£18,000 Raised For Movember

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£18,000 Raised For Movember: One of Kubota’s dealers, Lister Wilder, and its 60 strong ‘Mow-team’ has raised a remarkable £18,318 for the The Movember Foundation, making the company the 5th largest fundraiser across the UK to support the charity.

Formed of company directors, workshop engineers, sales team members and parts advisers, Lister Wilder employees donned great, and some not so great, moustaches throughout the month of November to help raise the awareness of some of the biggest health issues faced by men.

£18,000 Raised For Movember

Phill Hughes, Groundcare Sales Director at Lister Wilder and the company’s Movember Team Captain, said: “Working in an industry where the majority of our employee’s and customers are male, the charity really hits close to home and a lot of our staff were really enthusiastic about raising much needed funds for such a great campaign. We felt that participating in Movember 2017 would help to raise awareness of the issue within the workplace and remove the stigma that can surround health issues within males.

“In addition to raising a fantastic amount of money for a great charity, the campaign has helped to enhance our team spirit here at Lister Wilder. With so many employees participating and others providing encouragement, this has been a great opportunity for the whole company to come together for a common cause and creates a bonding experience along the way.”

Lister Wilder also offered its support to The Rich Brothers of BBC Garden Rescue, who travelled across six counties in two days to mow huge, precise moustaches into fields to raise funds for the ‘MOWvember movement’. Lister Wilder donated Kubota’s popular G23 ride-on-mower, allowing for exceptional power and efficiency for the busy occasion.

Dave Roberts, Managing Director at Kubota UK, said: “It’s fantastic to see Lister Wilder’s efforts result in such a tremendous outcome for an impactful movement.

“Kubota was delighted to be able to support Lister Wilder and we are thrilled to see how everybody can come together to recognise and fight against a worthy cause.”

The Movember foundation is the leading global organisation committed to focusing solely on men’s health, whilst raising funds to support the fight against prostate and testicular cancer.

If you’d like to donate to Lister Wilder’s Movember ‘MOW-team’, visit its fundraising page: https://uk.movember.com/team/2282728.

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Greenkeeper Retires After 45 Years

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Greenkeeper Retires After 45 Years: Eaton Golf Club recently came to the end of an era, as Mick Lathrope retired from his position as head greenkeeper after an impressive 45 years of service.

Green-keeping colleagues and members from Eaton and other Norfolk clubs attended a presentation ceremony at the club to hear a warm tribute from club manager Peter Johns.

Greenkeeper Retires After 45 Years

He said Lathrope’s career had begun as an apprentice at Maylands Golf Club, in Havering, Essex before moving to Eaton in 1972.

His lengthy spell with the club saw him go on to work with 46 club captains, 46 ladies’ captains, 24 club presidents and 23 lady presidents.

Johns told well-wishers: “Mick has overseen many changes to the golf course.

“He has been an extremely conscientious worker, balancing the needs of the golfer with the natural beauty of our wonderful 106 acres of land – so much so that in 2005 Eaton was awarded the prestigious Golf Environment Award.”

The ceremony was also attended by several members of Mick’s family, including his daughter Jane who said in her own tribute that there would be an enormous gap in the family’s life without their association with Eaton.

However, there would be other things ahead for her father: fishing, playing golf and in particular enjoying long rides into the country on his 1961 BSA Super Rocket motorbike, which will all keep him busy in the years ahead.

His successor at Eaton is Rob Ransome, 41, who lives in Pulham, with his wife and two children. He began as an assistant greenkeeper at Marriott Sprowston Manor and was promoted to head greenkeeper while at Diss.

“As a 16 handicap golfer myself, I appreciate the need to present the course really well and make sure it is always improving,” he said.

“I’m delighted to be at Eaton, a course that I always enjoyed playing.”

Meanwhile, Roger Garwood, the outgoing club captain of Barnham Broom, presented a cheque for £3,000 – the money raised during his year in office – to Paul Daynes, the finance manager of the Norwich and Central Norfolk branch of Mind, the mental health charity. He stipulated the money should be used in Norfolk for young sufferers.

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Toro UTV Fleet Increased

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Toro UTV Fleet Increased: John O’Gaunt Golf Club in Sandy, Bedfordshire, has recently purchased two Toro Workman utility vehicles, which has increased the club’s UTV fleet to seven. These hard-working vehicles have racked up in excess of 16,000 hours of work between them demonstrating outstanding value and longevity.

 

Nigel Broadwith, course manager, runs machines that are up to 18 years old with no problems. “I think we are proving at John O’Gaunt that you can get more out of your Toro machines than perhaps you think you can and that you don’t have to always buy new to get results,” he says.

Toro UTV Fleet Increased

“Our oldest Workman is the 3300D from 1999, that machine has done an impressive 4132 hours of work over 18 years. Of our more recent machines we have a HDX-D from 2015 which has put in an equally impressive 1652 hours in two years.”

