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NEWS ARTICLES

Tournament Opportunity For Members

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Tournament Opportunity For Members: BIGGA members have been invited to become part of the championship support team for the Evian Championship 2018.

An incredible opportunity to gain experience preparing the course for one of golf’s major championships, BIGGA members who are invited to join the team for the duration of the event will receive return air fares, accommodation, subsistence and uniform.

Tournament Opportunity For Members

The Evian Championship is the fifth and final major of the 2018 LPGA Tour and greenkeepers will be required to be on site from 2-16 September.

The successful applicants will work alongside the club’s greenstaff and other volunteers from across Europe.

The Evian Course is situated in Evian les Bains, bordered by Lake Geneva on one side and the Alps on the other.

If you are interested in this rare opportunity email Peter Wisbey at pwisbey@btinternet.com

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Kubota Helps Young People

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Kubota Helps Young People: Kubota UK has joined forces with PACCAR Scout Camp, a charity funded organisation dedicated to helping young people achieve their physical, intellectual and social potential.

PACCAR Scout Camp, located in Buckinghamshire, provides a fun and exciting camping experience for youth organisations, including Scouts, Guides and school groups. Visitors have the opportunity to experience an assortment of activities, from abseiling and archery, to climbing, high ropes and bushcraft.

The Japanese manufacturer is working in partnership with PACCAR Scout Camp as part of its on-going initiative to support charities that are focused not only on improving the prosperous life of humans, but also protecting the environment.

Karen Tipping, Kubota UK’s Marketing Manager, said: “We are delighted to support the PACCAR Scout Camp.  The work and commitment of its 120 volunteers to give children of all ages the opportunities to experience the great outdoors is fantastic.

“For many of the camp’s 50,000 visitors a year, it can be the first time they will have ever experienced the outdoors like they can at PACCAR Scout Camp.  It’s an adventurous experience that’s not only fun and entertaining, but it can help build self esteem, confidence and team building skills.

“These values are important to Kubota and we are extremely proud of our manufacturing excellence and our commitment to the environment, highlighted by our ‘For Earth, For Life’ brand statement. Being partnered with PACCAR scout group is excellent and we are so pleased that we can aid them with the brilliant work they do’’

 To help the camp’s volunteers get around the 67-acre site, Kubota has donated its rugged and robust RTV-X900 utility vehicle.

 Cliffe Brooke, Operations Manager at PACCAR Scout Camp, commented: “On behalf of everyone at PACCAR, we would like to thank Kubota and our local dealer George Browns for their support. We are a charity organisation, and like all charities, we need funding to be able to survive. With Kubota donating us the RTV-X900, it means we can focus our funds on what’s most important – continually improving our site and facilities to make the experience our visitors have when they come here, even better.

“The machine will make a huge difference operationally, making life much easier for our volunteers, from ferrying equipment around for activities, to woodland management and general maintenance. It will also allow us to access areas of the 67-acre site that we previously couldn’t.

“The Kubota brand is synonymous with quality and reliability, we’ve had a Kubota compact tractor now for over ten years and it never lets us down. We are really looking forward to putting the RTV-X900 through its paces now and seeing what it can do. It will be an integral piece of machinery that will be used every single day so we are delighted to receive Kubota’s support.”

For more information on Kubota UK call 01844 268000 or visit www.kubota.co.uk.

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Linnets Aim For Perfect Pitch

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Linnets Aim For Perfect Pitch: The Walks might be a far cry from the old Wembley Stadium and Portman Road, but Steven Curtis is relishing the change in role after becoming groundsman at King’s Lynn Town Football Club.

Mr Curtis, who has worked at a number of iconic venues during the last 40 years, is enjoying the challenge of trying to make the surface at Lynn pitch-perfect.

So much so that he has even put his property at Beck Row on the market so he can be closer to Lynn.

As if the task in hand wasn’t big enough when he took the job on, the lack of rain during one of the hottest summers for many years has hindered his hard work even further.

“The weather has been horrible for a groundsman,” said Mr Curtis.

“Water has been a problem, as it has been for everyone, and trying to get the pitch green has been a nightmare.

“Richard (Simper) has been an angel, coming in and moving the hose pipes which we’ve had on the go constantly.

“We’ve literally had two hose pipes on the go 24/7 so I think that Mr Cleeve might have a very sorry water bill, but what do you do?

While several players were dusting down their flip-flops for the summer holidays at the end of last season, Lynn’s groundsman was plotting a pristine playing playing surface for the new campaign.

Mr Curtis, 63, was left with the unenviable task of transforming the surface – which came in for much criticism from the club’s previous manager – into tip-top condition after leaving his position at Mildenhall after two-and-a-half years.

Lynn’s pitch had four thousand metres (two-and-a-half miles) of new drainage installed before it was eventually verti-drained, overseeded and fertilised.

“I’ve certainly done my 10,000 steps a day,” quipped Mr Curtis.

