Limagrain Praised At Peterborough

Limagrain Praised At Peterborough: Rob Bradshaw, currently operating as head groundsman at his beloved Peterborough United FC’s Mick George Training Academy, has spoken of his satisfaction at both the product and the service he receives from Limagrain UK.

Rob has admitted that he is currently ‘living the dream’. As a lifelong Posh fan, not only is he working for the club that he loves but he is also doing a job that he loves. After starting his career working for Huntingdon District Council he accepted the head groundsman position at One Leisure sports centre in St Ives and during his time here he picked up two Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) national awards.

Limagrain Praised At Peterborough

In between his current full-time role at the Mick George Training Academy, Rob is a pitch advisor for the Huntingdonshire FA and also runs a Sport England funded grounds association in the areas of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. So passionate about providing the best surfaces he can, he even admits to sleeping in his car after tending to the pitches through the night.

“Yes, I’ve had nights out in the car park but you have to do it sometimes,” he said. “I take pride in my work and I want what is best – for the players and for the club.”

Rob has been at Peterborough United FC for two years now and after a season of settling in he soon decided it was time to make his mark.

“It got to February time when I really wanted to start planning, make some improvements and finalise where we were going to go with our end of season renovations. Firstly, I needed to choose a good grass seed because I only want to use the best products here. I did my homework on various products and gave a number of companies the opportunity to come in.

“The Limagrain MM60 seed seemed to be the number one choice in my opinion. I know that a lot of other professional clubs use it and I have used various Limagrain products in the past – it has always been a proven package.”

Limagrain’s MM60 grass seed is renowned for producing an excellent playing surface on a number of winter sports pitches. It is a 100% Ryegrass formula which is perfect for renovation and divot repair, has a high disease resistance, fantastic aesthetic qualities and offers extremely fast germination – which is boosted by the inclusion of Headstart GOLD®.

Developed using the latest scientific findings and field experience, Headstart GOLD® is a natural revolutionary grass seed treatment that ensures rapid germination and is perfect for enhancing performance on grass seed coatings for sports fields, golf courses, lawns and amenity turf.

“We had good germination within 10-12 days and we had excellent coverage,” said Rob. “It’s important that I have a seed like MM60 which recovers quickly from damage and wear because of the amount of usage we have here. Last year, as well as training, we had 260 games on the two pitches so to have that dense, hard wearing sward which the MM60 provides is ideal.

Limagrain Praised At Peterborough

“I’d also like to add that, aside from the success of the products, I have been really impressed by the service, the back-up and the advice I receive from Limagrain UK. When I was deciding on what seed to use Richard Sheppard (amenity seed specialist for Limagrain UK) came in and was very helpful. In my experience you don’t always get that level of professional back-up and I just can’t fault the company in any kind of way.”

For further information, please contact Limagrain UK on 01472 371471 or visit the company’s website www.lgseeds.co.uk/mm.

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Wilson Top Of The Turf League

Wilson Top Of The Turf League: Eric Wilson from Whitby Town has been named as the best groundsmen in the Northern Premier League, along with Non-League’s national runner-up at the Football Association’s 2018 Groundsmen of the Year Awards.

Pictured last season after being highly commended by the judges of the annual contest to honour Non-League’s top turf stars for his work at the Turnbull Ground, Wilson easily outstripped that this time around to collect the EVO-STIK League’s top honour and take second spot nationally at Steps 3 to 4 of the National League System behind Tonbridge Angels.

Wilson Top Of The Turf League

Like the groundsmen and women at the number one clubs in the Isthmian League, Southern League and National League, Wilson and the Seasiders are also looking forward to banking cheques for £12,500 to spend on ground maintenance from Budweiser, the new sponsor of the annual accolades.

The EVO-STIK League Premier Division club and Wilson are no strangers to honours after being named in June alongside Trafford and Loughborough Dynamo at the NPL’s end of season awards as one of the inaugural winners of the GreenFields Pitch of the Year accolades.

Matlock Town’s Richard Lomas left the FA’s St George’s Park on Thursday with plenty to shout about too, second place behind Wilson, both in the NPL and nationally. Elfyn Jones at Colwyn Bay will have an extra spring in his step around Llanelian Road as he prepares for the new season after taking third spot in the EVO-STIK League and being highly commended nationally.

Regular finalists Mick Grimmer at Stocksbridge Park Steels and Witton Albion’s Peter Robinson, along with last season’s NPL number one, Belper Town’s Phil Varney, all left the event with high commendations from the the FA’s judging panel of expert professional groundsman from the English Football League and Premier League.

The league’s representatives were honoured after a series of on-site assessments at nominated grounds last season that not only looked at the quality of the pitches but also took into consideration the skills and knowledge of the finalists, their ambitions for the pitch, the resources available, pitch use and the amount of time they were able to work on their surfaces during one of the worst winters and toughest seasons in years.

More than a 100 groundsmen from all levels of the game were rewarded for their work at this season’s ceremony in front of their peers. EVO-STIK League representative Paul Hatt, along with Brent Clayton from the NPL’s sponsors at the Frank Whittle Partnership, were also at the prestigious state-of-the-art venue near Burton to congratulate the 2018 winners.

Guests at the 17th running of the annual awards also got the chance to quiz a panel of professional groundsmen at a Q&A session and enjoy a presentation from Mark Pover, the FA’s head of facilities and investment, before lunch and the awards ceremony.

* Official pitch partners GreenFields agreed a new three year deal with the EVO-STIK League in June after honouring their inaugural Pitch of the Year winners at Blackpool’s Hilton Hotel. Appointed last summer as the NPL’s official pitch partners for the historic 2017-18 50th anniversary campaign, the sports turf specialists are looking forward to working with clubs until at least the end of the 2020-21 season.

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