Tributes For Former Groundsman

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Tributes For Former Groundsman: Tributes have been paid to the former head groundsman of Bangor on Dee racecourse after he passed away on Wednesday, July 10 aged 82.

John Malam, who will always be associated with the North Wales course, where he was affectionately known as Mr Bangor on Dee, was from the neighbouring village of Overton on Dee and began working at the track back in 1971.

The Leader’s horse racing reporter Arthur Shone said Mr Bangor on Dee never really went away after that first day, with the family name still going strong with both his sons now taking care of the track.

He said: “Horseracing was his life and Bangor on Dee racecourse was the centre of his world. In 1980 he was promoted to head groundsman following the retirement of Tom Osborne and continued in this full-time position until he retired in 1997.

In his final year as head groundsman the racecourse was awarded the Neil Wyatt Award for ground staff, an award I know that made him a very proud man and especially of his team, which he always referred to as ‘his lads’.”

Mr Malam was restless in retirement and continued to support his beloved Bangor on Dee racecourse and carried on for many years afterwards as stable manager and running the yard on race days, often in this role he would arrive first thing in the morning to have a coffee with his team.

Arthur Shone added: “I have known John Malam for over four decades as a friend and I always used to enjoy his company, he also used to build the fences at Aintree racecourse and on certain courses between the flags.

“In fact, he shared my passion for point to point racing and was very knowledgeable about the sport he loved, he used to describe the sport as real racing.

“I have so many happy memories of the man, one was at the now defunct Flagg Moor racecourse out in the wilds in the Peak District that used to have one meeting a year on Easter Tuesday, a racecourse that used to hold a members race over stone walls, with a spare change of clothes mandatory due to the adverse weather changes at the track.

“I arrived early at the meeting and met up with John who was about to walk the course in glorious sunshine, so I dug out my wellingtons and joined him half way around it rained of biblical proportions, when we got to the last hundred yards there was hail stones followed by a snow blizzard.

“John turned around to me said, “This is what point to point racing is all about” – I remember having to get my car towed off the racecourse at the end of the meeting, happy times.

“He will be sadly missed by his many friends in racing, which I was happy to be counted as one of them.”

The Malam family tradition continued when his eldest son Andrew became head groundsman at Bangor on Dee when his father retired in 1997, a position he still holds today and in 1991, Andrew’s brother Brian started as assistant groundsman to his brother and remains part of the team to this day.

Lifelong friend and racecourse manager Jeannie Chantler said: “His hard work and dedication are his legacy. Thank you, John, from all at Bangor on Dee racecourse.”

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Social Sensation Visits Ransomes

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Social Sensation Visits Ransomes: After seeing Jimmy Broadhouse’s ‘Wembley pitch finish’ tweet, Ransomes Jacobsen invited ‘jimmythemower’ to their Ipswich factory to see how his famous Parkway 225 stripes were made.

A little over two weeks ago Jimmy shot to social media fame when he posted a picture of a council pitch he cut in Bilbrook with the message, ‘it might only be a council field next to the tip, but to the kids round here playing football it’s Wembley. So I always cut it like it is.’

Social Sensation Visits Ransomes

Jimmy’s now famous stripes were cut with a Parkway 225, and he’s used Ransomes mowers since starting his business, Ditton Services, with a MK 4 Motor Triple that he fully restored for commercial use with his late dad, who was a retired engineer.

Before the factory tour and a chance to stripe the turf on Ipswich Town Football Club’s Portman Road pitch, Jimmy cut the Ransomes factory football pitch with the Parkway 3 Meteor before finding out the machine would be his for a year.

“I’m blown away by being invited down to Ransomes,” he said. “What an honour it is to be here and test drive a brand-new machine. I’ve been using Parkway’s since I can remember and they always provide me with an excellent finish on all the pitches that I cut, and to go down to Ransomes, have a tour of the factory, ride on a mower and then be presented with the keys and for them to say we can make one to spec is just unbelievable, it’s the stuff of dreams.

“I sat on this new one, and I’m blown away. I thought the one I was using was the best that you could get, but every improvement on this is there for a reason, it’s a fantastic machine. The adjustable steering wheel and armrest console are great, the flexibility and comfort of the seating position are excellent, and then there’s the fantastic cutting finish that we can see behind us on the pitch.

Social Sensation Visits Ransomes

“I’ve had a fantastic day coming down to Ipswich, having a look round the factory and then to the football club. I walked across the pitch and had a look at the renovations for the coming season and stood in the middle of it and got to see what a fantastic job these guys do, I’m really, really chuffed to bits.”

Jimmy’s tweet has over 44k likes and has been seen more than 3m times on social media as well as his BBC Midlands video, which was trending number one on the BBC News website.

His tweet has struck a chord with groundsmen and the general public with an overwhelming number of positive comments and feedback coming Jimmy’s way. Ransomes’ sales manager, John Quinton, is one of the millions that have seen the tweet and was delighted to show Jimmy around the factory and hand over the keys to his new mower.

“We wanted to surprise Jimmy by loaning him a new machine for a year because he’s made a real difference to those he’s cutting pitches for and this is our way of recognising that. We’ll be in touch with him throughout the year to get his feedback on the mower and get his opinion on how it performs in the field. In peak times he’s cutting up to seven days a week for six to 12 hours, so he’ll really get to know the machine.

Social Sensation Visits Ransomes

“He has a genuine enthusiasm for his job and the Ransomes mowers he uses, and I’m really pleased we’ve had the opportunity to bring him to the factory because he’s had a great time.”

