New Non-Turf Practice Nets Impress At Oxenhope CC

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New Non-Turf Practice Nets Impress At Oxenhope CC: When Halifax Cricket League side Oxenhope CC looked into investing in a new synthetic cricket nets facility at its village ground near Keighley, due to minimal space on site it became evident that additional land was required to enable construction. The club purchased land adjacent to the ground after three years of negotiation – however, the project was not to be plain sailing.

The club applied and was subsequently rejected for Sport England funding but, led by club Chair Derek Hopkinson, launched an in-house fundraising campaign to generate capital. A significant sum was raised through club efforts, with the club then applying successfully for an ECB loan to make up the remainder of the required funds.

With the funding secured, the next stage involved the selection of a supplier from a shortlist of companies providing ECB approved non-turf facilities. Significant research was carried out before total-play was awarded the contract, with the team’s in-depth knowledge, quality of product and fair quote highlighted as key factors in its appointment.

New Non-Turf Practice Nets Impress At Oxenhope CC

At construction stage came another new challenge. The newly procured land on which the facility was to be constructed was not only overgrown with unmanaged established trees and self-seeded shrubs, but the run off from the adjacent cricket fields drained into the area. The gradients on the plot were also well outside those acceptable to build a practice facility. To remedy these issues, total-play worked closely with the club’s local groundwork contractor to specify a programme of clearance and levelling.

This involved the removal of all trees, shrubs, associated root mass and organic material before the gradients – as much as 1.5m over the length of the area – were graded out. During this phase of works, catchment drains were installed to protect the base of the system from the main pitch run off, connected into new purpose-built soakaways. The exposed boundary edge was retained with a concrete sleeper wall and the whole area consolidated and graded to the required tolerance for building the new ECB approved practice facility.

With total-play then taking the reins on site, the specification for the system itself was adapted to include a deeper than normal base aggregate profile. This raised the system above the formation layer and surrounding ground and was finished with a concrete kerb perimeter to offer increased drainage capacity, longevity and performance. On top of this bespoke foundation, total-play then installed a 2 lane, 33m facility to its ECB approved tp365 system design.

Finishing touches to the facility included black powder coated steelwork, batting curtains, training lines added to the full width woven playing surface carpets, HD Protection Tunnel netting, a 2m high security fence and access steps down to the facility from the outfield. A stretch of carpet was also laid in front of the pavilion to help keep this high-traffic area clean and tidy.

Club Chair Derrick Hopkinson says:

“We’ve known David Bates from the circuit for a number of years, so had full confidence that his expertise would deliver a first-class facility. When at quotation stage the total-play proposal was among the most competitive on the table, our decision was pretty much made.

 “The project ran smoothly throughout despite it not being the most straightforward. total-play worked well with our local contractors and the entire club is delighted with the new nets. The facility has been used throughout the season and saved wear and tear on our cricket square. Visiting Clubs are very impressed with our new facility and consider it to be one of the best, if not the best, in the League.”

To find out more about total-play’s range of ECB approved non-turf cricket pitch solutions, visit www.total-play.co.uk

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A Numbers Game At The Buckinghamshire

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A Numbers Game At The Buckinghamshire: Club completes course redesign and Toro irrigation install

It’s all in the numbers for The Buckinghamshire Golf Club, which has recently undergone a £3 million course redesign. The course has been lengthened to 7200 Championship yards, 112 bunkers have been redesigned to 64 and the 25-year irrigation system has been replaced with a new Toro Lynx controller with 1275 Flex 35 and T5 sprinklers, ensuring that not an inch of the 226 acre venue goes without a good watering.

Course manager Andy Ewence who has been at the club in Denham for five years says the club has very high standards and the course, which was designed by John Jacobs OBE and is host to numerous competitions, needed some alterations to ensure its position as one of the finest inland course in the British Isles: “We wanted to update some aspects of the course. Lengthening it adds a new challenge for our members and better suits the tournaments we host. We’ve reduced 112 bunkers to 64, relocated the remaining 64 and lined every one with bunker Blinder. We’ve added lake edges to two feature holes and concrete pathways for ease of movement around the course.”

A Numbers Game At The Buckinghamshire

It was while making these changes that Andy and the team decided to replace the irrigation system. Andy explains: “The irrigation system was 25 years old and as a result the PVC piping was turning brittle, it was very unreliable and the computer system needed updating. And all of these factors were visibly displaying on the course. We had dry patches and grass that was turning yellow. Redesigning the course was the perfect time to update the system.”

