Effective flood relief from AMS Contracting

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Effective flood relief from AMS Contracting: Stirlands Cricket Club aims to complete winter turf maintenance for the first time in years after the successful installation of a new drainage system by AMS Contracting.

Every winter the Sussex based cricket club would have a third of their outfield underwater between the pavilion and the square. This caused maintenance of the area to be delayed compared to other parts of the field and often meant it wasn’t ready for play. The flooding also prevented the club from cutting using their mower, instead having to hire in a contractor at a considerable cost each year.

Effective flood relief from AMS Contracting

Effective flood relief from AMS Contracting

The consistent delays to play and ongoing mowing costs led Stirlands Cricket Club president, Charles Hunt, to seek funding from the ECB’s Flood Relief Plan and use local Chichester company, AMS, to design and install the drainage.

AMS surveyed the site using Trimble drainage mapping software to build a 3D model that optimises the placement of drains. With the plan in place, 60m of main carrier drains were backfilled with gravel, and 10 lateral drains were connected into the main carrier drain, totalling 450m of lateral drainage for the whole project. To keep the system simple to maintain, three concrete chambers were installed for rodding and inspection purposes.

“The whole project took five days to complete, and they did a tremendous job very efficiently, very neatly and at a competitive price,” Charles explained. “They’ve gone above and beyond, they built steps into the clubhouse and did everything that we needed to make the project a success. Myles and Ashley are great people, and we’ve enjoyed having them work at the club.

“Our issue is that one side of our field falls away into a low spot towards the pavilion and because we’re on mastic clay the water would just sit there. It has been a persistent issue, and every winter half the field floods and we can’t get the mower on it, so we’re always behind time getting the outfield cut. Sometimes we can’t cut it with our mower, and we have to hire someone in, and it costs us quite a lot of money as a club.

“The ECB offered us flood relief funding, and after we got it, I began looking at companies who could do the work. AMS is local to us, and I’m glad we went with them because they have done such a fantastic job. The system won’t get tested until winter, but everything has gone as well as it can during the installation. I think it will mean that we can get on the field much sooner and get the grass cut, so we’re ready to play cricket with no delays.”

With two men’s teams in the Sussex League, a friendly side that play on Sunday’s and several boys and girls teams ranging from U10s to U19s using the site, being able to cut the pitch with their own machine and redistribute the funds saved elsewhere in the club will be a considerable advantage going forward.

AMS fulfil drainage, construction and maintenance projects all over the United Kingdom and use a process that always provides cost-effective results. For more information on AMS’ services or to receive a quote on your project, visit www.amscontracting.co.uk.

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R&D investment adds red thread

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R&D investment adds red thread: A new approval for red thread on the Instrata Elite label has further extended the value of the important all-round Syngenta turf fungicide.

Whilst red thread would be considered of relatively minor and transient impact on most actively managed turf surfaces, where it does break out results can be extremely unsightly and create thin gaps where problem grasses and weeds could ingress.

R&D investment adds red thread

R&D investment adds red thread

The addition of red thread has required further supplementary trials to the original approval, which underlines Syngenta’s on-going commitment to R&D and providing effective integrated turf management solutions, according to the company’s Turf Technical Manager, Glenn Kirby.

“With the leading role of Instrata Elite in any proactive fungicide programme, turf managers would have seen the benefits in incidental control of red thread,” he pointed out. “However, for anyone specifically targeting red thread the disease has to specified on the label.

“Having supplied a comprehensive data set demonstrating the immense disease control efficacy of Instrata Elite, turf managers and agronomists now have the opportunity to make full use wherever required.”

Syngenta investment in supporting Instrata Elite required a minimum of six replicated trials, over two seasons, under representative conditions for regulatory authorities to add red thread to the label.

Red thread can occur on any turf surface, especially golf greens, tees and fairways, along with bowling greens and sports pitches. Warm and wet conditions are most conducive to infection, with fescue and perennial ryegrass surfaces most susceptible. Low fertility and moisture retentive surfaces increase the risk of outbreaks.

Registration trials have shown Instrata Elite application in the early phases of disease development is very effective.

The Instrata Elite label offers broad spectrum disease control, with both contact and systemic properties, to target microdochium patch, dollar spot, brown patch and anthracnose on managed amenity turf and golf courses.

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Crail Golfing Society praises BLEC Multi-Seeder

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Crail Golfing Society praises BLEC Multi-Seeder: As play returns to Crail Golfing Society, a new BLEC Multi-Seeder 1600 is going to be key to delivering overseeding without disruption.

The two 18-hole links courses – Balcomie and Craighead – are notoriously firm and dry creating challenging conditions for effective seed to soil contact. However, Golf Course Manager Bob Meikle says the size and weight of the BLEC dimple seeder makes it the ideal solution for optimum site-wide seed delivery.

Crail Golfing Society praises BLEC Multi-Seeder

Crail Golfing Society praises BLEC Multi-Seeder

“We initially demonstrated the 1.2m width version of the Multi-Seeder and were impressed straight away at the efficiency and cleanliness with which holes were created, and the accurate seed delivery system” explains Bob, who has been at Crail for 28 years. “We figured that if we went to the next width up, we could overseed areas such as the greens with fewer passes as well as have additional weight to penetrate the firmer areas.”

“The Multi-Seeder being a dimple seeder was one of the biggest selling points” he explains. “It is critical that whatever we do now maintenance-wise, that we don’t cause any breaks in play and the Multi-Seeder is fantastic at leaving very little disruption in its wake. We can pass over a green, then follow over with a turf iron and you wouldn’t know anything has been done.”

Since taking delivery of the Multi-Seeder 1600 from Henderson Grass Machinery in March, Bob and his team have conducted some recovery work on some weaker greens and tees on the Craighead course – utilising the time during lockdown to thoroughly test it out. “We’ve been experimenting with different moisture levels and transferring the weight between the two spiked rollers to alter the size of the hole produced. We are trying to incorporate more fescues into our tees, so by transferring the weight onto one roller we were able to create a bigger hole, ready to accept the larger, fescue seed.”

With the Multi-Seeder offering a 1.6m working width and non-PTO drive, Bob can quickly and accurately overseed areas both large and small – meaning some fairway overseeding, along with further work on the greens and tees is scheduled for the autumn.

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