Dealer Helps Air Ambulance

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Dealer Helps Air Ambulance: Nigel Rafferty Groundcare of Redruth, Cornwall were more than happy to loan one of their Iseki demonstration tractors at short notice to the Cornwall Air Ambulance for the launch of the Charity’s £2.5m New Heli Appeal on Tuesday 24 April.

The tractor was used to tow and position the next generation AW169 helicopter flown in especially for the launch between the helipad and the hanger.

Dealer Helps Cornwall Air Ambulance

Nigel Rafferty says, “We are very pleased to have been asked to help with the launch of this appeal – even in this small way. We were in no doubt that our Iseki TL3400 tractor would cope well with towing the new helicopter to and from the hanger to the helipad.”

Cornwall Air Ambulance are now embarking on a two-year fundraising campaign, the New Heli Appeal, to urgently raise £2.5m to bring this next generation air ambulance helicopter to Cornwall by April 2020, the date the lease runs out on its current aircraft.

To donate visit Cornwall Air Ambulance website.

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Syngenta Appoint Glenn Kirby

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Syngenta Appoint Glenn Kirby: Glenn Kirby has been appointed by Syngenta as the company’s new dedicated Technical Manager for the UK Turf & Landscape business.

Glenn brings 25 years’ experience of practical turf management skills from both downland and parkland environments, along with experience from both corporate and members’ golf clubs. He has held the Course Manager’s role at Hockley Golf Club in Hampshire and, prior to that, as Head Greenkeeper on the Heritage course at The London Club in Kent. He has also been through the Ohio State University programme in the US, including championship preparation at the prestigious Oak Hill Country Club, along with a wide range of other tournament experience.

Syngenta Appoint Glenn Kirby

Throughout his career to date, Glenn highlighted his commitment has been to deliver great playing surfaces, alongside an environmentally sustainable and economically viable business. “The ethos has been to use innovation to achieve results, and to get the most out of the available budget.

“Syngenta has been at the forefront of helping me to achieve that on the golf course. This exciting new role gives me the opportunity to support more greenkeepers and to help the industry to adapt to the changing picture of products, pressures and integrating technical innovation on a wider scale.”

Glenn will be working alongside Syngenta UK Business Manager, Daniel Lightfoot, to give an unrivalled understanding of issues facing the UK turf industry, and together utilising the company’s immense R&D capability to develop practical solutions for an effective Integrated Turf Management approach.

A renowned champion of the Syngenta Operation Pollinator initiative and an advocate of improving the accuracy spray application techniques on his own course, Glenn will be looking to use his Technical Manager role to enhance the industry’s position and to further develop young greenkeepers’ skills in these areas.

Daniel Lightfoot added: “The new Syngenta role of a Technical Manager dedicated to the UK continues the company’s commitment and investment in the turf industry. Glenn will have an important role to launch several new products and science based innovations over the coming months and years, including a programme to provide information and support for their best use and to achieve the optimum results in practice.”

The Syngenta Turf & Landscape Technical Manager role covers the company’s range of products and services for all golf and sports turf surfaces, landscape management, professional horticulture and professional pest management.

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Spalding’s Quick Hitch Tow Bars

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Spalding’s Quick Hitch Tow Bars: Successfully getting a tow bar and trailer lined up can be one of the most frustrating aspects of towing with a van, estate car or 4×4 – but Spaldings has a solution in a range of Quick Hitch couplings that make it much less of a hit-and-miss affair.

The Quick Hitch bolts to the back of the vehicle as usual but has a flared steel back plate that positions the trailer coupling directly over the towing ball.

Spalding's Quick Hitch Tow Bars

The vehicle can be reversed up to a trailer until the drawbar is caught by the hitch and nudged into position over the last few centimetres; it’s then just a matter of lowering the drawbar, connecting the lighting cable and the job’s done!

Anglesey farmer Ivor Williams designed the Quick Hitch when people he knew kept failing their trailer towing test on the hitching process.

“I made the first hitch, checked with the authorities that it could be used for the test, and once people heard how successful it is, I refined the design and started making them in the farm workshop,” he says.

Mr Williams now has a range of five models with bolt-on or pin balls of different sizes, and with fixed, slot-in or fold-down guide plates.

