emphasises the need for turf professionals to give extra consideration to soil health and to pay particular attention to the vitality of the rhizosphere.

“Plant growth and health is influenced by many abiotic and biotic factors, with the rhizosphere – the thin layer of soil immediately surrounding plant roots – especially important for root activity and metabolism,” Mr Brown explains. “This zone is populated by an abundance of microorganisms including beneficial pathogens – rhizobacteria – and harmful pathogens including nematodes and the soil borne fungi which cause diseases such as fusarium, snow mould and anthracnose.”

Of the beneficial bacteria found in the rhizosphere, the Bacillus genus is the most abundant.

“The plant growth promoting activity of some members of the Bacillus genus has been known for many years,” Mr Brown adds, “with Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens the most commonly used commercially available soil enhancing bacteria.

“All Bacillus strains provide some protection from harmful pathogens by colonating and growing on roots, but only specific strains cover the entire root surface from top to tip to create a truly impenetrable barrier.”

Two strains of rhizobacteria which provide protection across the entire root surface are B.subtilis E4-CDX and B.amyloliquefaciens R6-CDX. “Both of these strains provide full root protection and prevent soil borne diseases from infecting grass plants and detracting from the appearance and vigour of sports pitches and fine turf areas. When applied in a timely, proactive manner they can even mitigate the need for expensive fungicide programmes by preventing the diseases from taking hold.”

B.subtilis E4-CDX and B.amyloliquefaciens R6-CDX are found exclusively within Compo’s Fertilis compound and Vitanica liquid fertiliser ranges.

“When combined with liquid and granular fertilisers, B.subtilis and B.amyloliquefaciens provide a readily-available source of nutrients in combination with a proven disease inhibition effect,” Mr Brown continues. “By applying products such as Fertilis Swing, Fertilis Speed and Vitanica RZ to well-aerated soils with a base temperature of 10oC or higher, these specialist fertilisers provide grass swards with three distinct benefits: improved wear-tolerance and visual appearance along with improved disease resistance for up to 42 days.”

No Excuses Now!

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Scotland’s new Performance Centre gives the country’s sporting elite (and aspiring elite) the chance to maximise their potential
There may not be any conclusive evidence so far when it comes to the round ball game, but it would not be too much of a stretch to attribute some of the improvement in Scotland’s oval ball performances to the wonderful new Oriam National Performance Centre, based on the Heriot-Watt University campus in Edinburgh, and opened late last summer.

There had long been a frustration among Scottish sports’ supporters that the nation which had produced the likes of Jim Baxter, Denis Law, Kenny Dalglish, Gordon Brown, Andy Irvine and Gavin Hastings was punching well below its weight when it came its national teams. Lack of high quality facilities were identified as one of the hurdles preventing genuine progress and, with envious eyes cast south of the border to the magnificent FA St George’s Park, plans were drawn up which matched the needs, within proportionate revenue restrictions, for Scottish sport.

While the £120 million St George’s Park was very much a FA complex, with opportunities for other sports, including rugby, to utilise the facilities, the new Scottish Performance Centre was always destined to be much more universal, with a number of sports having equal status, while it was also to give members of the public the opportunity to share the same facilities as that the country’s sporting heroes.

With a budget of £33 million made up largely from the Scottish Government, with valuable contributions from sportscotland, Heriot-Watt University and City of Edinburgh City Council there was a sufficient pot of money available to ensure that a facility worthy of the sport’s mad Scottish nation would be built.
Once contracts and contractor had been agreed construction work got under way in March 2015 and was finally opened in August of last year.

And what has been achieved silences those many armchair critics – Scotland has more than its fair share – who were deriding the concept as a “White Elephant” even minutes after the ink on the blueprints had had time to dry.

With the country’s dodgy weather often used to explain why silky skills are not as easily achieved in Scotland as they are in sunny Rio de Janeiro or on the hard running pitches of Australia and South Africa the key facility is the massive indoor pitch – the biggest in all of Europe.

The 116 metre by 76 metre dimensions are the same as those at Hampden Park while the 28 metre high roof, 15 metres at its lowest, can accommodate a Stuart Hogg up and under without risking a visit from the glaziers.

