New Ventrac Package For CGM

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New Ventrac Package For CGM: The CGM Group (East Anglia) Ltd is one of the latest landscape contractors to purchase a Ventrac package from Price Turfcare. Supplied by local dealer Ernest Doe & Sons, the package includes a Ventrac 4500 compact tractor and Finishing deck.

Managing director Tim Glover and his wife Julie started the business over 35 years ago carrying out grass cutting for the local authority in West Dereham and now provides grounds maintenance, landscaping, arboriculture, facilities management and pest control services to commercial and domestic customers throughout East Anglia. The Group employs over 180 staff working on a wide range of contracts from local authorities, agricultural processors, housing associations, schools and sports clubs through to one-off hard landscaping projects. CGM Group has bases in King’s Lynn, Norwich, Cambridge and Peterborough and regularly undertake projects in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk.

New Ventrac Package For CGM Group

Explaining the rationale behind the purchase of the Ventrac package, Head of Operations Marcus Glover said,

“We were in the market for a new machine for our contracts with large factories and distribution centres and saw the Ventrac at LAMMA. I spoke to Rupert Price and he arranged a demonstration, which took place in February. It performed really well and we took delivery soon after. At the moment it is used exclusively for these mowing contracts, but we’ll be looking at the Power Rake and Power Brush attachments later this year as we can see more applications that will suit our business. It’s certainly a versatile machine.”

Adrian (Ady) Seymour is the principal operator and has been with CGM for 12 years. Commenting on the attributes of the machine he said,

“This is a great machine for the operator; it’s comfortable, highly manoeuvrable and very easy to use. The hand controls are intuitive and the articulating frame means we can get into tight areas, reducing additional strimming time. A tank of fuel lasts all day and once I’ve finished, I can clean it down with a light pressure washing. The deck flips up almost vertically, so that helps with cleaning, greasing and blade changing. Under the bonnet everything on the Kubota engine is easily accessible and I can easily access the radiator to blow it clear with a compressed air line.

New Ventrac Package For CGM Group

“With its eight-wheel configuration it’s also very safe on slopes and good in wet conditions. The Finishing deck leaves a really nice finish, so much so, that I’ve been complimented by senior managers at several of our customers when I stripe up the roadside verges and entrance roads to their sites.”

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The ClearWater Cup 2019

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The ClearWater Cup 2019: Bishopswood Golf Club was the venue for this year’s CourseCare Cup held recently when the South Coast Greenkeepers played the Wessex Managers.

Bishopswood, a challenging 9 hole par 72 course receives very good reviews and 9 holes is certainly no indication of it being easy! Lee James and his greenkeeping team had ensured that this pleasant course was at its best. With an ideal day weather-wise for play, both teams set off with the Managers keen to prise the trophy away from the Greenkeepers.

The ClearWater Cup 2019

The Managers, captained by Burley’s Jane Harfield, did prevail and enjoyed an emphatic three matches to one win! Congratulations to them and commiserations to the Greenkeepers.

Matthew Mears, General Manager of Acumen’s ClearWater Division presented the ClearWater Cup to Jane Harfield and the day was rounded off by drinks and a meal for all with thanks given to Acumen for their sponsorship for this popular event.

The ClearWater Cup 2019

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Campey Host Educational Tour

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Campey Host Educational Tour: Thirty-eight groundsmen from Denmark and Spain have spent three-days learning from some of the best turf professionals the United Kingdom has to offer on a Campey Turf Care Systems educational tour.

The trip was arranged by Thomas Jorgensen, chairman of the Groundsman Association of Denmark, Campey’s Danish dealer, Havdrup Maskinforretning and Spanish dealer Deltacinco. The emphasis of the tour was to learn from experienced groundsmen while looking at the technology they are using.

Campey Host Educational Tour

Typically, Danish groundsmen operate on lower budgets compared to their UK counterparts, and this was taken into consideration when picking venues with Salford City Reds and Newcastle Under Lyme Football Club both chosen to show that high-quality surfaces can be achieved with a smaller budget.

