Amateur Sports Pitches Can Win A Premiership Makeover

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Amateur Sports Pitches Can Win A Premiership Makeover: Amateur sports teams across the country are in with the chance to be able to renovate their pitch to premiership standards!Amateur Sports Pitches Can Win A Premiership Makeover

“Pitch to Play” has been launched by Allett and the Institute of Groundsmanship (the IOG) to find the amateur pitch that is most in need of a makeover, and will award the chosen club with some top of the range groundskeeping equipment worth £3,000, plus a bespoke pitch maintenance programme from the IOG.

Pitch to Play is open to any amateur sports team in the UK that has an under 18s team, no matter what sport.

Allett and the IOG want to recognise the hard work that amateur groundsteams and volunteers are undertaking across the country, often with limited resources and equipment. Pitch to Play champions amateur groundstaff and gives them the opportunity to renovate the pitches that they look after, whilst brightening the future for their club.

Leigh Bowers, sales director at Allett, said: “We know that there is nothing worse than trying to play on a poor-quality sports pitch, and appreciate the hours of hard work that groundsteams and volutneers put in. We are eager to help transform the winner’s grounds into something that not only their team, but also their community, can be proud of.”

“Allett lawnmowers are the best in business for professional groundskeepers. Our machines are used on some of the top premiership pitches and the most famous sports grounds around the world. Pitch to Play gives grassroots teams the chance to win equipment to renovate their pitches which will reap benefits for seasons to come!” he added.

The winner of Pitch to Play will receive £3,000 to be used on the purchase of a new Allett lawnmower to help maintain the pitch to a professional, premiership standard. The runners up will win £500 towards the club kitty and third place will win £250. All prize winners will also receive a tailor-made maintenance programme from the IOG to help maintain the pitch for the future, along with a new kit and pitch side sponsorship.

If you think that your pitch needs some TLC, then visit www.pitchtoplay.co.uk to enter and send in at least three photos, showing why your club deserves to win.

The closing date is 1 November 2017.

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Montrose Rewrites History With Landmark Name Change

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Montrose Rewrites History With Landmark Name Change: Montrose Golf Links has announced unprecedented plans to rename one of the oldest golf courses in the world. The bid to relaunch the renowned Medal Course at Montrose as the 1562 Course is part of an enterprising plan to recognise the significant role played by the ancient east coast course in the world of golf.

Montrose Rewrites History With Landmark Name Change

The rebranding exercise will be the first time the course has gone through such a process and will be completed during the 2018 season when the world’s oldest major; the Open Championship, returns to the Angus region. The historic change will also be accompanied by a number of exciting initiatives designed to celebrate 450 years of golf at the two-times Open Championship Final Qualifying venue.

Jason Boyd, PGA Professional and Operations Manager at Montrose Golf Links, described the launch of the 1562 Course as an exciting and positive move. “We don’t make enough of the fact that golf was first recorded in Montrose in 1562,” said Boyd who spearheaded the idea. “The name change will give even more credibility to our golf offering and by doing so will open up new doors. Bringing 1562 to the fore will make a huge difference. It’s the most important aspect we have and it is our biggest marketing strength – we need to make as much of it as we can.”

The renaissance of the Montrose course, which hosted the PGA EuroPro Tour’s Eagle Orchid Scottish Masters in June, will be unveiled through a series of events and announcements leading up to the formal relaunch at the start of the golfing season. The idea to rename the fifth oldest golf course in the world certainly breaks with convention and is believed to be unprecedented in modern times.

“This is a fairly bold move, especially in the world of golf,” noted Boyd. “Courses that have been around for 450 years don’t often receive makeovers like this, but we feel assigning the date to the course name clearly illustrates the extraordinary golfing heritage that exists here as well as the significance of Montrose in terms of the development of the game.”

The stunning east coast course, which features seven spectacular cliff-face holes and regularly appears in the most prestigious golf rankings, has been shaped by some of the foremost names in golf including Willie Park Jr, Old Tom Morris and Harry Colt. Indeed, with over four centuries of golf under its belt, the current layout has a classic feel and is widely regarded as one of the most natural links layouts in Scotland.