“The folding version allows you to open van doors or a pick-up tailgate on vehicles where there is little clearance above the hitch,” explains Paul Denton, Spaldings product development manager. “When folded down, the guide plate also provides a more secure footing for climbing into the vehicle – certainly better than standing on a ball hitch or a slippery plastic step.”

All Quick Hitch variants, which cost from £90, save having to man-handle the trailer or lever the drawbar into position using a fence post to get the ball and coupling lined up.

They also reduce the likelihood of damaging vehicle bodywork against the drawbar and, when reversing with the trailer attached, the guide plates stop damage by preventing the vehicle and trailer drawbar going beyond a 90degree jacknife position.

The Quick Hitch tow hitches complement the regular combined clevis and ball hitches and ball pins available via the Spaldings website (www.Spaldings.co.uk), by telephone order or through the company’s team of direct sales staff covering all areas of the UK and Ireland.

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Bernhard’s Three Peaks Challenge

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Bernhard’s Three Peaks Challenge: Fourteen members of Bernhard Company will be tackling Snowdon in Wales, Scafell, in England and Ben Nevis in Scotland in a challenge which starts at 2pm on Friday 8th June 2018.

To successfully complete the challenge, the team has set out a plan to reach each of the summits and come back down again before 7pm on Saturday 9th June. Setting off from their Factory in Haverhill, they will spend 12 hours travelling 1,258 miles across the three countries. This will leave them 4,5 hours to climb Snowdon (7 miles long, with an ascent of 723m), 5 hours to climb Scafell (6 miles long with an ascent of 989m) and 6 hours to finish the 10.5 miles with the highest ascent of 1352m of Ben Nevis.

Bernhard's Three Peaks Challenge

The team is aiming to raise £2,500 before they set off to the trek. All funds raised will go towards supporting the work Mind, the mental health charity which provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.

Please support Gary Bonfield, Gary Woodward, Iqtidar Hassan, Neil Hullah, Piotr Zurawski, Renata Mundim, Robert Smith, Scott Purdy, Simon Hale, Steve Church, Steven Nixon, Sue Challis, Tony Sheppard, Dale Marshall in their effort to raise money for Mind.

Thanks for your help.

Click HERE to donate

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Drainage Key For Golf Protection

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Drainage Key For Golf Protection: With the UK’s increasingly erratic weather having a detrimental impact on golf, Aggregates Industries’ has stated that effective drainage is now more important than ever before when it comes to the successful design and management of golf courses.

According to a recent report, golf is facing an increase in unplayable holes, winter course closures and disruption to professional tournaments due to increased rainfall, all of which are a growing concern for the sport.

Drainage Key For Golf Protection

Extreme weather including wetter winters are also causing waterlogging and disease to grass and greens, the report added. As a result, the Greater Glasgow area alone has seen a 20% reduction in playing time on golf courses over the last decade.

Steve Curley, general manager for Lytag at Aggregate Industries, a leading supplier of building materials, comments: “The UK has seen six of the seven wettest years on record since 2000 and record-breaking wet winters in 2014 and 2015 – which is clearly having a damaging impact on golf and a growing concern for golf courses up and down the country.

“For golf clubs looking to – literally – weather the storm, having an effective drainage system in place is now considered paramount for protecting a green and ensuring playability in all weather conditions.”

According to Aggregate Industries, core to a superior drainage system is the use of secondary aggregates such as Sportag®, an innovative lightweight solution made from Lytag featuring a unique rounded shape and material properties that makes it ideal for land drainage applications.

Reducing the risk of flooding, Sportag is able to transmit water up to 10 times faster than gravel, which means it is particularly suited to golf courses, including slit trenches, gravel banding and Shelton Systems as well as fairways where firm dry surfaces are critical. What’s more, the incredibly sustainable solution’s 40% void ratio helps aid longevity, improving aeration and allowing roots to penetrate further.

Proving its credentials during recent works at Woburn Golf Club, Sportag was installed within trenches 25mm wide, spaced 2m apart and at a depth of 300mm. A quick and simple installation process, the course was immediately available for use, damage to the course was minimal, therefore keeping disruption to a minimum.

Steve Curley adds: “Due to its super absorbent properties, Sportag has been proven to aid with effective drainage and high moisture retention as demonstrated in the recent case of Woburn Golf Club. For golf clubs looking to provide first class playing surfaces year round, this revolutionary solutions will not disappoint.”

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