Most of the UTVs Nigel purchases are second-hand, with the latest two purchased as they came out of a five-year lease deal, which means they represent great value for the club. In fact, purchasing the machines this way meant Nigel could buy two second-hand Workman utility vehicles for the price of one new one.

“Even new the Workman UTVs present good value, but purchasing our utility vehicles this way is cost-effective and means we can put the rest of the budget into our turfcare machinery, plus fuel consumption is excellent. A Workman is a workhorse and puts in the hours. We use ours for diveting tees, topping up bunkers with sand, turf and tree work and transportation; we even have one whose body we have removed and replaced with a topdresser for that sole use.”

But that’s not all. The club’s Workman vehicles are nothing if not versatile, stepping in when needed with all sorts of jobs as Nigel explains: “The machines comfortably seat two men and in the rare times when we have issues with player’s golf trollies we’ve been more than happy to pick up members and transport them around the course in the Workmans. They are quick, quiet and still look good.

“I think it’s important to consider all the options available when it comes to creating your fleet. Toro proves itself to be capable of lasting and still being up for the job, even when the machines are up to 18 years old. That’s why I think Toro make the best utility vehicles in the industry.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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Groundsman Set For Test Debut

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Groundsman Set For Test Debut: As Adam Lewis embarked on his first day in the job he bought lunch and sat in one of the grandstands at the SCG alone, with the famous venue all to himself.

“I just went ‘wow’,” he admits, saying he found the experience of walking into his new workplace as magical.

Groundsman Set For Test Debut

On Thursday, there will barely be an empty seat with a sold-out crowd of more than 40,000 in attendance for the first day of the fifth and final Ashes Test.

The series between Australia and England may have been clinched, but for Lewis, only the ninth SCG curator in the 160-year history of the ground, it is occasion he has been waiting his entire working life for.

It is less than two months since he took up the role, replacing his long-time predecessor Tom Parker, and the Sydney Test is his maiden first-class pitch at the SCG.

“I think it’s going to be overwhelming, watching that first ball bowled,” Lewis said. “There will be a lot of relief. But I’m excited. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Lewis, installed in the coveted position after years as the lead groundsman at Hurstville Oval, arrived as part of a restructure that also saw a grounds manager, Justin Groves, recruited from Adelaide Oval to oversee operations at the SCG as well as Allianz Stadium next door.

He is humbled by the history of the place and the legacy left by curators and pitches past, as well as players. The eight curators before him include Ned Gregory, who played in the first Test in 1877 and lived in the old SCG curator’s cottage around the time of the birth of his son, Syd, who would go on to play 58 Tests for Australia.

Groves, too, is conscious of the great figures that have walked on the turf before them, and has a personal connection to the greatest of them.

With his grandfather, the former Australian Cricket Board chairman Phil “Pancho” Ridings, he visited Sir Donald Bradman at his Adelaide home when he was a boy, having a bat signed that is now on display inside his office beneath the stand at the SCG that bears the legendary batsman’s name.

“I went to his house and got it done. My grandpa took me there one day. I would have been nine or 10, I reckon,” Groves says. “He gave me some Fritz and sauce and a glass of lemonade so I was pretty happy as a young fella.”

In his 15 years at Adelaide Oval Groves also had “quite a bit” to do with a young groundsman there by the name of Nathan Lyon, witnessing the meteoric rise of the Australian off-spinner first-hand.

“I was one of his bosses when he first came over there,” Groves said.

“He was great, a good young kid coming through. He was playing a bit of A-grade cricket in our competition and was sort of plucked out of obscurity to bowl in the [interstate] T20s. We were quite close in Adelaide and we still text each other and try and catch-up whenever we can when he’s not on tour.”

Lewis prepared wickets for Sheffield Shield and domestic one-day matches at Hurstville, and got to know some of the country’s leading players including Test captain Steve Smith.

The ground also played host to Australian sessions under his watch including a notorious one in 2016 when Mitchell Starc was rushed to hospital with deep cuts in his leg following a freak training accident. The incident was no fault of the Hurstville staff but it was a frightening moment, Lewis recalls.

“Steve Smith and [David] Warner came racing over to me and they were white. I thought ‘this is bad’,” he said.

“We just called the ambulance straight away.”

Lewis and Groves are putting the finishing touches on their first Sydney Test wicket with pitches and curators in the news. The Boxing Day Test strip was widely panned and on Tuesday night was officially labelled as “poor” by the International Cricket Council.

Groves does not believe what transpired in Melbourne puts any additional pressure on them at the SCG and feels for the ground staff at the MCG.

“I feel very compassionate towards them,” he said. “You know the work that goes into a cricket pitch and you put your heart and soul on the line for it.

“To get the feedback that they got is disappointing but obviously as a curator you’ve got to cop that on the chin and work out ways to move forward and make sure you’re producing the best pitch you can every time you go out there.

“We’re just going to produce the pitch that we think is going to have a bit in it for everybody.”

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