“It’s very natural. It has stuck to the same layout for more than 100 years,” said Boyd. “Changing the name gives us an opportunity to raise awareness of the course and reach out to a wider audience. As soon as you mention 1562, you open doors that haven’t have been open to us until now. Golfers realise the significance of dates in golf and they know how important they are. The fact we are celebrating the fabulous golfing heritage that is synonymous with Montrose will only serve to attract more people to visit this unique place and play one of the oldest courses in the world for themselves.”

Montrose Golf Links features two traditional links courses; The Medal and The Broomfield and is located a 30-minute drive from Carnoustie – host of the 147th Open Championship – and 1 ½-hrs drive from St Andrews.

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New Addition To ICL’s Greenmaster Pro-Lite Range

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New Addition To ICL’s Greenmaster Pro-Lite Range: ICL has announced the launch of an upgrade to its autumn/winter fine turf fertilizer range.

New Addition To ICL’s Greenmaster Pro-Lite Range

Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator Plus 4-0-14 +8Fe +2MgO is a new formulation to fit within the autumn/winter turf range with higher iron and potassium content than the original Invigorator.

Over recent years, ICL’s Greenmaster Pro-Lite fertilizers have gained a reputation as an outstanding micro-granular fertilizer range, for high quality, fine turf nutrition. With eleven various formulations within the range, Greenmaster Pro-Lite offers a solution for every requirement in every season.

“The new formulation Invigorator Plus has been developed to give an improved colour response and greater longevity,” says Henry Bechelet, Technical Sales Manager for ICL Turf & Landscape in the UK & Ireland. “It is designed to sustain turf health through autumn, winter and spring and help reduce the risk of disease and moss invasion into high quality turf. We are excited about this new formulation because it contains the mineral polyhalite, which we have found can bring enhanced turf colour and quality responses.”

Polyhalite is an organic multi-fertilizer which contains sulphur, potassium, magnesium and calcium which are all fully available to the plant. Deposited over 200 million years ago, it is a complex crystal product which has been discovered at a depth of 1300 metres below the earth’s surface under the North Sea and is mined at ICL’s own mine in Cleveland.

With polyhalite now included in a number of ICL fertilizers, turf managers have been quick to report excellent results and Henry believes that this trend is set to continue with the launch of Invigorator Plus.

“This new analysis was tested against various alternatives and proved to be the best in terms of turf colour, quality and longevity. We know that the original Greenmaster Invigorator already has a loyal following and so we are running the Invigorator Plus alongside its sister formulation. We hope that everyone using Invigorator Plus this autumn and winter will see the added benefits of this new formulation.”

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

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SIS Pitches Announced as Main Partner at Oxford City Pitch Launch

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SIS Pitches Announced as Main Partner at Oxford City Pitch Launch: Oxford City FC have announced SIS Pitches as their Main Partner for the 2017/18 season in Vanarama National League South.

SIS Pitches Announced as Main Partner at Oxford City Pitch Launch

The City announced the partnership at the launch of their brand new SISTurf 3G pitch at Marsh Lane ahead of the pre season friendly with local rivals Oxford United.

The sponsorship deal will see SIS Pitches feature on the front of the new Oxford City Home and Away shirts and includes an ongoing maintenance package for the state of the art facility at Marsh Lane.

A record crowd of 2276 fans came to watch the Oxford United game on the new pitch at Marsh Lane, which took SIS Pitches just 11 weeks to complete.  The work included removal of the natural turf pitch and the installation of the brand new SISTurf Soccer Pro 50 surface and new crowd barriers.

The new facility is set to be a huge boost for the club and the local community with over 40 local clubs, including neighbours Oxford United, set to benefit from playing at Court Place Farm.

Director of football Justin Merritt is now hoping City can use all the excitement surrounding the renovation to their advantage.

“It’s a big transformation,” he said, “and we are grateful to our Main Partner SIS Pitches for all of their support on the fantastic project.

