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NEWS ARTICLES

Total-Play Cricket Pitch Covers The Ideal Choice for Raskelf CC

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Rain Defender mobile cricket pitch covers the ideal choice for Raskelf CC – As the winner of the Niddedale League’s ground award for their division for the past seven seasons, it’s fairly safe to say that Raskelf Cricket Club takes its grounds management pretty seriously.

Rain Defender mobile cricket pitch covers the ideal choice for Raskelf CC

When looking to replace its ageing self-built ground covers recently, the club spent a significant amount of time researching the market. With funding raised through a combination of Section 106 contributions to the council from new housing developers, an ECB Small Development Grant and the club’s own fundraising activities – including takings from the bar and BBQ when the club hosted the annual T20 cup finals day in 2015 – just shy of £4,000 was available to invest in a new solution.

Quality and value were key factors in the selection process, and it was total-play Ltd’s Rain Defender Dome mobile cricket pitch covers that stood out from the crowd. Pete Sigsworth, Chair of Raskelf CC explains:

“These new covers are much lighter than our old ones such that one person can easily push them on and off, and they are also wider so reduce the chance of water running underneath. The Geka connections are water tight and make it easy to detach the pipes leaving them in situ for temporary cover removal and replacement in variable weather conditions.

 “The service has also been impressive – the installation team turned up promptly and it took just 2 hrs to construct the covers. They were proactive in giving us guidance on how to use them – even down to how to take the tarpaulins off and on correctly so that they don’t get damaged and offered useful tips on storage and maintenance. The covers were christened within a few days by heavy rain and there were no leaks, even where the covers join – they are a great piece of kit.”

 The Rain Defender range of Mobile Pitch Covers (MPC) has been designed to offer quality, a­ffordability and value for money. The range of solutions have been designed to suit a variety of needs and budgets and includes PVC and steel-topped options with both dome and apex styles on offer. All of the covers are manufactured by total-play Ltd in-house using the highest quality materials with maximised longevity and practicality in mind.

Volunteer groundsman praises ICL iTurf programme

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Volunteer groundsman praises ICL iTurf programme – Adrian Cutliffe, Head Groundsman at Maginn Park in Buncrana, Ireland, has reported that a tailor-made ICL iTurf programme has provided him with fantastic results and excellent value for money.

Volunteer groundsman praises ICL iTurf programme

Adrian, who works for Pitch Dimensions – specialists in pitch construction and maintenance, has been voluntarily maintaining the surface at Maginn Park for the past 15 years. It is the official headquarters of the Inishowen Football League (IOFL) – an amateur league for football clubs in the Inishowen peninsula of Ireland, and is widely regarded as one of the most important pitches in the league.

As well as hosting cup finals and other tournaments, Maginn Park is also the current residence for Ireland Premier Division side Derry City FC while their pitch is undergoing renovation. With approximately 72 games per season and just a three week renovation period each year, Adrian has his work cut out to keep the pitch in good shape, whilst managing on a very limited budget.

At the start of every season Adrian and Colman Warde, Ireland Country Manager for ICL, will sit down to design a tailor made iTurf programme specifically for Maginn Park. By taking the iTurf approach, Colman and Adrian plan season-long effective programmes and solutions for establishing and maintaining healthy, resilient turf.

The programme sees Adrian start the year in early March with an application of ProTurf 20.0.7 to get the grass plant up and running.. This is followed in late April by the first of a monthly foliar application which Adrian applies from March to September. The foliar application combines ICL’s Ultimate Package 1 (consisting of Greenmaster Liquid Spring & Summer and Primo Maxx) which is mixed with Sportsmaster WSF SeaMax and Sportsmaster Liquid Fe. This combination is applied to promote denser growth, better rooting and also to build-up a tolerance to heavy wear, which is much needed for a pitch with such heavy usage.

In early May, SierrablenPlus Spring Starter is applied as a base feed, which gives Adrian long lasting results for three months.