“We’ve had to constantly back fill the trenches to keep them topped up. We’ve shifted about 20 tonnes of sand to help us keep it topped up.”

As previous Linnets turf-tenders will concur, sustaining the pitch’s quality throughout a nine-month campaign is a mammoth task considering its heavy-duty usage.

But it isn’t such an issue for Mr Curtis who worked at the old Wembley between 1986 and 1994, along with clubs such as Ipswich, Norwich City, Leyton Orient and Cambridge United during 40 years as a contractor.

“The club approached me and I was happy to come here,” he admitted.

“It was a step up, bigger facilities, better players and better everything really.

“The players have been great and appreciate what has been done, everyone has been great which is why we’ve put our house on the market and our thinking of moving this way.”

And the chances of Lynn having a surface to be proud of come kick-off on August 11?

“At the moment it’s a seven out of ten for me,” said Mr Curtis.

“Come another three weeks and given a bit of moisture, I think we will be there or thereabouts.”

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IOG Welcomes Lantra As End Point Assessment Organisation

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IOG Welcomes Lantra As End Point Assessment Organisation: Lantra has become the End Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) for the new Level 2 Sports Turf Operative Apprenticeship Standard developed by the Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) and a large employer group.

There are already more than 50 apprentices undertaking a learning journey to achieve this high-quality standard.

IOG Welcomes Lantra As End Point Assessment Organisation

Commenting, IOG learning programme architect Chris Gray, said: “After sustained work by the IOG which has included advocating for a solution as well as making representation to government and key stakeholders, the initiative of Lantra becoming the government-approved EPAO for the standard is welcomed.

“The development provides further reassurance to the industry that we are on a sound footing to raising standards within our industry and further promoting this as a sustainable career for many.”

IOG chief executive Geoff Webb, added: “This announcement complements our work in developing a national natural turf Pitch Grading Framework, which charts how grounds personnel can progress from volunteer to professional level – by linking the standards of surfaces to the necessary skills needed to ensure surfaces reach their optimum levels through a blended learning approach to education and training.”

Lantra marketing development manager, Jo-Anne Bryan, said: “Lantra is committed to supporting the development of skills in the land-based sector. Building for the future by developing the next generation of industry specialists is a fundamental business driver. We are therefore delighted to have been approved as an EPAO for the new standard and look forward to continuing to work closely with the IOG in helping to meet the industry’s needs.”

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Double Irrigation At Breadsall Priory

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Double Irrigation At Breadsall Priory: Breadsall Priory Marriott Hotel and Country Club in Derbyshire has renovated two ageing irrigation systems to one Lynx control system from Toro to keep its 18-hole Championship Priory Course and Moorland Course in top condition.

Course manager John Smith explains: “When our previous control systems began experiencing communication errors and electrical breakdowns, we didn’t know if the grass was getting the water it needed. The systems urgently needed to change, but we didn’t want to unnecessarily overhaul all the wiring and pipework.

Double Irrigation At Breadsall Priory

“Completely replacing everything would have resulted in huge costs, but with the help of Reesink Turfcare’s Toro irrigation team, including Peter Newton and Cevan Edwards, we discovered we only needed to upgrade the two control systems and have saved a lot of money thanks to the renovating rather than replacing.”

“The install went without a hitch,” John recalls: “Before upgrading the systems, Toro technicians came to check the 28-year-old wiring would be compatible with Lynx and, finding that it was, returned in the winter of last year to undertake the renovation. Four guys made fast work of completing the install in just one and half weeks, with no disruption to golfers or our maintenance programme.”

Delighted with Lynx, John enthuses: “We’ve been using Lynx since April of this year and, as the oldest Marriott Hotel in the world with a reputation to uphold, having a comprehensive system we can rely on to irrigate both courses has given us great peace of mind. Now we have total control over when water goes on, the flow rate, and the trajectory. Lynx has really improved the efficiency, versatility and reliability of our irrigation routine.”

Having been witness to how well Lynx performs, John decided to add to the renovation project by upgrading the sprinklers, too, hoping to see even more benefit to the club’s irrigation. The perfect partner to Lynx, Toro Infinity sprinklers have replaced the sprinklers across multiple greens on the Championship Priory Course that were “in need of updating.”

John says: “We chose to start changing our sprinklers over to Infinity for improved performance and ease of maintenance. What I like about the new sprinklers is that to perform any kind of maintenance you can access everything you need from the surface. Being able to make changes without digging up or replacing bodies is a real time and money saver. Plus, the sprinkler heads have diversified nozzles offering a range of trajectories to suit the changing needs of the turf. As a result we’ve decided to phase an Infinity upgrade on all of the greens over the next few years.”

With the successful renovation behind it, Breadsall is looking to further innovate the way it irrigates the courses: “Using Lynx and Infinity from April has already made the quality of our turf far better, which is so important for our ancient site. Next up, we want to extract water from our lake to irrigate the courses and, given the great experience we’ve just had with Reesink, we will be working with them again to improve our lake’s water quality with an Otterbine aerator,” John concludes.

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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