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Complete DLF Range At Goodwood

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Complete DLF Range At Goodwood: The Goodwood Estate relies on mixtures from across the DLF Seeds portfolio to deliver results site-wide. With a remit including two 18-hole golf courses, a cricket ground, gardens and farmland, a grass airfield, and a motor circuit, General Manager of Sports Turf & Grounds, Phil Helmn, is certainly kept busy with such a momentous breadth of surfaces to prepare.

Joining the Goodwood Estate four years ago, from a greenkeeping background, has seen a steep but fascinating learning curve for Phil – “everyone says it, but in this job no two days really are the same!  One day me, and anyone of my full-time grounds team of 35, could be working on golf course renovations, or the next coordinating ground preparations for Goodwood’s Festival of Speed which has an attendance equal to that of Glastonbury Festival!  What’s really interesting is how every environment has such different performance criteria so I’ve taken a lot of guidance and advice from companies and distributors, DLF being one of them.”

Complete DLF Range At Goodwood

As a long-standing user of seed from DLF’s Masterline and Johnsons Sports Seed mixtures, introducing those across the estate was one of Phil’s first exercises. “Ryegrass is the primary species used across the estate because of its hardwearing qualities and quick germination making it suitable on a wide variety of sports and fine turf areas. On our cricket wicket, Johnsons J Premier Wicket mixture has been working really well.”

Johnsons J Premier Wicket features a four-cultivar blend of Clementine, Monroe, Dickens and Chardin perennial ryegrass and delivers outstanding shoot density, rapid establishment and high disease resistance. In terms of its usage, Goodwood’s cricket ground has seen a surge in popularity, which is driving investment into the facilities later this year. “We currently host lots of local league matches but developments on one of the wickets will hopefully see that prepared to a higher spec with the J Premier Wicket, along with a £1m new pavilion, in the hope of heading towards county level play.”

Complete DLF Range At Goodwood

“On our golf greens, we’re currently on a bent grass overseeding programme and over on the grass airfield, which has a resident academy of three Spitfires, we’re using the hard-wearing ProMaster 70 mixture from Masterline. With so many sports arenas, there’s always new challenges, and peaks and troughs in demand, which keeps you on your toes. The seed from DLF gives us one constant we can rely on.”

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Limagrain UK Appoint Sam Horner

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Limagrain UK Appoint Sam Horner: Sam Horner has been appointed as Limagrain UK’s new amenity seed specialist covering the south of England, the company has announced.

Sam has been involved in the sports turf industry for over twenty years and brings with him a wealth of experience.

Limagrain UK Appoint Sam Horner

It all started at his beloved Gloucester Rugby where he first became familiar with sports turf maintenance. He then went onto study sports turf at college and after graduating he landed a job at Tewkesbury Park Golf Club. Sam quickly rose through the ranks and was promoted to deputy course manager before accepting the position of golf course manager at Gloucester Golf Club.

Five years ago he moved into a sales and marketing role within the amenity industry but continues to ‘work on the tools’ by offering match-day support for the grounds staff at Gloucester Rugby.

Commenting on his new position at Limagrain UK, Sam said that the opportunity was just too good to turn down.

“It was a very easy decision – all the way through the process I knew that if I was offered the job then I was absolutely going to take it. Limagrain is an outstanding company, in terms of its product portfolio and its reputation – the way it conducts itself is very professional. Limagrain has always been a leading company in the industry working at the very high end of sports turf and opportunities like this do not come along very often – I was always going to take it.”

With immediate effect Sam will now be offering technical advice and full support on products such as Limagrain’s leading brands of MM and Designer grass seeds and Colour Splash amenity flower mixtures.

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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Tribunal Rules Unfair Dismissal

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Tribunal Rules Unfair Dismissal: A greenkeeper was unfairly dismissed by bosses at a posh golf club, a tribunal has ruled.

Clive Poole, 47, began work at Prestbury Golf Club in 1996 but was sacked from his role – and lost the rented home that came with it – in June 2017.

In a lengthy judgement following the tribunal it was said Mr Poole had also carried out mechanical maintenance chores even though he was not contractually obliged, saving the club thousands of pounds.

But after new head greenkeeper Mark Crossley began in 2015 he was expected to do increasing amounts of mechanical work.

It was found that dismissing Mr Poole for not doing this was unfair as he did not have the time, training or contractual requirement.

The tribunal also heard claims that he was ‘bullied and intimidated’ by Mr Crossley and the latter had likened staff to monkeys, and used ‘unprofessional and abusive language’ in messages.

Mr Poole, from Macclesfield, said after the findings: “I was put under a lot of pressure.

“You try and do your best but it was never good enough, it makes you feel incompetent, I felt run down all the time and my morale was low.”

Employment Judge Pauline Feeney’s report described Mr Crossley as an ‘unreliable witness’ and agreed that apparent notes from a meeting to discuss criticisms of Mr Poole were done ‘at least partly retrospectively’.

She also said Mr Crossley ‘clearly had an animus against the complainant’.

And that Arthur Dicken, the then chairman of the club, who heard Mr Poole’s appeal against dismissal, was ‘clearly biased’.

Her judgement said two other long-serving greenkeepers had also left their positions and raised complaints against Mr Crossley.

Golf club member Tom Moore was so incensed by the treatment of Mr Poole he funded a barrister to argue at the tribunal for him.

Afterwards Mr Moore said: “The board of management will be embarrassed about this coming out but it’s their own fault.”

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