During Adrian’s short renovation period he uses ProSelect Premium Pitch and Sportsmaster Spring & Summer to promote seed strike. Three weeks later, in early August, he will apply SierrablenPlus Active 19.5.18 + 2MgO as a base feed which will see him through until the end of the growing season. An application of ProTurf 12.5.20 is also made to help aid recovery through the autumn and winter period. This is supplemented with a tank-mix of Sportsmaster Liquid Iron Fe, Sportsmaster WSF SeaMax and Sportsmaster WSF Hi K.

As a volunteer with a limited budget, it is essential that every product works for Adrian and he believes that the ICL iTurf programme provides him with the perfect solution.

“As a premium brand, most would expect the ICL iTurf programme to be out of reach for a volunteer with a very limited budget. I would strongly argue otherwise because it has been an very cost-effective solution for me. When you sit down and do the maths, you work out that the ICL products are actually cheaper than others over a long-term period because they work so well and last significantly longer than most other products.

“The results have been outstanding and the pitch at Maginn Park has been in its best ever condition. The other thing to consider is that, as a volunteer I can’t always be here every day, so with the iTurf programme in place I know exactly where I am with everything at all times.”

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

GoGreen Energy Shines for the Owls

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GoGreen Energy Shines for the Owls – Andy Thompson, head groundsman at Sheffield Wednesday FC, has reported excellent results since using Sherriff Amenity’s GoGreen Energy bio-stimulant.

GoGreen Energy Shines for the Owls

Having started his career in groundsmanship with Doncaster Rovers FC back in 1998, Andy progressed through the ranks and landed the head groundsman’s role at Sheffield Wednesday FC in 2014.

A year later the club had a Desso Grassmaster pitch installed and Andy along with his team work around the clock in order to keep it in excellent condition. This is mainly due to heavy usage and the construction of Hillsborough Stadium.

The Stadium plays host to the first team, Under-18 cup matches and Under-23 league matches and throughout the 2016/17 season an incredible 154.5 hours of pitch usage was recorded. Along with such heavy usage Andy reports that the pitch suffers from shade issues due to the stands being high and constructed with old style structures complete with pitched roofs.

With this in mind, Andy, who has been working with Sherriff Amenity since his days at Doncaster Rovers, wanted a product that would help take some stress out of the grass sward and give the pitch a shine in the lead up to televised games. Upon a recommendation from Sherriff’s Amenity Specialists Joe Kinder and Tom Wood, Andy turned to GoGreen Energy.

GoGreen Energy is a concentrated bio-stimulant, formulated to assist plant health and relieve stress symptoms in a wide variety of amenity turf situations. Containing seaweed, plant sugars, simple carbohydrates and a specially selected full package of trace elements, GoGreen Energy provides optimum results when grass is stressed. The low NPK analysis, complemented by suitable wetting and spreading agents, makes this an ideal component of any turf maintenance programme.

Andy applies 60 litres of GoGreen Energy on a fortnightly basis or when using it the day before a match he applies 40 litres.

“GoGreen Energy has performed incredibly well and has given us a shine on the surface that is aesthetically pleasing – especially for a night time kick-off,” says Andy. “It has taken away some of the stresses the plant gets from a football match, the pitch has played better with a lot less scars forming and the rooting seems to have significantly improved.”

In addition to the great results from GoGreen Energy, Andy was quick to praise the customer service he receives from Sherriff Amenity.

“I meet regularly with my representative Tom Wood when we discuss pitch issues and how to raise the standards of the playing surface. We bounce ideas off each other and try to get the pitch rooting as healthy as possible in a short space of time. Joe Kinder (Sherriff Amenity’s Technical Manager) also comes to visit me twice a year, or more if required, to go through any technical improvements we can implement.

“Products always arrive in a swift manner and I know I can rely on Sherriff to be competitive on price and excellent on service.”

