Plain Sailing Renovations For Sportsfields

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Plain Sailing Renovations For Sportsfields: To sit alongside Sportsfields Ltd’s aims to adopt the industry’s most innovative technology, they have added a Koro FIELDTOPMAKER (Koro FTM)  with Terraplane Rotor to their fleet.

Since 1991 Sportsfields has evolved from their beginnings in agriculture and landscaping to become a leading specialist in sports pitch construction and maintenance. To do this company founder, Geoff Collins, has continually embraced the latest technology to enable his highly trained workforce to deliver the exacting standards required in today’s market.

Plain Sailing Renovations For Sportsfields

To match the needs of the company’s client list of professional and amateur clubs, schools, colleges, local authorities and specifying architects Geoff once again turned to Campey Turf Care Systems and the new Koro FTM.

“We have had Koro’s before and have added the new Koro FTM to the fleet with its Terraplane rotor,” he said. “It’s a fantastic machine and makes an exceptionally clean job of ‘planing’ the surface and it’s particularly requested by groundsmen wanting to remove poa as part of their end of season renovations.

“The new Koro is faster and appears to cope with even more difficult conditions with ease and that is down to the development of the machine.

“Equipment has become more technical and job specific to achieve the tolerances demanded by the local authorities and private architects, groundsman etc from amateur and professional club levels. We work at all levels to all budgets and find the knowledge and demand for high standards is there from the Premier League down to the primary schools questioning why they can’t play on the field because it’s flooded again.”

Using the Terraplane Rotor is the most efficient to subtract poa from the surface with the carbide tipped blades ensuring all organic build-up is removed, leaving a clean and level surface. The advancement in technology that Geoff always strives to meet is clearly evident when it comes to the enhanced Koro FTM.

The new angled cross conveyor has been introduced to move material evenly with perfect belt tracking with front and rear roller blades contributing to the cleanest pass available on the market.

The weight and balance have been analysed resulting in a lighter, steadier machine with the redistribution of weight using a removable 100kgs meaning a much smaller tractor can be used to run the Koro FTM. This is because the centre of gravity has been shifted towards the tractor making it easier to lift. Even when the weight is removed the machine still has improved balance against previous models.

For more information, visit: www.campeyturfcare.com

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Ariens’ New Director of Sales EMEAA

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Ariens’ New Director of Sales EMEAA: Ariens Company  can confirm the appointment of Jackie Williams to the role of Director of Sales EMEAA. She will be coming into the role to succeed John Horn, who will be retiring from the Ariens Company at the end of 2018. Jackie, who will report to Vice President of EMEAA, Darren Spencer, brings a wealth of experience to the company and will assume responsibility for sales and distribution of Ariens products through Ariens subsidiaries located in the U.K. and Norway, and Ariens fifty plus distribution partners worldwide. 

Jackie joins Ariens having built a successful career over twenty-five years in international sales and distribution management.

Ariens' New Director of Sales EMEAA

“We’re very pleased to have Jackie become part of the Ariens Company team,” says Darren Spencer, “she brings vast experience of multi-channel product sales and distribution across all continents, at an exciting time in the development of Ariens’ EMEAA expansion.”

Reporting in turn to Jackie will be Ariens European Sales Manager, Massimo Caner, Matt Wilson, UK Sales Manager and Scandinavia General Manager Frank Brenn. Jackie’s previous role was International Sales Director of Derwent, a division of ACCO UK Ltd, achieving year on year growth in sales and profitability. She holds post-graduate diplomas in Marketing, Export Marketing and Business Studies & Finance, and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Ariens Company is a family owned business that has built a reputation for engineering excellence, manufacturing Ariens products in the US since 1933. The fundamental principle driving the design of every Ariens product remains the same today: building hard-working, reliable tools that are passed on from generation to generation.

Ariens Company Limited manufactures the Countax and Westwood garden tractors. The business also distributes ECHO outdoor power tools and the Ariens lawn, garden and snow products through a network of UK dealers.

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Top Marks For Dennis Combo

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Top Marks For Dennis Combo: Ian Smith, turf consultant for St Albans School, Woollam Trust Playing Fields, uses a combination of the Dennis G860 cassette system and Razor fine turf mower to maintain the cricket pitches, and has seen excellent results from the machines.