“The players turned up for the first time a few weeks ago and were amazed at how it looked and there was a lot of excitement about it.  To have a record crowd on the first game played on the 3G surface is unbelievable.

He added: “It’s not just the first team, it’s everybody – the junior team, the disability team – we want to make a massive push to get the club on its rightful standing.”

Matthew Streeter, Contracts Manager at SIS Pitches, commented; “We are very proud to become the Main Partner Sponsor at Oxford City and to have worked on this project.

“We have seen how a brand new facility like this can transform clubs in non league football and provide substantial benefits for the local community but also for the commercial benefit of the club and we have no doubt it will do the same for Oxford City and we look forward to playing a continued role in the utilisation of the project.

City are in good company with the synthetic turf, and join the likes of Manchester City F.C., the West Ham Foundation, Derby County, Norwich City, Redditch United and Bedworth United.

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Investment Brings Dividends To ‘Loveliest Castle In The World’

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Investment Brings Dividends To ‘Loveliest Castle In The World’: Irrigation system completes Foundation investment at Leeds Castle Golf Club. Leeds Castle in Kent is at the conclusion of a two-year project to revitalise the golf course and clubhouse.

Irrigation system completes Foundation investment at Leeds Castle Golf Club

The extensive project ends with the installation of a Toro Lynx control system, Toro T7 sprinklers on the tees, Toro Flex 35 and 55 sprinklers on all the greens, approaches and fairways of the nine-hole golf course, and Toro 570Z series sprinklers installed around the lawns of the Castle island.

The historic golf course has invested £500,000 from the Golf Today Foundation by revising the layout of the course, adding new vistas, installing new holes and updating the clubhouse. But as Shane Guy, head of tourism, says, there is little point to all that good work if the irrigation system isn’t up to the task of keeping the course in perfect condition: “We needed to protect the work we have done on the greens, tees and the three dry fairways”.

Recommended by PGA master professional and golf course architect Alan Walker and installed by specialist contractor MJ Abbott, the irrigation has been such a success a further system has subsequently been brought across the moat on to the castle island too, with a further 130 sprinklers providing water to the croquet lawn, Maiden’s Tower garden and upper and lower level gardens.

Shane says: “Our system was over 40 years old and did not work properly or consistently. The controlling of the system, from a tablet, is easy for the greenkeepers and they know that their hard work will not go to waste because of a faulty irrigation system. Our greens in particular have really benefitted from the system.”

Set against the backdrop of what is widely accepted as the ‘loveliest castle in the world’, Leeds Castle Golf Course was awarded the investment to help turn the tides of decline seen in the rounds of golf played and the income received. And that “standing start” as Shane puts it has paid dividends: season tickets are up by 250 in just two years.

Having the finances to make improvements doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the team behind the investment to make it worthwhile though, and Leeds Castle has certainly that in its favour. Shane says: “PGA professional golf manager Steve Purves leads an accomplished greenkeeping team of five and we’re lucky to have Alan Walker continuing to consult and inspire the team. The STRI provides invaluable advice on agronomy output and MJ Abbott worked around us as a 24-hour venue, knowing when we needed to do quiet work.”

Jim Price of MJ Abbott comments that installation of this project came with its challenges: “With a moat and lake to negotiate access wasn’t easy, but with a temporary floating bridge constructed to allow machinery to travel from the golf course to the lower island lawns we managed it. The effort was worth it to enable the irrigation to be installed on the castle lawns for the first time.”

Shane concludes: “The course is in great shape and seeing through the investment from the Foundation has been an honour. Now the hard work starts in repaying that investment and maintaining the high standards. The support of the PGA south region has been important too and we have enjoyed working with them for the last three years in the run up to the Leeds Castle PGA South Pro-Amateur Tournament, which is on 12 September in 2017.”

If any more confirmation was needed it’s this: Leeds Castle lines up alongside the Golf in Kent Partners that comprise the county’s Open Championship venues of Royal St George’s – home of 14 Open Championships, Royal Cinque Ports and Prince’s Golf Club, as well as the London Golf Club and the Final Open Qualifying venues of North Foreland and Littletone meaning they’re in good company to say the least.

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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