WOLF-Garten’s 35th Anniversary

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WOLF-Garten’s 35th Anniversary: WOLF-Garten will be celebrating 35 years of its multi-change® system in 2018. The system remains the best and most innovative on the market, with the easiest and fastest attachment system available. Using a patented ‘click’ connection and including more than 60 different tool heads and 15 handles of varying lengths, it is bound to cover all the garden tasks you can think of. WOLF-Garten has been working on a number of changes to mark the occasion, including updated packaging and product enhancements.

In celebration of the landmark, WOLF-Garten has updated the design of the tool head attachment, which provides better grip and an optimised spring connection. This updated version fits with the current system, so all new tool heads will continue to be compatible with all handles.

WOLF-Garten's 35th Anniversary

Two new products have also been developed for this anniversary year; a 4-in-1 Leaf Rake and a Gutter Cleaner. Every product within the range now carries an industry leading 35-year guarantee, testament to the quality of the workmanship and evidence of WOLF-Garten’s confidence in its products.

Updated packaging is featured on all products, not just the multi-change® items, and has been designed with a fresh, contemporary style, making it both eye-catching and attractive. The new livery includes task orientated colour-coding on the packaging, meaning choosing right tool for the job has never been easier.

The rebrand continues and extends to WOLF-Garten’s iconic red and yellow logo, which has also had a refresh whilst retaining the distinctive Wolf head consumers are so familiar with.

For further information about all of these products, and other items in the WOLF-Garten range, visit www.wolfgarten-tools.co.uk. You can also find WOLF-Garten on Twitter at @WGGardentools and on Facebook by searching for WOLF-Garten Garden Tools.

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Rain Bird Award For MJ Abbott

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Rain Bird Award For MJ Abbott: MJ Abbott Limited, a golf and sports turf contractor based is Wiltshire, was recognised at Rain Bird’s distributor and contractor awards ceremony held at the Golf Industry Show in San Antonio.

Contracts Director Steve Briggs and Contracts Managers Nathan George and Jim Price were there to accept the ‘Top Flight’ award for exceptional growth on the company’s behalf.

Rain Bird Award For MJ Abbott

The presentation of awards is a celebratory conclusion to Rain Bird’s training and education event for golf contractors and distributors, which takes place at the show each year.

“2017 was a busy year for us,” Nathan George explained. “Many of our golf customers upgraded their central controllers, weather stations and rotors to provide the greatest efficiencies and levels of control. Our construction teams are currently building the brand new course at Royal Norwich where a fully-integrated Rain Bird IC system is being installed. It was great to hear all about global developments at the training event and to receive this award in recognition of our achievements as an Approved Rain Bird Contractor.”

Rain Bird’s Regional Golf Sales Manager for the UK, Ireland, Iceland and Scandinavia, Jimmy Sandison, said: “It was fantastic to see a UK contractor recognised at our annual awards ceremony. MJ Abbott had a superb year working with us to grow their golf business. As a company, we are grateful for their installation expertise, and for the first-class support they continue to provide to Rain Bird system and Global Service Plan users across the country.”

For more information, visit: www.rainbird.eu/golf

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Fast Greens At Knole Park GC

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Fast Greens At Knole Park GC: Located within the boundaries of Knole Estates in 1,000 acres of outstanding Kent parkland and with 600 deer roaming freely around the estate is a club like no other. 

Knole Park is one of the most unique courses in the country; not only for the aforementioned reasons, but also for the fact that this one course plays home to two clubs. 

Fast Greens At Knole Park GC

Course manager at the club, which is home to Knole Park Golf Club and Sevenoaks Town Golf Club, is Gavin Kyle who has been at the club for 15 years. Gavin keeps a regular annual machinery replacement programme and this year he had a focus on choosing the right machines to create firm, true, fast surfaces, which is where Toro joins the story.  

 “It is important to consistently maintain a challenge for players,” says Gavin. “It’s for this reason that recent years have seen us extend the course by 200 yards, with further extension planned in the next year. There is a fine balance between offering a good game to all golfers, including those with a five handicap and below. We have players of all abilities across our two-club membership including a lot of scratch players and our greens needed an update this year to offer a consistent challenge to all.  

“When choosing our next greens machines we checked out the market, going through rounds of demos from distributors. If I’m honest I haven’t bought Toro since I’ve been at Knole Park, so for 15 years! But Toro is renowned for its greens machines in particular so were naturally included on the demo list. What appealed with the Greensmaster TriFlex 3420-H machines, which we went for, was that they’re hybrids. I sought to reduce the risk of hydraulic leaks on the greens and I wanted the advanced control these machines can offer.” 

The TriFlex Hybrid’s electric cylinder circuit is designed to eliminate up to 90 percent of hydraulic leaks, and the Turf Guardian leak detection system provides immediate audio and visual indication of possible leaks. Plus, the electric cylinders have less drag and spin more freely than hydraulic motors providing a sharp cut which leads to firmer and faster greens, exactly what Gavin is after. “Firm, true and fast greens is what we’re all after and the Toro TriFlex is helping us achieve this at Knole Park,” he confirms.  