The Woollham Trust Playing Fields are the largest development of their kind ever undertaken in a single phase in Europe. The school’s outstanding facilities include a huge pavilion, 22 winter pitches for rugby and football, an all-weather hockey pitch and 8 cricket squares. Not only is the magnificent 73 acre site shared with the Old Albanians Club but it is also the training base for Saracens Rugby Club.

Top Marks For Dennis Combo

“Standards are exceptionally high here at the school and we take our pitch preparations incredibly seriously,” said Ian. “You can imagine the situation if someone like Owen Farrell (England and Saracens rugby union player) was to turn an ankle on an uneven pitch. Of course it is great to have fabulous presentation but player safety is paramount here.”

The school boasts its own exceptional sporting teams and the cricket department, headed by former Essex CCC cricketer Mark Ilot, has always carried an excellent reputation, which is undoubtedly enhanced by the quality of the pitches.

In preparing the cricket pitches, Ian first of all uses the Dennis G860 which is the ideal machine for someone looking to complete a number of tasks with just one power unit. Featuring an interchangeable cassette system, users have the option of fitting different types of cassettes including scarifiers, verticutters, brushes, spikers, and slitters.

“The reason we purchased the G860 was because of its versatility and the fact that you can have all of the different cassettes for different maintenance needs,” said Ian. “We can use it for cutting the squares, cutting the outfields, but then we can also use it to scarify. For pre-season we have a cassette which has 1mm scarifying blades so we will use that at the start of the season to thin the square a little bit. We’ve also got the new spring tine rake cassette which we also use for cricket pitch preparation.

Excellent Results From Dennis Combo

“As the pitches are drying out we use the brush cassette to flick out a lot of the older dead grass, and generally to clean them up and make the grass stand up for when it is time to cut with the Razor.”

Superbly balanced and ideal for cricket pitches and other fine turf surfaces, the Razor features a 560mm (22in), 11 blade cutting cylinder for a perfect finish. An ultra-short wheelbase ensures easy manoeuvrability and excellent performance, even on undulating surfaces. The Dennis Razor encompasses the simple ‘no tools required’ click height adjusters for quick and easy operation, a feature which Ian is particularly fond of.

“The Razor is great because we are starting on turf that has been cut down to 12mm by the G860. With the click system of the Razor, it is very simple to change the height. Instead of having to go out with two separate mowers set at two different heights, like we were previously doing, you just use the one mower.

“In a matter of seconds we can go down from 12mm to 10mm and then you give it a couple of clicks and then you are down to 8mm and then a couple more clicks and you are down to 6mm, it’s as easy as that. No tools are required and any of the staff can use it without any problems whatsoever.

“The cutting cylinders on both mowers are as good, if not better, than anything I have used before.”

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact Dennis 01332 824 777 or visit www.dennisuk.com

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ICL Praised At Downfield GC

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ICL Praised At Downfield GC: ICL products have been a mainstay throughout John Watson’s 20 year greenkeeping career, and the Downfield Golf Club Course Manager has recently singled out H2Pro TriSmart and Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator for praise.

This beautiful parkland course in Dundee was once described by Paul Lawrie (1999 Open Champion) as ‘one of the finest inland courses in Britain’ and has played host to many prestigious events over the years. In 2016, Downfield was chosen as a qualifying course for the Senior Open which was played at Carnoustie. In the past, it has seen the Scottish PGA Open, the SPGA Masters, Scottish Amateur Championship 2014 and the UK Girls Home Internationals all take place. It was also the venue for the 1999 and 2007 Open Qualifying stage.

ICL Praised At Downfield GC

John has been in the industry ever since leaving school and after landing the Course Manager position at Downfield he revealed that he was keen to further improve the course.

“I’ve been a greenkeeper for 20 years and have used ICL products throughout my career. All three of my main areas (greens, tees and fairways) are covered by ICL products.”

John firstly focussed on his greens and has noticed a significant improvement since applying H2Pro TriSmart wetting agent.

