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NEWS ARTICLES

Quick Clean Up With GKB

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Quick Clean Up With GKB: At Harrow School, the boys enjoy afternoon games five times a week, with no fewer than thirty-two different sports on offer to keep them healthy and active. Harrow teams frequently win county and national championships and the school enjoys partnerships with professional bodies such as the Saracens Foundation and Queens Park Rangers Football Club. Founded in 1572 under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth 1, Harrow is located on a 300 acre estate.

The school is surrounded by acres of sports fields ranging from Astroturf pitches, 2G hockey and tennis, 3G rubber crumb, sixteen winter pitches and nine cricket through to a 9-hole golf course. That’s plenty for the groundsmen to be looking after, with Grounds Manager Michael Kemmett heading the team of eleven. Maintaining such large areas of synthetic turf takes a special mix of machinery and each pitch demands their own, specific, type of maintenance. Michael chose GKB machines following demonstrations and began with the GKB Quick brush in the summer of 2017, followed by the introduction of a Quick Clean in the November. Quick Brush is a modular brush that can be adjusted to each task, choosing between a rake, double brush and rubber finishing rag. There is a ‘flip over tool’ to enable infill material to be easily added to new fields.

Quick Clean Up With GKB

“We liked the Quick Brush for its ability to carry out the correct synthetic turf maintenance, whatever the requirements. We use it every couple of weeks on the surfaces and after using the Quick Clean,” says Michael, “it’s excellent for the getting pile to stand up and it’s also very good for the cricket outfields and pitches.” The Quick Clean is used on sand and rubber crumb and was chosen for its powerful in-depth cleaning of all types of synthetic turf pitches. With the wide variety of sports surfaces at Harrow School, the extraction of debris needs to be adjusted to suit the technical characteristics of each pitch.

“We first saw the Quick Clean at the Cologne show and it looked the part to fit our criteria,” Michael adds, “we were looking for quality and stand-out of the patterns after cleaning, and it needs to work fast and be reliable. We have all that and you can tell from the quality build the machine is going to last. That makes it very competitive as well as achieving precisely what we need to maintain our surfaces. We’re very pleased with the great results we’re getting from the GKB machines” He says.

For more information, visit: www.gkbmachines.com

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Volunteering Pays Off

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Volunteering Pays Off: Amazing, incredible, life changing… they are just a few of the words used by British and Irish greenkeepers since 2015 to summarise their time on the John Deere TPC Sawgrass Volunteer Programme, arranged annually in partnership with the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of Ireland (GCSAI).

Held at the legendary TPC Sawgrass course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, THE PLAYERS Championship is considered by many to be golf’s fifth major. As such it presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for BIGGA and GCSAI members to network, learn and gain a huge amount of invaluable experience.

Volunteering Pays Off

THE PLAYERS is made possible thanks to the hard work and dedication of a course preparation force of over 90 volunteer greenkeepers from 14 different countries, who join the home team in getting and keeping the course in shape. Following the final day’s play, the greenkeepers also get the chance to attempt to hit the 17th hole’s intimidating island green.

For the first time this year, the programme has been expanded with John Deere’s support to allow a seventh member to take part, from BIGGA’s International Region. The six successful BIGGA members who have been selected to join the course preparation team at the 2018 tournament, which takes place from May 10 to 13, are:

  • Scottish Region – Paul Armour, course manager at Dunbar Golf Club, East Lothian;
  • Northern Region – Joe Barnes, deputy head greenkeeper at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Lancashire;
  • Central England Region – Nicholas Thorley, greenkeeper at Little Aston Golf Club, West Midlands;
  • South West and South Wales Region – Jamie Blake, head greenkeeper at Broadway Golf Club, Worcestershire;
  • South East Region – Antony Kirwan, deputy course manager at Aldeburgh Golf Club, Suffolk;
  • International – Craig Cameron, superintendent at Golf Club St Leon-Rot, Baden-Württemberg in Germany.

They will be joined by GCSAI member Jonathan Kelly, head greenkeeper at Ballyhaunis Golf Club, Co Mayo in Ireland. This is the fourth such UK & Irish group to travel to the US with the John Deere Limited sponsored programme, which started in 2015.

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

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Changing The Channel

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Changing The Channel: In an attempt to bring clarity and certainty to its distribution channel, Bailoy Irrigation Control Systems have chosen to bring the distribution of all its products in the United Kingdom and Ireland in-house.

In effect from the 1 January 2018, this means customers with GTI Gemini and Trident products should contact Bailoy, rather than previous distributor Reesink Turfcare, for spares, support and sales.