Andy says the owners were very much behind the investment and encouraged him to seek out “the best”, a decision Andy turned to irrigation specialists Lakes and Greens to help him make. “We were after the highest specification, the full package,” says Andy. “Wall-to-wall sprinklers, a mapping system and Grundfos pumps that work with the controllers were key.

“We are very familiar with the Toro brand as we are on a five-year leasing package for all our turf machinery and the quality is outstanding. But Toro Irrigation was chosen for its own merit and it was the Lynx control system in particular that sold it to me. I’ve been using the system since April 2017 and in my opinion it is the best system I could have chosen, it’s so easy to work with. But the real proof is in the grass, it looks amazing: green and lush and the members have really noticed a difference.” It definitely helps having over a thousand sprinklers working their magic!

Mike Collins, managing director of Lakes and Greens, the company renowned for meeting the standards required by Championship venues, installed the product and comments: “The installation at the Buckinghamshire was achieved in two very tight windows of opportunity, both deadlines were met despite appalling weather conditions in early 2016 thanks to the leadership of contracts director Mark Collins. We enjoy a strong relationship with the Reesink team and its support of the Toro product is excellent.”

The Buckinghamshire is a regular host of Ladies European Tour events, including the ISPS Handa Ladies European Masters, but it has taken a break while the renovations have taken place. With a return to normal hosting duties expected next year all the eyes on The Buckinghamshire will be rewarded with a green and glorious view.

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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Sand Plays Major Role In Kingsbarns Summer Success

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Sand Plays Major Role In Kingsbarns Summer Success: Kingsbarns Golf Links may be no stranger to accolades, but its distinction as the ideal setting for the Ricoh Women’s British Open has now been verified by one of golf’s most respected authorities.

The Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) recorded excellent performance data during this summer’s tournament, resulting in some of the most consistent figures collated during championships.

What makes these findings even more impressive is that this year’s flagship event was mired by extreme weather conditions culminating in torrential downpours. Yet despite the unseasonal deluges, the course dried up quickly and the tournament was completed on time. The STRI has now confirmed that the women’s major was contested over an exceptional course with consistent sand top dressings being one of the primary reasons for success.

Sand Plays Major Role In Kingsbarns Summer Success

He continued: “Achieving the targets was particularly pleasing because of the challenging weather conditions experienced throughout the championship with heavy rain falling on most afternoons and evenings. The results were outstanding and the use of the sand was a major influence. Regular sanding provides the foundations for firmness which allows you to achieve target green speeds. If the greens had softened, we wouldn’t have achieved the results we recorded.”

With a client list that includes all nine Open Championship venues and many of Europe’s top clubs, the STRI collects performance data to deliver unparalleled benchmarking analysis. With this in mind, a threshold of six to eight inches is set between the fastest and slowest greens during tournament play. For this year’s Women’s Open, that difference was particularly good at Kingsbarns with a variance down to just three inches – a level of consistency not achieved before now.

“The consistency of the firmness between the greens was excellent,” said Windows. All the greens remained within target despite significant rainfall during the championship.”

Using a Stimpmeter, Windows was able to check the pace of the Kingsbarns greens twice daily in order to make fine adjustments when required. He also checked other key performance indicators such as firmness and smoothness. The consistency of results were unprecedented, as Innes Knight, course and facility manager at Kingsbarns explained.

“When we Stimped a green and it was not quite where we wanted it, we would cut it again,” said Knight. “We were able to get all 18 greens and the practice putting green to within three inches of each other. It was that close. A lot of them were exactly the same.”

Knight, who has been looking after the tees, greens and fairways at Kingsbarns since it opened in 2000, said the data was exceptional. “We’re not just talking about the smoothness and the speed, we’re also talking about the firmness,” he said. “So between the results for the stimping, the firmness and the smoothness, they were all consistent. I believe they’re some of the best readings ever.”

Sand is used on golf courses to reduce organic material and improve drainage. It also has a huge impact on putting surfaces, as Windows was keen to point out. “The sand influences firmness and because the greens retained a good level of firmness, it was easier to achieve the target green speeds and consistency between greens. This was achieved with the aid of Hugh King’s Washed Dune sand.”

Hugh King & Co supplies sands to over 120 golf courses including all Open Championship venues in Scotland, and Kingsbarns for the last 12 years. Here, Hugh King’s Washed Dune Sand is used for topdressing greens, surrounds and fairways.

“Kingsbarns has a well-earned reputation for delivering an incredible golfing experience which has rightly propelled it to the top of many golfers’ wish lists,” said Graeme King, managing director of Hugh King & Co. “These results from the STRI clearly show this appreciation is founded on the meticulous preparation programme followed by the greenkeeping team at Kingsbarns. It is particularly gratifying to know that our Washed Dune sand is playing a central role in this effort.”

