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CMAE MENA Launch First Series Of Seminars

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CMAE MENA Launch First Series Of Seminars: The recently formed Club Managers Association of Europe – Middle East & North Africa Region (CMAE MENA) is launching its first club education seminars with the support of John Deere. Communication expert Bill McFarlan will deliver three seminars in the Middle East this spring, one at Education City Golf Club, Qatar on 23rd April, one at Al Mouj Golf Club, Oman on 25th April and one at Jumeriah Golf Estates on 28th April.

Bill McFarlan has a passion for helping people build their confidence in communication. Having been a broadcaster for 25 years with some of Britain’s top radio and TV stations – presenting flagship programmes in news and sport – he established a company that’s taken his training to over 20 countries. Sharing what he’s learned from broadcasting and business, he helps clients create and deliver passionate presentations and conduct interviews confidently with the media or at work.

CMAE MENA Launch First Series Of Seminars

In his 30th year of business, he’s delivered over 4000 seminars across the world, and written two best-selling books on how to Say What You Mean – and Mean What You Say. He’ll share his top tips and techniques with delegates, to help them write better emails and better reports, deliver better presentations and interviews, and overall present themselves better in front of their Boards and members. The seminars will be fun and educational – and life-changing, if you adopt the principles!

CMAE MENA Region chairman Chris May CCM says of the seminars: “It’s great to have someone of Bill’s knowledge and skill come to the region to help club industry professionals further develop their communication skills. Our clubs are becoming bigger, more diverse and more demanding and communication is now a key skill for managers and operators. We are grateful to John Deere for its support in bringing Bill here.”

Carlos Aragones, John Deere’s Turf & Golf Sales & Marketing Manager for Europe, CIS, North Africa and the Near & Middle East, adds: “We are delighted to support this initiative and the CMAE’s broader vision of being the leading organisation for club management educational programmes in the newly expanded area of the Middle East and North Africa. Continued education is a core pillar of the John Deere philosophy, and through our partnership we are committed to making ourselves available to the association’s membership for advice and support.

“As an industry leading, full range supplier of sports club maintenance equipment including mowers, tractors and Gator utility vehicles, we also look forward to the opportunity to present our business and advanced technology solutions to those attending these events.”

Any club or hospitality professional interested in attending the seminars should contact Michael Braidwood by email to mbraidwood@ecgolf.com.

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Celtic Repair Vandalised Youth Pitch

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Celtic Repair Vandalised Youth Pitch: Celtic have stepped in to help out over 60 youngsters of Torrance FC whose pitch was vandalised recently, leaving their teams without a venue to play their games.

The pitch, which is near Celtic’s Lennoxtown complex, was turned over by tyre tracks at the weekend meaning that the Torrance club, founded by two Dads nine years ago for the local kids, faced heartbreak.

Celtic, along with turf care contractors, Allgrass Scotland, have stepped in to help Torrance FC who have youngsters from Torrance, Bishopbriggs, Kirkintilloch, Milngavie and Lennoxtown playing for the side.

The damage was discovered on Sunday morning, and David Gibson, coach at Torrance FC said: “When we went down there my heart just sank. Why would anyone do that, it’s mindless vandalism. They don’t care what effect it’s going to have on us or the boys.

“There is a lot of disappointment there in the parents. They’re all gutted to see that happening to the club, what a shame for the boys, we just don’t have anywhere now to play games, we don’t have a pitch to call our own.”

A Celtic spokesperson said: “We have no idea who was involved in this vandalism but we just wanted to help in some way.’

“Torrance sits very near our Lennoxtown training base and with the local club being set up with such positive aims to give local kids the chance to play football, it’s very important that they continue to have this opportunity.

“We are very happy to provide some assistance.”

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S&C Slatter Acquire White Horse Contractors

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S&C Slatter Acquire White Horse Contractors: S&C Slatter is delighted to announce the acquisition of White Horse Contractors which becomes a member of The Slatter Group.

White Horse Contractors was established in 1957 by Arnold Binning. Since then it has grown into one of the leading providers of natural turf sports facilities, land drainage, water engineering, landscaping and civil engineering projects. It has gained a first-class reputation for quality and service in these sectors.

As a well-established family business, S&C Slatter are acknowledged as one of the Country’s foremost experts in the design and construction of sports facilities including artificial and natural pitches, multi-use games areas (MUGAs), hard and soft landscaping. The Surfacing & Civils division is also very successful in securing an increasing share in the infrastructure sector – car parks, roadways, hard standings.

White Horse Contractors will operate from the Group Head Office in Enborne, Newbury as an autonomous business under the guidance of newly appointed Managing Director David Smith and Technical Director James Welsh.

With this addition, The Slatter Group offers an unrivalled scope of services to a broad reach of clients within the sports grounds, amenity, leisure, agricultural and equestrian sectors. The knowledge base and resource that White Horse Contractors brings to the Group complements perfectly the skills, technology  and experience in artificial surfacing, civil engineering and project development accessible from the  existing specialist divisions of S&C Slatter.

