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NEWS ARTICLES

New Masterline ‘Colour Boost’

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New Masterline ‘Colour Boost’: New for 2018 from the Masterline range are 3 new and exciting ‘Colour Boost’ flower mixture formulations designed to create enhanced, attractive amenity spaces. Available in the UK through DLF Seeds, the range also provides an essential food source and habitat for many species of animals and invertebrates, especially pollenating insects.

The mixtures have been designed for maximum floral impact, incorporating both wild flower and garden flowering species, that establish rapidly to deliver a colourful display throughout the whole year. Sowing a colour boost mixture brings many cost savings for the commercial user compared to more traditional bedding schemes – particularly appealing to local authorities and golf courses with increasing pressure on budgets. The mixtures are sown directly onto the final recipient site, requiring little irrigation, fertiliser/chemical application or maintenance throughout the season.

New Masterline ‘Colour Boost'

Designed to create a robust and attractive display in any park; open space or golf course, Colour Boost 1, features high impact annuals that are quick to establish and offer a long flowering period from 8 weeks after sowing up until the first frosts. Colour Boost 2 is a low-growing seasonal annuals mix, particularly relevant for areas where final growing height is of paramount importance. Finally, featuring 90% perennial flower species and 10% annual species, Colour Boost 3 high impact perennial mix ensures good adaptability to different growing conditions and provides a colour scheme that changes throughout the season depending on which species are in bloom.

The mixtures within the Colour Boost range feature 100% flower seed which can be notoriously difficult to sow when applying at just a few grams per m2. To combat this and ensure even sowing and correct application rates, the mixtures are sold in conjunction with Rehofix MK1500 corn skin granule – a natural, biodegradable carrier which makes sowing at low application rates easier and saves the more expensive seed mix running out midway through a project.

For more information, visit: www.dlf.co.uk

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The Man Who Beat The Beast

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The Man Who Beat The Beast: When most of us were tucked up in bed, with the heating blasting and dreaming about what we were going to do with our football-free Saturday, Cambridge United stadium manager Ian Darler had other ideas.

In depths of the night, the stadium manager travelled to the Abbey, flicked on one floodlight and got to work.

It was 4 a.m.

Heading towards his 40-year anniversary with the club, when we caught up with him just before kick off he seemed unfazed by not only the 3 am start that morning but also even getting the game on, despite it being only one of 10 to beat the ‘Beast from the East.’

“It would have been very easy to turn a blind eye and the game would have been off,” he said.

“But I just think you just do your duty. It’s your professional pride at the end of the day.”

Indeed, Darler and his team – made up of a dozen or so volunteers from CFU and his fishing friends – had a long-term plan to ensure the game went ahead.

The pitches had been covered for nine days but the freezing conditions were still proving too much for them to deal with as temperatures dropped to as low as minus-11 with windchil.

And a bit of ingenuity – from using a customised plough to getting the snow to act as an incubator – meant there was very little danger of the game being called off in the end.

 “To be honest getting the game on wasn’t the challenge,” he said.

“We’ve have had had pitch covers on for nine days as I always work to a 10-14 day programme.

“Apparently I came in for a bit of criticism on social media because I took the sheets of yesterday but I could see quite clearly the actual pitch was frozen and the covers were insulating the frost on the ground.

“We saw snow was coming and that it was likely to climb to zero. Obviously zero from minus six, minus seven is a massive thaw so the troops came in yesterday for me, we got all the sheets off and blew the layers of snow off and I was praying for the snow last night as I’ve used the snow as a incubator previously.

“Got up this morning about 3.30 am and went outside and saw it was 0.5 degrees and thought, ‘happy days!”

“I got in here, put one floodlight on, cracked on and by time the safety officer turned up all I had was about 25% of one corner to do.”

His efforts were recognised and he was, along with the other volunteers, named the man of the match during the U’s 1-1 draw with Luton Town.

And as Darler said, it would have been easy to let this game slip away like a majority of those in the Football League did.

And that’s is what is most impressive about this all. It took a lot of hard work, a lot of heart and shows how much people really do care about the club, and Darler, who has a book coming out about his 40 years working in football, was quick to thank all those involved.

“I have got the most amazing team of ground staff, which is made up by stewards who have worked for me for over 30 years,” he said

“They just appear like the borrowers and then a load of fishing mates come out the woodwork to bail me out.

