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Jeff Anguige takes early retirement

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Jeff Anguige takes early retirement: Reesink Turfcare has announced the retirement of its national sales manager Jeff Anguige after 21 years working with the Toro UK distributor and its predecessor Lely UK, and a total of 46 years serving the turfcare industry.

Jeff, 63, began working in the industry straight after leaving college, learning the business working at golf and grounds dealerships and turf machinery manufacturers such as Ransomes. In 1999 he joined the then Toro UK distributor Lely UK, with headquarters at St Neots, Cambs., as national Toro sales manager, responsible for spearheading sales of its golf course and sports turf maintenance machinery.

Jeff Anguige takes early retirement

Jeff Anguige takes early retirement

At Lely, and latterly Reesink, he has played a leading role in helping develop the Toro name and reputation for quality products that today sees it as the market-leading brand it has become.

It is, he says, his biggest career achievement: “Toro has been the constant in my working life at Lely and Reesink,” says Jeff. “For over two decades I’ve worked with a brilliant team to help it grow to where it is today – in my view, holding the number one spot for quality with its reputation preceding it.

“I’ve always had total belief in Toro. So many of my career highlights have come from witnessing how Toro has made such a huge difference for our customers. How it has greatly improved the quality of the golf course, made tasks easier for the greenkeeping team or solved a particular problem.  In my time I’ve seen Toro go to the top of not only the golf industry, but the sports sector and other fine turf sites, too. It’s now at a point where around 80 percent of Premiership football clubs, as well as other major sporting venues in, for example, cricket, rugby and tennis, also use Toro.”

Jeff has seen many big changes throughout his time in the industry. Among the biggest, he says, is the way in which clubs now buy their machinery. He says: “When I started, people tended to get their cheque book out and buy one piece of equipment at a time, outright. Now the majority of customers invest in fleet deals on finance. It gives the option to have more machines straightaway for the same level of investment, as well as the latest technology to maintain playing surfaces. The upscale is huge, as is the improvement in quality of playing surfaces. It’s certainly a very different market to when I started, and very much for the better.”

David Cole, managing director at Reesink, pays tribute to Jeff and the instrumental role he’s played with the company: “Jeff has been at the forefront of the Toro equipment success for over twenty years and his focus and dedication will be challenging for the business to replace. I am sure that the extensive contacts and colleagues Jeff has built up during his time in the industry will want to join us at Reesink in wishing him all the very best for a well-earned and enjoyable retirement. Jeff will always be able to look back with pride on his role with the Toro brand, as a job well done”.

Jeff plans to spend his retirement in his native Yorkshire, where he lives in Gomersal with his wife, Julie, enjoying time with his family and grandchildren – and, of course, playing golf!

A man who enjoys huge respect and fondness from among his many friends and colleagues in the industry, Jeff says: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working in the industry and am delighted to have been a part of it. It’s a relationship industry and I’ve gained friends for life. I believe it still offers great career opportunities for young people and will watch with interest as the next generation comes through.

“Despite the current difficulties presented by Covid-19, I’m confident that Reesink, Toro and the turfcare industry has an exciting future,” he says. “Yes, there will be challenges and changes ahead, but also plenty of opportunities. I wish it and all my friends and colleagues in the industry every success for the future.”

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Pitch perfect at Holwell Sports

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Pitch perfect at Holwell Sports: Carel Fourie has been named the United Counties League Groundsman of the Year after the Welby Road turf impressed judges.

“It’s a great honour. As a Division One side, winning the award which also includes the Premier Division is a great honour,” said Sports chairman Graham Lewin.

“We’re very proud of our pitch – our whole ground – and the work Carel does is exceptional.

“When opposition teams come to us their first thought is always ‘wow, what a pitch’.”

Mr Fourie – who is aided by Ed Pearson, Bill Harding and Graham Parker – was delighted with the accolade.

“I felt very happy, it was a very proud feeling” he said.

“It’s always nice when the club gets praise for the surface. We work hard to keep the pitch looking nice all the time and if you put in the hard work it pays off and you get your rewards.”

Mr Fourie – a groundskeeper of 14 years – has been with the club for three years and previously worked at Stapleford Park Golf Club.

He describes his job as a ‘passion’ and has been lovingly tending the pitch and the adjacent training area during lockdown.

“We’d be ready to go tomorrow,” he added.

“It wouldn’t be perfect, but we could play football on there now.”

Mr Lewin added: “On the Saturdays we aren’t at home, our academy sides can play on the main pitch.

“As you can imagine, they love it. It’s like playing at Wembley for them.”

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Harrowden Turf re-opens Stewarts Turf Office

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Harrowden Turf re-opens Stewarts Turf Office: Harrowden Turf is pleased to announce the re-opening of our Edinburgh Office from where we trade as Stewarts Turf.