The Ricoh Women’s British Open was the first time the STRI had measured a women’s Major on behalf of The R&A following the amalgamation between the Ladies’ Golf Union (LGU) and The R&A. It was also the first Major golf championship to be contested across Kingsbarns Golf Links.

Hugh King & Co is one of the country’s leading suppliers of sports sands. The family run firm has been delivering top-grade materials to key industry sectors for over 160 years.

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Duralock Launches Half Mesh

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Duralock Launches Half Mesh: Duralock is the market leading manufacturer of PVC-u sports and equestrian fencing systems; including post and rail, movable barriers, gates and crowd barriers.

Duralock Launches Half Mesh

The company has recently launched an exciting new product under their Duralock Sports Performance Fencing label; Half-Mesh ‘Multi-purpose’ Pitch Fencing.

It has been developed specifically with sports clubs in mind and is designed to flex under impact, reducing the risk of injury. With concealed fixings and smooth rounded surfaces the whole system is exceptionally safe and the half-mesh design prevents the ball from leaving the field of play. The design also lends itself easily to advertising, allowing clubs to benefit from an additional revenue stream.

All Duralock fencing systems are suitable for use on all surfaces, from natural turf to AGP and 3G and are available as permanent or removable fixtures making them ideal for multi-use sports facilities.

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Bristol and Clifton GC Awarded After Drainage Investment

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Bristol and Clifton Golf Club awarded ‘England Golf  Championship Venue’ status after Greens Drainage Investment.

The historic Bristol and Clifton Golf Club turned to specialist drainage firm Shelton Sportsturf Drainage to solve the problem of waterlogged greens ahead of their 125th anniversary year in 2016. The club’s Greens Chairman Carey Ashworth said: “Prior to 2015 we played on temporary greens every winter as, unlike our fairways which are built on naturally draining stone, our greens were built on clay and were simply far too wet to allow play in the wetter months. We had two very important events for the club in the summer of 2016 – our 125th anniversary which was to be celebrated with a summer festival and also the English Ladies Amateur Open Strokeplay Championship, so we were under pressure to ensure that the course was in perfect condition. We considered complete reconstruction of the greens, but with cost and recovery time being a limiting factor we decided against it. On the advice of our agronomist David Stansfield we researched specialist drainage. Our Head Greenkeeper Matt Hawker met Mick Claxton from Shelton Sportsturf Drainage at the BTME in 2015 and was impressed with the results they had achieved with their machinery in a short period of time and with little disruption. So, we made the decision to implement a drainage program on 9 of our wettest greens in the Autumn of that year.  Mick recommended that we use their Lightning Drain System and backfill the trenches with Sportag which has a hydraulic conductivity 10 times that of gravel, this would enable a faster flow of water away from the surface for optimum results. Shelton supplied the machinery in the form of a tractor, System 25 Trencher and an operator. We started work in the Autumn of 2015, installing 25mm perforated land drainage pipes in 35mm wide trenches backfilled with Sportag in a one pass operation. The pipes were installed at 500mm centres to give us a really efficient drainage system.

The greens recovered very well, they remained playable throughout the winter recovery period and the drainage worked brilliantly. In fact, the greens which had been Lightning Drained, which had previously been the worst on the course, remained open all winter when all the other  greens were on temporaries. By the time we welcomed the English Ladies for the Strokeplay championship the greens were in top condition, rolling and playing very well. We were extremely happy to hear the players tell us how impressed they were with the greens and also to be awarded ‘Championship Venue’ status by English Golf.

In June 2017, we commissioned an independent report from David Stansfield who reported that in the last 6 months thatch levels on the drained greens had reduced by 20% without any mechanical intervention, scarifying or hollow coring, whereas thatch levels on the undrained greens had increased by 10%. The maintenance has been no different, we haven’t had to implement any special treatment or change our routines, yet the greens now drain well and are healthier and less prone to disease. Our members have noticed the difference in play, the improvement in firmness, dryness and true roll and one of our neighbouring clubs has also planned in a scheme of drainage works after seeing the results of ours. We have plans to drain a further 5 greens next year and the remaining 5 at some point after that. I would certainly encourage anyone who may be considering reconstruction to improve their greens drainage to look at the Shelton system first. You may be able to save yourself a lot of time and money”.

To find more about how your sportsturf can benefit from a good drainage system, visit sheltonsdrainage.com or call 01507 578288.

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