Changing The Channel

Adam Lovejoy, Bailoy’s managing director, says: “We have enjoyed a productive working relationship with Reesink and Toro for 25 years, but with recent changes in product and service ranges for both companies it made sense to bring the sales and support of our Gemini and Trident products in-house.

“We believe this move will end any uncertainty about who controls the sales and support of the GTI range in particular. It means we can focus on supporting and forging relationships with the contractors and dealers who sell our products directly and that is something we are very much looking forward to doing.”

The move mainly affects customers with the Toro-badged CDS and SC3000, which, although labelled Toro in an exclusive distribution agreement, were designed and manufactured by Bailoy. Those customers in particular should now contact Bailoy direct for sales, support and technical information, says Adam.

“For most customers very little changes, but for those with Toro-badged CDS and SC3000 products or for those who don’t have an account with Bailoy, it’s a simple phone call.”

And with a comprehensive range of service and support options available, it’s a call that will ensure the continuation of a reliable relationship for an efficient range of products from Bailoy.

For more information, visit: www.bailoy.com

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Golf Club Vandalised

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Golf Club Vandalised: A North-East golf club has hit out at individuals who stole two buggies and caused thousands of pounds of damage.

Vandals struck at Insch Golf Club leaving tyre marks on a green, pulling up posts and driving over signs.

Club manager Jayne Farquhar said she and her staff were “really upset” after the incident on Tuesday.

She said: “It’s disheartening because everyone works so hard to keep the greens looking good, and this comes at a time when golf clubs are struggling.

“It would be horrible if this turns out to have been someone local.

“This is a members-only club and they pay a lot to play here so for someone to have done this shows total disregard and disrespect for the work put in.”

It is thought that the damage to the green alone could be between £2,000 and £3,000 – and that doesn’t include the cost of repairing the golf buggies.

One of the buggies was recovered more than a mile away on Western Road in Insch at around 8.40pm on Tuesday with the second recovered a short time later.

Vice captain of the club Colin Campbell was hopeful that repairs could be made to the green.

He said: “We are all disappointed.

“This has happened before but never as bad as this – this is substantial damage.

“Our head groundsman is confident that he can re-cover the green, but because the grass isn’t growing now the scars will be visible for a while.

“The mechanic will be looking at the buggies because the windscreens were smashed and there may be also be damage to the underside as the vandals drove over signs.”

Investigating officer Pc Mark Hammond said: “The buggies had been parked at Insch Golf Club at 3.30pm that day but a member of the public called in about the buggy at Western Road in the evening.

“Anyone who either saw any of the buggies being moved later in the afternoon or in the evening or who knows anything about this incident is asked to contact police.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101 quoting reference 3594 of 30 January.

“Information can also be provided anonymously via the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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Dennis & SISIS Announce Seminar

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Dennis & SISIS Announce Seminar: Dennis and SISIS’ first bowling green maintenance seminar of 2018 has been announced and will be held on Tuesday 13th March at the Ipswich & District Indoor Bowls Club.

Dennis and SISIS have a long history of supporting the sport of bowls and the seminars which are designed to ultimately help club greenkeepers and volunteers maintain their bowling greens, have significantly grown year on year.

Dennis & SISIS Announce Seminar

Combining practical tips, demonstrations and key information from industry experts, the 2018 seminars are set to be well attended yet again.

Dennis & SISIS have now revealed the programme details for the first of these events and it provides all delegates with a taste of what to expect throughout the series of seminars.

Chris Humphrey from Collier Turfcare will deliver a presentation entitled Chemicals and Fertilisers in which he will be revealing how to get the best value and best results no matter what the budget is. Chris will be followed by Luke Hunt from Barenbrug who will proceed to advise on Choosing the Correct Seed for a Bowling Green.

Following a mid-morning break, Chris will return to the stage to explore a number of ideas and methods titled Controlling pests in the future.

Before a complimentary lunch, an open question and answer session called the Turf Clinic will take place – presenting all delegates with the opportunity to ask any pressing questions relating to their own situations.

The afternoon will see all attendees head outside to witness an On-Green Demonstration. This demonstration not only provides a perfect opportunity to see some of the sport’s latest turf maintenance equipment in action but will also offer guidance in the way you prepare greens and provide delegates with advice on how to get the very best out of their equipment.

Dennis & SISIS Announce Seminar

The seminar will start with registration at 9am. To register for the FREE and highly informative seminars, please contact Roger Moore on 01332 824777 or email roger.moore@dennisuk.com.

Further information about the range of bowls maintenance products available can be found by visiting www.dennisuk.com / www.sisis.com.

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