“Because they’ve worked with me for so long I don’t have to tell them, they know what the process is.

“12, 14 people showed up in the end and six, seven were from CFU and seven or eight are my friends.

“I’m a fisherman, I’m used to going out a three o’clock in the morning!

“It’s a nice end. I’ve been quite fortunate had a publisher come forward and I’m having a book out about forty years working within the football world.

He added: “These days are great. It just gives you the opportunity to I’m just as keen now as I was 40 years ago. It’s always a challenge.

“I just love the challenge.”

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Two Honours For The Belfry

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Two Honours For The Belfry: The Belfry Hotel & Resort has further underlined its status as one of the leading golf resorts in the world after it was recognised with ‘Gold Flag’ status at the 59club awards ceremony, whilst its Director of Courses & Estates Angus Macleod was also named Greenkeeper of the Year.

The ceremony rewarded those destinations and personnel within golf who have shown exemplary customer service ratings following the 59club’s extensive mystery shopping assessments throughout 2017. The Belfry became one of only nine resorts across the world to achieve Gold Flag status, with its overall venue score up by some 11% from 2016. The spiritual home of The Ryder Cup scored particularly strongly within the ‘Tee Time Reservations’, ‘Arrival in Shop’, ‘Locker Rooms’ and ‘Food & Beverage’ categories.

“Our entire team have worked tirelessly over the last year to ensure the customer experience at The Belfry is as good as anywhere in the world,” said The Belfry’s Director of Golf Chris Reeve. “The Gold Flag award is testament to our expert team who continue to provide that VIP experience from the moment our guests book their visit right through to when they leave the resort.

“Moving forward, we will continue to invest significantly in staff training to further improve the service across our golf, hotel, spa, F&B and conference facilities,” added Reeve.

Meanwhile, The Belfry’s Director of Courses & Estates, Angus Macleod was named ‘Greenkeeper of the Year’ at the 59club awards ceremony. Overseeing a supreme 96.1% score for The Brabazon within the ‘On Course Presentation’ category, Macleod was recognised for his meticulous management of The Belfry’s famous, 4-time Ryder Cup course.

“I’m delighted to win this award and would like to pay special thanks to my incredible greenkeeping team at The Belfry, who allow me to take a strategic role in the conditioning of our golf courses,” said Macleod. “Whatever day of the year, golfers coming to The Belfry demand a Ryder Cup-standard experience, so the level of detail required in our maintenance is up there with the very best in the world.”

The Belfry Hotel & Resort made several headlines in 2017 as it was named ‘England’s Leading Resort’ and ‘England’s Leading Conference Hotel’ at The World Travel Awards, whilst also being recognised as ‘England’s Best Golf Course’, ‘England’s Best Golf Hotel’ and ‘Europe’s Best Golf Hotel’ at the World Golf Awards ceremony. As well as the success in the 59club awards ceremony, 2018 has seen The Belfry nominated for ‘The Best UK Hotel’ accolade at the M&IT awards in March.

For more on The Belfry, visit

The ceremony rewarded those destinations and personnel within golf who have shown exemplary customer service ratings following the 59club’s extensive mystery shopping assessments throughout 2017. The Belfry became one of only nine resorts across the world to achieve Gold Flag status, with its overall venue score up by some 11% from 2016. The spiritual home of The Ryder Cup scored particularly strongly within the ‘Tee Time Reservations’, ‘Arrival in Shop’, ‘Locker Rooms’ and ‘Food & Beverage’ categories.

“Our entire team have worked tirelessly over the last year to ensure the customer experience at The Belfry is as good as anywhere in the world,” said The Belfry’s Director of Golf Chris Reeve. “The Gold Flag award is testament to our expert team who continue to provide that VIP experience from the moment our guests book their visit right through to when they leave the resort.

“Moving forward, we will continue to invest significantly in staff training to further improve the service across our golf, hotel, spa, F&B and conference facilities,” added Reeve.

Meanwhile, The Belfry’s Director of Courses & Estates, Angus Macleod was named ‘Greenkeeper of the Year’ at the 59club awards ceremony. Overseeing a supreme 96.1% score for The Brabazon within the ‘On Course Presentation’ category, Macleod was recognised for his meticulous management of The Belfry’s famous, 4-time Ryder Cup course.