Either side of the pitch there is the strength and conditioning, medical and rehab centres and hydrotherapy pool on one side and the public and student facilities on the other.

Outside there is a full sized artificial pitch and seven grass football and rugby pitches.

The team did visit St George’s Park, in Burton, Staffordshire, as well as other English Premier League clubs, to see what has been achieved but there is great pride taken from the fact that there are elements within Oriam which are superior to other facilties. Not least the indoor pitch which, in addition to being large, has been built in such a fashion that natural light is in abundance.

The new pitch came from GreenFields, who already had history with Heriot-Watt having installed two pitches on the campus, and installed by Allsports Contruction and Maintenance.

“We were delighted that Oriam selected our GreenFields woven premium product for all three of their sports pitches. GreenFields MX TriMension is a high quality 3G woven product offering exceptional playing performance and has been selected and endorsed by many top clubs around the world including Arsenal, Celtic, Charlton, PSV and Vitesse,” said Paul Milton, Commercial Director for GreenFields.

“Our triple W-weave technology results in an extremely high tuft bind making the fibres stand much straighter resulting in a highly resilient pitch. We find many more organisations are opting for our woven technology as they find the play it enables is much more natural and the pitch looks aesthetically pleasing throughout the year with long lasting upright fibres,” explained Paul.

“GreenFields offers a full design and installation service in both England and Wales, however, in Scotland we work with our strategic partner, Allsportscm, widely known as accomplished pitch constructors, who have worked on a number of high profile projects with us.”

The various pitches were installed over a period of time, to fit around other work which was being carried out at the time.

“The pitches were installed at different times, the small indoor pitch took three weeks, the outdoor pitch took eight weeks, as that was extended, while the indoor main pitch took four weeks after the area was handed over by the main contractor,” explained Gordon Thompson, Allsports Managing Director.

“We were delighted to be associated with this project to add to our reputation of delivering high end football installations for professional teams in Scotland. Other projects we’ve worked on include Celtic’s Training Ground, Alloa and Falkirk football clubs, as well as Petershill for Glasgow Life and Kelty Hearts all of which were GreenFields MX fields.

“MX has been a well-received product and a number of clubs and facilities have shown interest in installing the product going forward. It has a reputation of being a top surface to play on and with Allsportscm relationship with GreenFields we will continue to deliver high end facilities for sport.”
The customer, Oriam, was more than satisfied with the playing surfaces produced by GreenFields and Allsportscm.

“We are absolutely delighted with the quality of the surface delivered by GreenFields. The feedback we have had from performance groups, such as Scottish Rugby and the Scottish FA, echoes our sentiments,” Ross Campbell, Director at Oriam.

“The feedback on the synthetic pitches has been excellent since opening. Feedback from all levels of play from recreational to performance has been that it is the best synthetic pitches that they have played on in the country.

We have a full range of users from the Senior National Rugby team to our local Currie FC youth groups. The range of customers has been a real benefit to the centre.

The additions of the indoor slick system and green crumb have been an excellent addition to the facility.

“We have been very pleased to work with Allsports through the installation and on-going maintenance of the facility. The service has been very professional.”
The sight of Scotland’s rugby stars training at Oriam became extremely familiar during the Six Nations and the opportunity to rehearse moves and perfect handling in perfect conditions cannot do anything but be beneficial in the long run.

It must be hoped by the Tartan Army that similar opportunities are grasped with both hands by the football team too!

Simon Richard Ltd Appointed by Woods Equipment

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Simon Richard Ltd has been appointed as UK Agents for the Woods Rotary Cutter range. Simon Richard said, “Woods are regarded as leaders in top-quality attachments and replacement parts for the agricultural and grounds maintenance markets. The rotary mower range is based on the Batwing, Single and Multi-Spindle, Bank and RC Series models and with almost sixty products available there is a solution for every requirement.

The range runs from the 42” Economy Spindle cutter for 15hp-30hp tractors to the 21ft Multi-Spindle cutter for 70hp -300hp tractors. All mowers come with an exceptional 6 year warranty on Gearboxes.