Misty morning wins photo competition

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Misty morning wins photo competition: A greenkeeper heading down the 2nd hole at Ipswich Golf Club on a misty morning has been revealed as the overall winner of the British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) Annual Photographic Competition 2022 sponsored by Syngenta.

Ipswich greenkeeper and BIGGA member Joe Simpson’s image was the unanimous choice among the competition judges and also received the most likes when put to a public vote across BIGGA’s social media accounts.

Misty morning wins photo competition

Misty morning wins photo competition

BIGGA’s annual photographic competition is a celebration of the wonderful golfing landscape and the role greenkeepers play in shaping it for golfers and the wider public to enjoy. Twelve images were selected in total for the annual BIGGA calendar, with golf courses represented including a nine-hole course on the north coast of Scotland through to next year’s Open Championship venue.

As overall competition winner, Joe has won an Insta360 Ultra HD action camera worth £429.99 and a framed print of his image, to be presented at BTME 2023, the greenkeeping community’s annual gathering in January.

Three category winners were also chosen, with Tom Wright of Clevedon Golf Club winning the Greenkeeping category, Craig Sinclair of Camberley Heath Golf Club winning the Wildlife category and Martyn Taylor of Wallasey Golf Club winning the Landscape category. Each of the category winners receive a £150 Love2Shop voucher.

Joe is now a two-time champion, having previously won the competition in 2020. He said: “I’m really surprised to have won as I thought the quality of all the photographs that got shortlisted was fantastic with some really strong contenders.

“I think it’s a fantastic competition and I love entering and try to encourage others to enter as well. Greenkeepers are really lucky because we’re up in the early hours and get to see some fantastic sights and this competition is an opportunity to share them.”

You can view all 12 images selected to form the BIGGA desktop calendar on the BIGGA website.

BIGGA’s Annual Photographic Competition sponsored by Syngenta will return next year, so greenkeepers are encouraged to get snapping now to be in with a chance of winning more great prizes.

Registration for BTME 2023 and the associated Continue to Learn education programme is open. The event takes place from 22 to 26 January 2023 and you can find out more by heading to the BTME website, www.btme.org.uk

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ICL ITM programme kick-starts new pitch

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ICL ITM programme kick-starts new pitch: An ICL integrated turf management programme is helping Millwall Football Club’s new stadium pitch get off to the best possible start.

Steve Chalk has been at Millwall FC for nearly 12 years and in that time he has worked his way up to the position of Grounds Manager. Steve oversees all three of Millwall’s sites, and works alongside Stadium Head Groundsman Charlie Burrage, Steve explained the importance of having a new pitch installed.

ICL ITM programme kick-starts new pitch

ICL ITM programme kick-starts new pitch

“With most pitches now being hybrid, we felt we were falling behind,” he said. “We would be OK until late October / November time but then the majority of grass coverage would be gone during the winter period.”

Two years ago, a new hybrid pitch was installed and Steve saw this as an opportunity to explore and implement new products.

“We thought the time had come to bring everything under one umbrella and just use products from one supplier,” said Steve. “For us it was about making things as simple as possible and using one company seemed the best way forward. We decided that this company would be ICL and therefore we worked with Craig Lalley (ICL Technical Area Sales Manager) to devise a bespoke integrated turf management plan.”

Many turf managers have benefitted from an ICL ITM programme and Steve is no exception.

“With the new stadium pitch, we wanted a ITM programme that ticked all the right boxes. It helps us with moisture management and rooting, base feeds, and conventional fertilisers.

“All the products are proven and tested, and quite simply the programme makes our lives easier,” continued Steve. “It is peace of mind, and we know that we will have no problems with the products. I’m not saying products from other manufacturers are bad, but we just know that the ICL products have a proven track record. We use them and we know what we get from them.

ICL ITM programme kick-starts new pitch

ICL ITM programme kick-starts new pitch

“For us, we wanted someone with the knowledge and experience to advise us on a suitable programme – we get this from ICL. When we speak to Craig we know he is going to give us the best advice for our situation.

“Furthermore, it is nice for the Millwall Football Club board to see the great results and see the pitch in an excellent condition. They put their faith in us and back us with investment, and in turn they have been rewarded.”

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

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

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Agrovista Amenity Sponsors BALI Award

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Agrovista Amenity Sponsors BALI Award: Agrovista Amenity, a leading industry supplier of amenity, landscaping, and horticultural products, is proudly sponsoring the Grounds Maintenance – Limited Public Access category at the BALI National Landscape Awards.

Now in its 46th year, the BALI National Landscape Awards is the largest landscaping award ceremony in Europe. It provides the industry with a platform in which to showcase and improve their business and celebrate their achievements both within and outside of the industry.