“I’m delighted to win this award and would like to pay special thanks to my incredible greenkeeping team at The Belfry, who allow me to take a strategic role in the conditioning of our golf courses,” said Macleod. “Whatever day of the year, golfers coming to The Belfry demand a Ryder Cup-standard experience, so the level of detail required in our maintenance is up there with the very best in the world.”

The Belfry Hotel & Resort made several headlines in 2017 as it was named ‘England’s Leading Resort’ and ‘England’s Leading Conference Hotel’ at The World Travel Awards, whilst also being recognised as ‘England’s Best Golf Course’, ‘England’s Best Golf Hotel’ and ‘Europe’s Best Golf Hotel’ at the World Golf Awards ceremony. As well as the success in the 59club awards ceremony, 2018 has seen The Belfry nominated for ‘The Best UK Hotel’ accolade at the M&IT awards in March.

For more on The Belfry, visit www.thebelfry.co.uk, email enquiries@thebelfry.com or call 01675 238 600.

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Allett At The Mower Shop

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Allett At The Mower Shop: It’s been almost thirty years since Steve Bartle set up The Mower Shop and over twenty years of which the company has been an Allett Mower dealer.

The dealership based in Northamptonshire is the largest of its kind in the Midlands and is just a hop off the M1 Motorway at Watford Gap.  Catering for both the domestic and professional turfcare markets, The Mower Shop has seen the natural progression from selling the old Bosch Suffolk Punch to the superior Allett version for today’s consumer. The bigger Allett machines are sold to customers with large houses and gardens, and private estates. The business has grown vastly over the years, now with ten staff, but prides itself on still providing a personal service.

On the sports side, sales of Allett machines are made for use on bowling greens, cricket and football pitches, complementing the professional services The Mower Shop offers for larger mowers.

Allett At The Mower Shop

“We have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Allett,” says Steve, “they are nice people to deal with and their interest doesn’t stop with us. They are keen to know where a mower is going, who the customer is and how they can help ensure the customer experience with their mowers is the best. We’re also keen on the development of battery power and at the moment Allett are the only ones producing cylinder mowers that are battery powered, with their Liberty range.”

Powered by Lithium Ion batteries the Allett Liberty mowers offer the convenience of cordless mowing, low noise and a greener alternative for mowing the lawn. There are currently three Allett battery mowers, two of which are self-propelled, with cutting widths of 12”, 14”, and 17”. The Liberty 43 takes ALL the cartridges in the Allett range for additional lawncare tasks, making it the most popular in the battery powered range. A fully charged battery allows for up to 600m2 of lawn to be mowed or up to 40 minutes mowing for just a few pennies per charge.

Allett Mowers 01889 271503

For more information, visit: www.allett.co.uk

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

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Thanet Council Invest In Electric

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Thanet Council Invest In Electric: In a first for local authorities, Thanet District Council is introducing new electric lawn-mowers to its open spaces fleet. Run on lithium-ion batteries as opposed to diesel, these modern mowers are greener, quieter and also cheaper to run. They will be used at Ramsgate Cemetery and Margate Crematorium and are all part of the council’s commitment to creating a clean and welcoming environment in Thanet.

The council has purchased six new mowers – 2 commercial ride-on mowers,  2 walk behind mowers and two commercial stand-on mowers to be used equally across the two sites.

Thanet Council Invest In Electric

Cllr Fairbrass, Deputy Leader of Thanet District Council said:

“Electric mowers, which last for 7 hours of constant work, are vastly preferable to diesel models because they generate no carbon monoxide emissions and are low noise. The mowers don’t just offer public health and environmental benefits, they also reduce risk to our staff. What’s more, they enjoy low running and maintenance costs which is part of the council’s ongoing efficiency drive.”

The key benefits include:

  • Improved health and safety for staff:
  • Significantly lower hand arm and whole body vibration levels than traditional diesel mowers
  • Significantly lower noise (far below the safe recommended DB rating for exposure to noise) which means no need for ear defenders
  • All day mowing with horsepower exceeding most commercial diesel mowers
  • Carbon neutral as zero emissions and exhaust fumes which emit carcinogenic fumes
  • Lower operating costs -costing only 6p an hour to charge up overnight
  • Low maintenance costs as no belts, filters, hydraulics, cables or engine
  • Minimal background disruption for nearby homes, businesses and schools
  • Quiet enough for use at crematoriums and cemeteries

For more information, please contact Press.Office@thanet.gov.uk or 01843 577034

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

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