David Slatter, who oversees the operations of all Group companies, comments ‘When I first took over the business from my Father, we provided sub-contract services for White Horse Contractors on their bigger projects. For me they were always the ‘Gold Standard’ which I was aiming to emulate and to this end I saw a perfect opportunity to approach the Directors of White Horse Contractors. To be able to bring their expertise and resource to our family business is a dream come true for me. The depths of services, skills and knowledge that we can now offer our clients in a one stop shop is industry leading.’

James Binning is the third generation of the Binning family to chair White Horse Contractors and says, ‘I am delighted that we have found another family business which can take White Horse Contractors to new heights and that shares our company ethos and family values. Many of our staff have worked with us for decades and it is important to us that the business continues to be run in the same style as it has for the last 60 years.’

However, the Binning family association with the industry will not cease as White Horse Contractors’ workshop and plant will continue to grow and thrive under a new name, Muddy Plat Hire Ltd, providing specialist plant hire services to The Slatter Group and the industry at large.

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WOLF-Garten Launch New POWER Cut Vario Lopper

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WOLF-Garten Launch New POWER Cut Vario Lopper: The task of cutting all types of tree branches has now been made easier thanks to the new WOLF-Garten POWER Cut Vario Lopper.

This innovative anvil lopper offers two cutting options; a small spread angle for quick cuts in tighter areas (Speed Cut), and a larger angle for thicker branches (Power Cut). The Speed Cut mode is a small opening angle of the handles which allows maximum exposure of the blade, enabling the tool to cut quickly.

WOLF-Garten Launch New POWER Cut Vario Lopper

The Power Cut mode is a wider opening angle of the handles, allowing maximum leverage to cut harder types of wood. Switching between the two modes is quick and simple, providing gardeners with maximum flexibility to tackle any type of branch, whilst reducing the strain on the arms and back.

The tool has been designed with lightweight aluminium tubes for easy handling and ergonomically shaped non-slip handles which ensure a comfortable grip for the user. The non-stick coated blades prevent sap adhesion and allow for clean and precise cutting with minimal force. Manufactured in Germany to the highest of engineering standards, this tool is equipped with a 10-year guarantee.

To view this product as well as the full WOLF-Garten range, visit its new website: www.wolfgarten-tools.co.uk

All WOLF-Garten products are available through leading garden centres nationally.

You can also find WOLF-Garten on Twitter at @WGGardentools and on Facebook by searching for WOLF-Garten Garden Tools.

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Versatility Key At Sitwell Park

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Versatility Key At Sitwell Park: Sitwell Park Golf Club in Rotherham has taken delivery of a Ventrac 4500 compact tractor and two attachments from Russell Group’s Groundcare Division. And versatility was a key reason for the purchase according to Course Manager Martin Hayward.

“It’s an incredible machine,” he said, “so versatile and it can do what other machines can’t do. We’ve purchased it with a Contour deck and a blower, which basically means we have two machines in one; three if you count the stump grinder attachment we have on loan from Russells.

Versatility Key At Sitwell Park

“We’re a parkland course situated in a valley with some severe undulations, so maintaining some of the slopes are an issue. Previously we’ve used strimmers in these high maintenance areas, but with a small team it takes a lot of man-hours and anything we can do to reduce that drain on resource is good and the Ventrac does just that.”

Sitwell Park Golf Club opened in 1913 with the support from local landowner, Sir George Sitwell, who offered part of his estate and agreed to bear the cost of building the course providing that a minimum of 100 members could be guaranteed by the time nine temporary holes were built. The club was a great success with over 100 members enrolling within a week and in May 1913 the club formally opened with over 200 members. With open countryside to the North, South and East, this was the first course Dr Alister MacKenzie built for a private client rather than for a committee.

Martin Hayward is a career greenkeeper, who has worked in Yorkshire for over 22 years. He entered the profession at Town Moor in Doncaster, moved on to Bawtry Golf Club after seven years and then to Hessle Golf Club. He joined Sitwell Park as Course Manager in April 2018 and leads a team of four dedicated greenkeepers.

“When I came here I identified a problem with shade on some of the greens, the 5th having the biggest issue, so we’re currently working on a programme of extensive tree removal to allow more light and increase airflow into these areas. Glen Sawyer at Russell’s kindly loaned us the stump grinder attachment and it has certainly impressed the lads. The Ventrac is certified to work on slopes up to 30 degrees and this has enabled us to get into areas that were previously not maintained. This will certainly help with the presentation of the course and I’ve already had positive comments from some of the members.

“I’m very lucky here having a supportive committee who have agreed to a planned replacement programme for our equipment. When we were looking at the Ventrac, all of my team were part of the decision-making process. To a man, they were all impressed and then it was just about making a business case for the committee to agree. It wasn’t that difficult as they quickly saw the versatility of the machine and how, in the long-term, we can add attachments at a fraction of the cost of buying a dedicated machine.”

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