Providing the advanced control Gavin mentioned is the machines’ Info Centre, which has an easily customised clip for different heights of cut as well as other operational settings to give complete machine control on cylinder speed, hours of function, system voltage for cylinders and diagnostic descriptions. It’s this that provides the advanced control that appealed to Gavin in the TriFlexes.  

But as Gavin goes on to say, it’s never just as simple as the machines: “A machine is often only as good as the backup that comes with it. We’re dealing direct with Reesink Turfcare for the first time and we’ve found that to be a great experience so far.” 

It seems opportune that Toro arrives back at Knole Park for the first time since the 1970s in the year that it hosted the Tillman Trophy, the tournament widely attributed to changing the face of amateur golf. We’re sure with Toro on side, Gavin and his greenkeeping team of six will change the challenge of the course for all its members.

For more information, visit: www.reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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Apprenticeships At Leicester City

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Apprenticeships At Leicester City: Leicester City Football Club has become the latest in a length list of Premier League Football Clubs to choose Myerscough College as their apprenticeships delivery partner. 

 The implementation of the Apprenticeships Levy has seen the club invest heavily in the recruitment of new apprentices and also taken the chance to upskill existing staff to a higher level of competency. 

Apprenticeships At Leicester City

As part of National Apprenticeship Week, we caught up with the team as they prepared the stadium pitch for an FA Cup fixture. As part of the day we also allowed Leah, Josh and Ryan the chance to explain why they chose an apprenticeship and what skills they are developing. 

As part of their apprenticeship Josh, Leah and Ryan will learn a wide range of skills, and rotate across sites also working at the Belvoir Drive training complex. This ensures their experiences are as varied as possible as they learn the complexities of the job. They’re supported with regular college tutor visits, technical workshops and access to a sophisticated e-portfolio and virtual learning environment, where they can log their training and complete any associated knowledge assignments. Myerscough has a proven track record in apprenticeship delivery and this blended approach has delivered significant success over the past decade. 

Grounds Manager at Leicester City, John Ledwidge, shares his vision for the award winning team, and the need to be at the forefront of learning, innovation and technology: “For us it’s always about a team effort. It’s vital that we maintain our playing surfaces to the highest standards possible and we embrace any innovation technologies that allow is to achieve this. Apprenticeships allow us the chance to recruit new workers into our team and to shape their training to our model of excellence. The Apprenticeships Levy has allowed us to now enroll seven members of our team onto apprenticeship programmes at level 2 and level 3. 

 ‘’We have also recently recruited three new team members straight onto apprenticeships. This is a significant investment from the club and allows us for succession planning and internal team development. Myerscough College come highly recommended and we look forward to seeing our apprentices develop. We have exciting plans for the future and hope our new apprentices play a big part in our future success.” 

 Employer Services Manager at Myerscough College shares his thoughts on recruiting apprentices: “We assist employers across the country to recruit and train apprentices. It’s fantastic that Leicester City have chosen us as their sportsturf apprenticeships provider and I am looking forward to seeing the journey the apprentices make as they develop in their new roles.  

 ‘’If any employers are unsure about Apprenticeships, or the recruitment process, then they can get in touch with our expert Employer Services Team who will support them every step of the way. This service is completely free of charge to all businesses choosing Myerscough College as their Apprenticeships provider.” 

For more information, visit: www.myerscough.ac.uk

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Bailoy Makes Irrigation Simpler

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Bailoy Makes Irrigation Simpler: Newly introduced to the Bailoy range is the GTI EC irrigation control software in Pro and Lite versions. These GTI EC controllers retain many features of the GTI PC stablemate while also being more economical and easy to use, making them perfect for smaller sites with modest budgets. 

For those needing flow-managed irrigation with real-time email notifications, the GTI EC Pro is ideal. The automated flow-managed feature provides precise application to holes or areas in the fastest, most efficient order.

Bailoy Makes Irrigation Simpler

Plus its comprehensive email notification feature alerts the user if issues occur during an irrigation programme, giving access to a range of diagnostic data on programme and station issues.

If required, the GTI EC Pro can also be switched from flow management to the sequence-based system used by its sister model: the GTI EC Lite.

The GTI EC Lite is the control system for sites needing simple sequence-based irrigation. Ideal for sports venues, small to mid-sized clubs and landscape projects, the customer can arrange irrigation order by area or hole and design up to ten sequences.

Bailoy’s managing director, Adam Lovejoy, explains: “Many sites don’t need the all-singing, all-dancing Pro, but still want to update to a modern reliable controller with the familiarity of their previous ‘clockwork’ controller. The Lite gives them this.”

Should the customer ever decide they’d like to upgrade their GTI EC Lite to benefit from flow management and email notifications, this can be done by simply requesting a feature unlock key.

As both the GTI EC Pro and Lite are available for sites using 2- or 3-core control cables, they are flexible and upgradeable from all equipment manufactured by Bailoy. This also means the GTI EC controllers will be compatible with most existing site control cables, decoders and solenoids, resulting in a seamless upgrade.

In fact, the majority of GTI EC installations are completed in a day. With guided steps for every process, you will be able to create programmes and irrigate within minutes of installation.

To learn more about these new products, call 020 8897 0125 or email info@bailoy.com.

For more information, visit: www.bailoy.com

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