Ipswich Town Prize On Offer

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Ipswich Town Prize On Offer: Entrants to this year’s Suffolk FA Groundsman of the Year competition — sponsored by Ransomes Jacobsen — are being given the opportunity to win a unique prize.

All entrants will go into a draw for the chance to spend a match-day at Portman Road with the Ipswich Town groundstaff.

Ipswich Town Prize On Offer

This money-can’t-buy prize comes courtesy of Ipswich Town head groundsman Ben Connell, who will once again head up the judging panel for the Groundsman of the Year competition.

He said: “We are delighted to offer a local groundsman this unique opportunity to join the groundstaff and be part of the match-day experience at Portman Road.

“The winner will spend time and assist the groundstaff before, during and after the game, finishing off their day by visiting the board room.”

Ipswich-based Ransomes Jacobsen will be sponsoring the competition, which is open to clubs in Suffolk who play at Step 7 and below, for a second season.

The winning groundsman will again receive £200 to be spent on groundscare equipment, with the runner-up and third placed groundsman receiving £100 and £50 respectively.

Entry details are on the Suffolk FA website (www.suffolkfa.com).

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Nathan Hume Wins Sprayer Award

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Nathan Hume Wins Sprayer Award: Nathan Hume, Contracts Manager and Ecologist for national grounds maintenance experts, SH Goss Ltd, has won the prestigious Amenity Sprayer Operator of the Year Award (ASOY). 

ASOY rewards top sprayer operators across the amenity industry, with the aim to share their best practices to enhance standards for all.

Nathan Hume Wins Sprayer Award

Presented for the first time at BTME Harrogate this week (23 January 2018), the ASOY Awards are organised by the Amenity Forum, and sponsored by ICL and Syngenta, in association with BASIS.

As well as the overall top operator, Nathan Hume was the winner of the Landscape & Industrial using hand held equipment category.

Also recognised by the Awards were Chris Phillips of Complete Weed Control South Wales, as the top operator for Sports turf using boom sprayer or hand held equipment, along with the company’s Lee Harrison, winner of the Landscape & Industrial using vehicle mounted equipment category.

Nathan primarily specialises in the prevention of invasive non-native plants. He operates in a wide variety of sites including airports, railways, cemeteries, rivers, forests, nature reserves, construction sites and golf courses.

“It was an honour to receive the Award,” he said. “Myself and the company have always followed best practice so it’s a nice justification that we are doing things right,” he said.

Commenting on Nathan’s success, from a record entry in the third annual ASOY Awards, Professor John Moverley, Chairman of the Amenity Forum, said: ‘‘The Awards seek to recognise the quality and level of professionalism in our sector. They highlight how professional amenity maintenance Keeps Britain Moving.

“All of the Category winners have demonstrated an extremely high level of professionalism; picking an overall winner was extremely difficult,” he reported. “They have all demonstrated the exceptional skills of operators across the amenity sector – doing their jobs to an extremely high standard every day.

“Secondly they have exemplified the whole concept of the safe use of pesticides, being applied correctly and in a sustainable manner.”

ICL Landscape and Industrial Manager, Mark Pyrah, added: “Accurate application, ably demonstrated by the skills of all the ASOY entrants, is a key element of effective stewardship of products and helping to ensure they will remain available,” he said.

“It is all about sprayer awareness – maintaining good application to maintain the product so that the individual is promoting best practice.”

Daniel Lightfoot, Syngenta Turf UK Business Manager, believed that the Awards should be a shining light of the amenity industry’s approach to safe and sustainable spray application.

“The independent judging panel highlighted Nathan has shown outstanding skills and worked to very high standards to achieve the best possible results. He has proved a worthy winner by showing that best practice can deliver efficient, cost effective and, above all, safe amenity spraying.

“Syngenta recognises that the skills of the sprayer operator are paramount in achieving the full potential from all applications and assuring the future sustainable use,” he added.

For more information, visit: www.amenityforum.co.uk

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Success For Deeside Golf Club

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Success For Deeside Golf Club: The greenkeeping team at Deeside Golf Club in Aberdeenshire is celebrating after winning a BIGGA award at BTME 2018. 

Led by Course Manager Neil McLoughlin (41), the greenkeeping team were announced as the winner of the BIGGA Greenkeeping Achievement of the Year Award sponsored by Baroness, at a ceremony held this evening in the Harrogate Convention Centre’s Royal Hall.

Success For Deeside Golf Club

When Storm Frank hit Aberdeenshire the day before New Year’s Eve in 2015, it caused the River Dee to reach record levels, three times covering the course in a thick layer of silt and debris.

In the aftermath, the team was able to get 10 holes reopened after just 77 days and the clean-up saw over six tonnes of grass seed laid down, 10,000m2 of turf laid and all 98 bunkers rebuilt, using 3,000 tonnes of sand for topdressing and bunkers.

During 2017 the hard work continued, with the silt layer impeding drainage. Over 400m of drainage was installed and a programme of scarification and topdressing helped break down the silt layer further.

The Deeside team was presented with the award by television presenter and #ThisGirlGolfs ambassador Naga Munchetty at the BIGGA Welcome Celebration sponsored by Textron Golf. The awards ceremony is one of the highlights of BTME 2018, the premier turf management exhibition in Europe.

Neil said: “It’s a real honour to win this award. Storm Frank came in and devastated the whole Dee Valley and the golf course ended up in a hell of a state.

“We do flood quite a lot, but generally we call them clean floods

BIGGA Chief Executive Jim Croxton said: “Of the golf clubs who were hit hard by the devastation that Storm Frank wrought in December 2015, it was perhaps Deeside who were hit hardest of all.

“For greenkeepers who dedicate their lives to maintaining a relatively small patch of land, the damage must have been heartbreaking. It is therefore to Neil and his team’s immense credit that they were able to pick themselves up and restore the course to its former glory.

“I cannot praise the greenkeeping team highly enough for the work they have done to get Deeside back on its feet. They are truly an inspiration to greenkeepers all over the country and they are worthy recipients of this year’s BIGGA Greenkeeping Achievement of the Year Award sponsored by Baroness.”

The other finalists for the BIGGA Greenkeeping Achievement of the Year Award sponsored by Baroness were Andrew Brougham, head greenkeeper of Astbury Golf Club, and Stuart Imeson, course manager at Dunstanburgh Castle Golf Club.

BTME 2018 runs until Thursday 25 January and features more than 150 exhibitors from all aspects of the turf management industry. Each year more than 4,500 greenkeepers, trade members, club managers and other representatives of the golfing industry come together to network and share news of the latest education and innovation.

Visit http://btme.org.uk/ for more information.

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