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NEWS ARTICLES

Rigby Taylor Centenary Celebrations

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Rigby Taylor Centenary Celebrations: Rigby Taylor will be making a major golf industry announcement at BTME in Harrogate to herald the start of a year of celebrations for the company’s 100-year anniversary. 

While details of the exciting initiative in conjunction with BTME organiser BIGGA will be released at the show, there is a host of additional reasons why greenkeepers should make a bee-line for Rigby Taylor’s expansive stand (stand 424, Purple Zone), including the launch of a specially formulated range of early season fertilisers, the 2019 grass seed mixtures and the company’s ‘Active Planning’ turf disease prevention programmes.

Rigby Taylor Centenary Celebrations

Rigby Taylor will also be launching a website for its Euroflor urban meadow flower products (www.euroflor.co.uk), further announcements will be made on the company’s involvement in the irrigation market.

In addition, a golf simulator ‘nearest the pin’ competition will be staged on every day of the show, in support of the trade charity Perennial.

For more information, visit: www.rigbytaylor.com

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Price Turfcare At BTME

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Price Turfcare At BTME: Price Turfcare will be returning to BTME for the third time in January, back to Harrogate where the company was officially launched back in 2017.

Commenting on the first two years in business, Managing Director Rupert Price said,

Price Turfcare At BTME

“A totally unbelievable couple of years since we launched the business back in 2017,” he said. “I have no idea where the time has gone. It’s been a whirlwind of demonstrations, roadshows and exhibitions to get the Ventrac and Ryan brands out in front of the UK turf industry. It’s been very hard work, probably harder than I envisaged, but it’s definitely paying off. Ventrac was virtually invisible in the UK before 2017, now we have established it as a credible brand.

“So much so, that some of our early customers such as Peter Pattenden at Carden Park and Chris Brook at The Club Company have come back to order more machines and additional accessories. We have proved that the Ventrac is an extremely versatile machine, with many applications for golf course management.

As well as golf customers, machines are going into major sports facilities, to large landscape contractors, rental companies and to some private buyers with large estates. The addition of the Ryan franchise in 2018 has also given us a boost and the result is that we have an eclectic mix of turf maintenance machinery to suit any organisation, small or large.

Come and visit us on stand 450 in the Purple Area and see why we are making an impact.

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Greenkeeping Team Rewarded

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Greenkeeping Team Rewarded: The greenkeeping team at Golf At Goodwood has realised its ambition of gaining the coveted Golf Environment Organisation certification for its commitment to sustainability across both the Park and Downs courses.

GEO Certified® is the symbol of great golf environments worldwide, showing a facility has met a credible standard in sustainability across six areas.

To be eligible, the greenkeeping team had to submit an extensive application that evidenced work in nature, water, energy, supply chain, pollution control and community.

The team, led by sports turf and grounds general manager Phil Helmn, set out to achieve GEO certification knowing it would safeguard the environmental future of the courses and be of benefit to members, customers and the local community.

Independent verification led to the GEO concluding Golf At Goodwood should receive certification because of its “outstanding work to minimise impact on the environment through introduction of biomass heating, solar panels and enhanced monitoring on water consumption.

”It said: “The club has also undertaken numerous natural environment projects providing enhancements to habitat in line with the surveys and advice commissioned by the facility.”

The application took 12 months and involved the greenkeeping team working with different departments across the Goodwood Estate.

Russell Carr, deputy head greenkeeper on the Park course, was credited by Helmn as being the man to pull together the resources and information to submit the application to the GEO.

He said: “We’ve introduced a sustainability ethos into our thinking with regular team meetings and it has been great seeing each team member embrace it.”

Helmn was proud of the work his team had put in and said: “Work towards this certification started four and a half years ago.”

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Top Dresser In The North East

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Top Dresser In The North East: Beaumont Grounds Maintenance took delivery of a GKB top dresser at the start of the season to help fulfil the needs of their many contracted sites.  Covering an area across the North East, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Humber, the family-run commercial and sports grounds maintenance business looks after a diversity of clients from schools, academies, sports clubs, councils and factories through to hotels and property management companies. In recent years the company has pushed the boundaries with expansion in the sports turf market, contracting directly for sports clubs and golf courses, providing specialist services and working with the clients’ own teams. One such venue is Gateshead International Stadium and it was to there the GKB SP230 Sandspreader was delivered.

“The GKB machine was recommended by our local dealers, Lloyd Ltd of Bishop Auckland, and we were very impressed with the service,” says Beaumont’s Managing Director, Alex Lineton, “it took less than a week from order to delivery and Tom Shinkins, GKB’s own Operations Manager, brought the top dresser to us and set it up at the stadium.” The Sandspreader can be used to distribute a variety of materials and the version ordered, the SP230 with a bunker capacity 2.3 m³ / 81 ft³ flat filled, is one of four different designs ranging from 1 m3 to 4 m3. There are several options.