“My greens have always performed well but I am of the mind-set that there is always room for improvement. I started using TriSmart and it has worked really well for us. The greens are not drying out as quickly as they used to and even the greens that are prone to drying out because of nearby tree roots are retaining moisture better.

“We go with our first application in April and continue to apply it on a monthly basis until September at 10L/ha. We try to get it on early because the greens tend to dry out in April when the spring winds start coming in.”

For his tees and aprons, John has reported fantastic results from using Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator 4-0-8+2MgO+4fe. Over recent years, Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator has gained a reputation as an outstanding micro-granular fertilizer for high quality, fine turf nutrition and just last year ICL launched  Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator Plus 4-0-14+2MgO+8Fe. This new formulation features a higher iron and potassium content than the original Invigorator.

“We used the original Invigorator last year at the start of April after aeration work and we saw a very good recovery, good colour and it lasted for over six weeks which I was extremely happy with.

ICL Praised At Downfield GC

“This year, we had a prolonged spell of rain through the winter, so I decided to go with an application of Invigorator Plus as it has a higher iron content and because we had a bit of moss on the tees. In the past I haven’t used granular feeds on my tees but the more experience that I have gained, the more I have learnt about the course and what it needs.

“With the added iron content, we saw a good bit of colour within a couple of days and then we saw the growth within a week or so. I actually decided to apply it to the greens as well.”

The new Invigorator Plus contains the mineral polyhalite, which has been found to bring enhanced turf colour and quality responses. It is a complex crystal product discovered at a depth of 1300 metres below the earth’s surface under the North Sea and is mined at ICL’s own mine in Cleveland – a site which John has been fortunate enough to visit.

“I went down the mine recently and it is great to be in a position where I have seen how it goes from a raw product through to a final product suitable for an end user. I’ve also been over to the laboratory in Holland and after seeing both of these I would say that it gives you confidence in just how good the ICL products are. You see first-hand exactly what goes into a producing a bag of fertilizer for example. The research and science behind this process really is quite remarkable.”

Please contact ICL on +44 (0)1473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

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Ventrac Praised In Northampton

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Ventrac Praised In Northampton: Despite a summer of prolonged dry periods and drought conditions, Northampton Borough Council’s green spaces are still looking in great shape. This is due to a unique contract between two major facilities management companies – Veolia and idverde – along with a little help from a Ventrac 4500 compact tractor with ToughCut mowing deck.

“This is the first time that we have joined forces with a major resource management company on a sub-contractor basis to maintain green spaces,” says Angus Lindsay, Group Head of Assets and Fleet at idVerde. “We began the contract early in June and the green spaces were, to say the least, a challenge. Long grass, especially in public spaces, is difficult to get back into specification when neglected, but the Ventrac with its ToughCut deck has certainly helped us get on top of the job quickly.  In my opinion, this deck is a good as a flail, if not better. Without a doubt it’s a very good, reliable and robust compact tractor and mower combination, which has proved ideal for this contract.”

Ventrac Praised In Northampton

Craig Langford, idverde’s Operations Manager for Northampton added,

“The Ventrac has been a godsend! At the start of the contract we were faced with acres of significantly overgrown and unmaintained space, but the Ventrac with ToughCut deck quickly got to grips with these areas. Being able to operate on 30 degree banks is one of its main attributes and it has worked brilliantly for us.”

Operator Steve Glover, who began his career with the council and has been employed by various contract management companies, has maintained the Borough’s green spaces for over 32 years.

“This is the best machine that I have operated over the last 32 years,” he said. “Although I spend a lot of time on banks and slopes, I feel extremely safe. Its wide footprint, eight tyres and low centre of gravity make it incredibly stable and the articulated frame makes it highly manoeuvrable.

“This ToughCut deck is amazing; it cuts down anything and leaves a really acceptable finish. It has simple to use controls and the visibility of the out-front attachments is very good. I have used it for 108 hours and it hasn’t missed a beat, apart from one puncture when I ran over a broken bottle! How it gets the power to do the job from a 24 hp engine, I do not know, but it just keeps on delivering. The managers at idverde have certainly given us the tools to do the job and I’m sure we’ll be getting more attachments over the course of the contract.”

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