For further information, please contact Sherriff Amenity on 01638 721 888 or visitwww.sherriffamenity.com

DLF Help Youngsters On ‘Their Best School Trip Ever’

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DLF help youngsters get to hear of environmental issues, turf management and golf on ‘their best school trip ever’ – Kingsdown Golf Club in Wiltshire recently took the initiative to show children from a local primary school how environmental stewardship, sports turf management and the game of golf are positively linked.

DLF Help Youngsters On ‘Their Best School Trip Ever’

Tom Freeman, Deputy Course Manager, coordinated the event and was supported by DLF Seeds who donated wildflower seed for the children to sow around the course.

Plots were prepared on the club’s academy course for groups of children to sow the wildflower seeds.  During the activity they were told about ecology, pollinating species and the benefits wildflowers can bring to the course and its maintenance.  During this, other groups were also treated to chipping and putting tutorials from the Assistant Pro Michael Reeves and the Club Captain Leigh McCarron.

Following the event Tom said, “The day was a great success, the children were engaged and asked lots of questions about greenkeeping, golf and the planting of the wildflowers. Hopefully events such as this will inspire the next generations of sports turf managers, golfers and ecologists and signals the start of a mutually beneficial community relationship between the club and the community around us. We’d also like to say thanks to DLF and Ian Barnett for supplying us with the seed for the day.  Many of the children said it was the best school trip they’d ever been on – and we can’t ask for more than that!”

Dennis Mowers: “A Pedigree No-One Can Argue With”

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Dennis Mowers: “A pedigree no-one Can argue with” – Glenn Davies, grounds manager at Bloxham School in Oxfordshire has claimed that he chooses Dennis because of the “strength, history, quality and durability” of the mowers.

Dennis Mowers: “A pedigree no-one Can argue with”

Set in the beautiful countryside of Oxfordshire, Bloxham School is an independent co-educational day and boarding school for students aged 11-18. Although the school is best known for its academic success, Bloxham also boasts a superb sporting programme which is complimented by first-class facilities.

Glenn oversees the maintenance of around 40 acres of sports fields which includes seven rugby pitches, four cricket squares, one football pitch, one hockey pitch and two grass tennis courts. With over 400 pupils attending the school and playing sport on a regular basis, as well as the facilities being used by local and county sporting teams – it is safe to say that the pitches have a high amount of usage.

Helping Glenn and his team keep on-top of such heavy usage is the Dennis G860 cylinder mower, which they use on a variety of different sports surfaces.

“The Dennis G860 is a great bit of kit,” says Glenn. “We use it for cutting the cricket squares, for cutting the grass hockey pitches, both rugby and football pitches, and when we have county fixtures or cup games we will box off the cricket outfields because this gives it a much faster, truer surface so the ball will carry quicker.”

“In my opinion the G860 is one of the best machines you can get and with the interchangeable cassette system, it is extremely versatile.”

As Glenn says, the Dennis G860 features an interchangeable cassette system, and with a simple one minute changeover, users have the option of fitting eleven different types of heads including scarifiers, verticutters, brushes, spikers, and slitters as well as six or eight bladed cutting cylinders.

“In terms of the cassettes, we are particularly impressed with the scarifier, and we will use it lightly through the season so we can make sure we keep the thatch down to a minimum and the grass stood upright.”

“The brush is also a very useful cassette to have. We’ll use this throughout the season to keep the squares nice and clean, but we will also put the brush in after we’ve done a deep scarify in the autumn and the spring. This drags up all the grass the machines haven’t been able to pick up and it will also pick up all the debris and take it away. So when you put your top dressing down, you have got a clean, flat base to start with.”

“You just can’t beat the Dennis machines,” says Glenn. “There are other machines on the market but Dennis has got a pedigree that nobody can argue with – for me, it speaks of strength, history and durability. They’ve been around for a long time, they always deliver, and most groundsmen you talk to will favour a Dennis above anything else.”

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact Dennis 01332 824 777 or visit www.dennisuk.com