After nine weeks in lockdown the office has re-opened and we look forward to re-establishing business with all of our Scottish customers whether they are landscapers, designers, garden centres, local authorities, sports facilities or just anyone with a garden project.

Harrowden Turf re-opens Stewarts Turf Office

Harrowden Turf re-opens Stewarts Turf Office

Through our Scottish business – Stewarts Turf – we have strong roots in the landscaping trade and we’re immensely proud of our Scottish Heritage.

Stewarts Turf began growing top quality cultivated turf in the Edinburgh area over 25 years ago.

Our Edinburgh depot supplies turf and landscaping products to gardeners and landscape professionals throughout most of Scotland. From Glasgow, Dundee, Perth and way up to Aberdeen our lorries deliver turf, wildflower turf, sedum matting and topsoil to a wide range of projects.

Sales Associate Eleanor Kennaway – who has been with Stewartsturf for 15 years explains:-
“Delivering a living product to the more remote geographical areas of Scotland can be a challenge but customer satisfaction is at the core of our business supplying the right product to the right place at the right time.”

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Intelligent One change name to Turf Tank

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Intelligent One change name to Turf Tank: Industry leading robotic line marking company, Intelligent One, has changed their name to the US brand title, Turf Tank.

Until now, the company has been operating under Intelligent Marking everywhere outside of the United States. The decision has been made to bring the company together as one, and this merge will also see the renaming of the GPS line marker which will now be known as the Turf Tank One. This has been one of many positive developments at the Danish company along with the appointment of new CEO Olav Jørgensen and COO Morten Kaalund.

Intelligent One change name to Turf Tank

Intelligent One change name to Turf Tank

The company are also happy to announce the launch of the latest software update that delivers much-requested features as well as improving both usability and reliability. This begins with the update process itself, which can now be done straight from the tablet. When a newly updated tablet connects to a robot with an older software version, it will update the robot with the push a button.

Other major features of the 1.5 update include setting flags/points right from the tip of the nozzle, being able to rotate a field around its centre or in discrete steps (1/45/90 degree increments etc.), moving the field by pushing buttons next to the edge of the field itself and a new ‘select shape’ dialogue that makes browsing through route plans more intuitive.

For more information or to schedule a demonstration of the Turf Tank One in the United Kingdom, contact ProSport UK Ltd

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TopDrain 1000 gives AMS the space they need

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TopDrain 1000 gives AMS the space they need: Sports turf and land drainage contractors, AMS Contracting, needed a secondary drainage machine that could work at 1m and 0.5 spacings and got that and more with the KoroÒ TopDrainÒ 1000, supplied through Campey Turf Care Systems.

The West Sussex based company work on projects throughout the United Kingdom and had been using other secondary drainage machines, but customer demand for 1m spacing led them to consider the TopDrainÒ 1000.

TopDrain 1000 gives AMS the space they need

TopDrain 1000 gives AMS the space they need

Secondary drainage is a relatively quick and affordable drainage solution that can be implemented with minimal disruption to a surface. Because the TopDrainÒ creates open channels up to 260mm in depth to the primary drainage, it can be an extremely important tool for pitches because it offers a quick response to rainfall which often reduces postponements or areas being unusable.

Ben Taylor, Product Specialist for Campeys accompanied Ashley Strange with his brother Myles, co-owners and managers of AMS Contracting, to view the machine in action at the Imants factory in Holland. Both were very impressed with the high-quality engineering of the TopDrainÒ and could see it was exactly what they were looking for.

“We found that not all of our clients wanted or needed 0.5m spacing, so we wanted to find a solution to offer them,” Ashley explained. “There were some factors away from spacing like the build quality, labour time and availability of the machine that were high on our list and after seeing it at the Imants factory, we were sure it was what we needed. Everything from the engineering to the quality of the paintwork was impressive and we placed the order there and then.

“We had quite a few pitches to get through in early Spring so a quick turnaround time for us was essential and Campey had the machine with us a week after we viewed it in Holland.

“Now, we’ve already used the TopDrainÒ on cricket and football pitches which has gone very well, and it will soon be working on some rugby pitches. It’s dealt really well with tough compacted surfaces and because it’s fully operated from the cab the labour time when using it compared to our other machines has been significantly reduced.

“It’s very easy to set up and changing the spacing to suit what each of our clients want is quick and easy because you don’t have to remove any parts, which can be time consuming on other machines. Wearing parts are quick to change as well, and whenever we’ve needed replacements, we’ve received them the next day from Campey which has been great.”

The TopDrainÒ provides a complete one-pass surface drainage system. It trenches, removes spoil and injects sand before re-compacting the surface in one pass. Its operation reduces material costs and labour with faster processing and less surface contamination than conventional methods. The process creates a sand grid that is designed to complement existing drainage and has been very successful on a number of sports pitches.

To watch a video that demonstrates how the unique one pass operation works, visit www.campeyturfcare.com.

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

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