Agrovista Amenity Sponsors BALI Award

Agrovista Amenity Sponsors BALI Award

Nurture Landscapes, specialists in grounds maintenance, winter gritting and interior and exterior plant display services, won the 2022 Grounds Maintenance – Limited Public Access category for its work at Winnersh Triangle Business Park in Reading – a thriving business community with wellbeing at its heart.

Winnersh Triangle has extensive biodiversity plans in place and works closely with Nurture Landscapes claiming that the landscaping team “go above and beyond to create areas on the park to encourage new wildlife to join the park community.”

Each area around the park attracts different habitats and species and a variety of bird boxes were installed in the autumn. The boxes are suitable for blue tits, great tits and cole tits too.

Agrovista Amenity is a key supplier to Nurture Landscapes and Ed Smith, Landscapes Team Manager was quick to congratulate the award winners.

“We’re delighted that Nurture Landscapes has won the award in this category. It is an exciting landscaping project and the Nurture team have worked hard to deliver exemplary standards at Winnersh Triangle.

“We are very proud to sponsor this award. Agrovista Amenity is passionate about helping to shape the future of the landscaping industry. We now look forward to celebrating this year’s National Award winners and being among the first to find out if Nurture Landscapes win a Principle Award.”

The 46th National Landscape Awards ceremony will once again be held at the iconic JW Marriott Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London on Friday 2 December 2022.

For more information about Agrovista UK, visit www.agrovista.co.uk/amenity

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Consistency key for the open at St Andrews

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Consistency key for the open at St Andrews: St Andrews trusted Toro maintenance equipment to maintain ‘the home of golf’ for the 150th Open. And ahead of and throughout the week-long tournament in July 2022 distributor Reesink Turfcare was called upon to provide set-up procedure training to ensure consistency in after-cut appearance.  

Reesink provided five days of Cutting Technology training before the tournament as well as specialist technical staff on site throughout the tournament to support the team using a fleet of battery-powered mowers and riding greens mowers.

Consistency key for the open at St Andrews

Consistency key for the open at St Andrews

After-cut appearance training was vital to ensuring the perfect finish across the different courses as Stephen Terreblanche, technical trainer at Reesink Turfcare, explains: “The training was to prepare the team for the Open competition. But more than that, it was to achieve consistency in set-up procedures across all the different courses at St Andrews.

“To get the course ready and keep up with maintenance while the tournament was taking place multiple machines were being operated by different members of the turf professional team at the same time on a single green, and the cut delivered by each machine had to be perfect and consistent across all the machines in the fleet.

“To achieve this the machines had to be set up the same way to avoid different after-cut appearance issues, which would be easily visible if machines with different set-up adjustments were operated side-by-side.”

It was by all accounts a successful investment as the machines proved on the world stage how a golf course can use battery power and riding greens mowers to sustainably achieve ideal playing conditions to test the best golfers in the sport.

Reesink’s range of training courses are designed to be delivered on the customers’ premises and give the team the training it needs to ensure they can operate the chosen machinery safely and efficiently in an environment they are familiar with for the best possible results. (Disclaimer: This isn’t specific to world tournaments!)

For further information on the courses available and to book, visit https://www.reesinkturfcare.co.uk/resources/training-courses

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Combi-Tool available from GKB Machines

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Combi-Tool available from GKB Machines: Combining versatility and value-for-money, GKB Machines have launched their new Combi-Tool.

With a GKB engineered 3-point linkage frame and an ability to equip a range of maintenance attachments, the Combi-Tool gives turf managers the option of conducting multiple operations such as slitting, raking, rolling and brushing in one quick and simple pass.

Combi-Tool available from GKB Machines

Combi-Tool available from GKB Machines

On show for the first time at SALTEX 2022, the Combi-Tool features four attachment slots which can be tailored to the venue or the task to be conducted on a given day. Brush heads, rake tines, slitting tines, slitting discs and a range of rollers are available – with the option of equipping the Combi-Tool with multiple rows of the same attachment for a more intensive operation if required. Because of its multi-purpose functionality, the Combi-Tool is ideal for multi-sport venues such as winter sport facilities, schools, local authorities and contractors.

The Combi-Tool comes in 1.6m and 2.0m working widths and, as with all GKB Machines, is precision engineered for strength and durability. Swapping between attachments is fast, with the ability to independently adjust each implement once fitted to suit desired working depths.

Commenting on its introduction, UK Operations Manager Tom Shinkins said, “This is a brilliant addition to the GKB portfolio and has been introduced in direct response to demand from our dealer network. Its versatility is its biggest selling point so we’re expecting to see a lot of interest from those managing pitches at grassroots level who don’t always have the budgets or resources available to invest in multiple machines to conduct some of the basic maintenance operations that can have a massive impact on the presentation, playability and health of their surface.”

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