The 38 strong group also visited leading venues such as Arsenal’s London Colney training centre, Liverpool Football Club, Stoke City Football Club, Tottenham Hotspur’s Enfield Training Ground and the brand-new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium where head of playing surfaces and estates, Darren Baldwin, gave up his time to give the group a tour of the stunning new facility and answer questions from the groundsmen. Thomas thinks everyone on the trip has benefitted from getting to interact with the groundsmen from each club while seeing the pitches they produce.

He said: “I thought the variety of venues we visited was excellent, we saw the top of it all in terms of stadium, but we also experienced some more down-to-earth facilities that we can better relate to, but it is important to experience both on such a trip.

Campey Host Educational Tour

“It is very important to be able to learn from others in the industry who have experiences that we don’t yet have ourselves. The English football pitches are on a different level to Denmark, so the experience is important. However, we must remember that the money is also different in England.

“For me, the experience was absolutely great. We visited Steve Braddock at Arsenal. He is simply fantastic and has tremendous knowledge, he gained great respect throughout our group.”

As well as talks from leading figures in the industry, the group also saw a grassroots renovation in action at Newcastle Under Lyme FC and had the chance to view machines at Campey HQ and have an evening barbecue.

Campey Host Educational Tour

Campey has always focused on providing education to further the knowledge of those in the industry and is delighted to continue their support of groundsmen abroad.

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New Toro For Newlands Holidays

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New Toro For Newlands Holidays: Newlands Holidays, a family-run caravan park, has recently invested in a Toro Groundsmaster 3500-D to help maintain its 23 acres of landscaped grounds and keep customers happy and coming back.

Situated near the World Heritage village of Charmouth in Dorset and a short walk away from the stunning Jurassic Coast, Newlands Holidays is a popular vacation destination. As such, maintaining the grounds to a high standard is vital says business partner, Rex Ireland.

New Toro For Newlands Holidays

“The appearance of the park is of the utmost importance for our business,” says Rex. “It’s a significant factor in customers choosing to holiday here and it’s essential the park looks its best. That’s a major factor in keeping our customers happy and coming back.”

With that in mind, Rex was in the market for a reliable machine which could easily cope with the undulating terrain, bank cutting and general maintenance cutting around the 23-acre site.

Having briefed his local dealer on his requirements, Devon Garden Machinery brought in the Toro Groundsmaster 3500-D, amongst many, to trial and despite tough competition the GM3500-D’s performance won in the end.

“The performance of the Toro machine was just great compared to the other brands,” says Rex. “It did really well on the banks which was very important as we have a fair amount of undulating terrain. Overall, the GM3500-D showed itself to be a really reliable machine and since it will be used for the bulk of the work here, that was really important. It was clear it would provide the best fit for us.”

The combination of the machine’s ground-following design of each free-floating contour cutting deck and the unique parallel traction drive system means it can tackle the most challenging of terrain in all weathers without scalping. As a triplex rotary mower, the GM3500-D has the added benefit of producing the quality trimming you’d expect from a reel mower as well as the easy maintenance of a rotary mower, something which proved to be a key consideration for Rex.

“We’ve had cylinder mowers before, but they’ve proved to be quite high maintenance,” Rex continues. “With the GM3500-D we’ve been able to move away from that and I can already see that it’s going to save us a lot of time on maintenance.”

“When it came to finding a new machine, Devon Garden Machinery provided us with a range of options and simply put, we chose the best,” Rex concludes. “From Toro, we’ve got a good machine that does the job well and will make sure we’re in the best position for the start of the season.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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New Importer For Energreen Units

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New Importer For Energreen Units: Stuart Taylor International is delighted to announce the official appointment of UK importers for the renowned Energreen remote controlled power units, previously marketed in the UK under the McConnel brand.

The range consists of four different machines the RoboECO, RoboGREEN evo, RoboMAX and RoboPower. These models have been developed to offer customers different solutions in order to address different needs of work and equipping themselves with a wide range of attachments designed to be implemented and managed by these machines.

New UK Importer For Energreen Units

All machines are designed to be used in a variety of areas including slopes, land difficult to reach, swampy areas and forestry conditions whilst making the operators safety paramount.

Stuart Taylor International will be covering the Northern half of the UK and are now offering the full range of pre and post sales services on the Energreen Robo range and attachments. This also includes post sales services on the previously McConnel branded Energreen machines and attachments.

If you would like to discuss the Energreen range of machines and how they can help your business, please contact us on 01254 813175.

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