Top Dresser In The North East

With the standard design, you can set the speed of the conveyer belt and the disc spreaders by means of a control unit attached to the Sandspreader. The shape and design of the sand bunker ensures an efficient operation and ensures a clear view along the machine. The sand is transported by means of a conveyer belt to a metering valve, which, optionally, is also available in a hydraulically adjustable version. The double, hydraulically powered, spreading discs are adjustable on multiple points and in this way the Sandspreader enables you to create perfect sand distribution. A touchscreen operated from the tractor cab gives complete control.  The towed version can be delivered with four pivoting balloon tyres and there is a model suitable for assembling on a turf truck.

The Beaumont machine has been fully employed throughout the season across a large number of sports venues including Northumberland University, the renowned sports university with its two sites and several pitches. “We’re very pleased with the results,” says Alex, “the GKB machine is simplicity itself, well built, easy to maintain and it does a good job. I highly recommend it.”

For more details on GKB machines visit www.gkbmachines.com  or call Tom Shinkins on 07495 883617.

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Celebrating 20 Years Of The Polaris RANGER

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Celebrating 20 Years Of The Polaris RANGER: As the curtain closes on the Polaris RANGER 20th birthday celebrations in 2018, two lucky winners celebrated the milestone in true style after winning the ‘Ultimate Ranger Experience’ competition, going on an unforgettable trip to Naxos in Greece, courtesy of Polaris.

Crowned winners of the competition that celebrated a double decade of the iconic side-by-side utility machine, UK-based Peter Goble and Elizabeth Toft, won the trip of a lifetime after submitting images showing how they use a Polaris Ranger as part of their work for the NHS North West Ambulance Service.

Celebrating 20 Years Of The Polaris RANGER

Hosted by Auto Moto Falcon, a rental company utilising Polaris machines in Naxos, the winners spent two days exploring off-road routes in a RANGER® XP 900 EPS, experiencing famous tourist spots, beautiful scenery and some of the island’s hidden treasures.

The competition asked owners across the world to send in a photo of their own personal RANGER® experience. Peter and Elizabeth won one of the EMEA experiences up for grabs with their photo submission of a RANGER® being used for emergency transport services. They both work for the NHS North West Ambulance Service and use the specially-modified RANGER® to access difficult terrains, such as moorland, where a standard ambulance wouldn’t be able to go.

Elizabeth said: “We were both really shocked when we heard that we had won the ‘Ultimate RANGER Experience’ competition, but equally delighted. We already thought the RANGER was a very capable and hardworking vehicle but experiencing this on the off-road trails in Naxos was completely different than what we’re used to!”

The pair flew out to Athens on 28th September, followed by a ferry transporting them to the island of Naxos. For the duration of their trip, Peter and Elizabeth stayed in the luxury modern Galaxy Hotel; a typically Greek hotel just a few steps away from Saint George beach. After some initial downtime in the hotel, Polaris arranged two sightseeing-packed days for the winners to enjoy their time in Naxos alongside the RANGER®.

On Saturday 29th September, the group departed for an off-road guided tour to the north of the island following a morning briefing with the RANGER®. They first travelled to the fishermen village of Apollonas for lunch, stopping on the way at the cliffs for a panoramic view of the island. The group then took dirt tracks across the island, passing famous local marble quarries, and finally reached Naxos town where they had time to shop, eat and see the local landmarks.

On Sunday 30th September, the group travelled to the southwest coast for the best beaches of the island, stopping at Agia Anna, a sandy beach with clear blue waters, and ending in Alyko to see the well-known Wild Drawings art on an abandoned hotel. The group then continued to reach the highest peak in the Cyclades at the top of Zeus mountain, to visit Naxos’ oldest monastery, Photodotis. They then went to Apiranthos Village to have lunch at the world-famous Rotonda Restaurant, surrounded by some of the most impressive views of Naxos.

“We were shown parts of the island that we wouldn’t have known existed, and the places we travelled to in the RANGER were beautiful. The tours of the island were truly unforgettable, and our guide was extremely accommodating and very knowledgeable about the RANGER. We didn’t quite appreciate just how popular the RANGER is abroad, so the experience has really opened our eyes to how versatile the Polaris vehicles are in a different environment. A massive thank you to Polaris for the opportunity, we will definitely be going back to visit the island again soon!”

Forming a key part of the Polaris product line as their best-selling utility vehicle, the RANGER® is used globally for a variety of tasks. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the iconic model, just a few months after the brand celebrated the one millionth RANGER® unit rolling off the production line.

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