Collier FQAs pass annual assessment

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Collier FQAs pass annual assessment: All of the Collier Turf Care Ltd FACTS (Fertiliser Advisor Certificate & Training Scheme) Qualified Advisors (FQA) have once again successfully passed the fertiliser annual assessment examination.

Along with their BASIS qualification and membership of the BASIS Professional Register, this ensures that they are fully up to date to offer sound professional advice and support on both chemicals and fertilisers for the turf and amenity industry. This also entitles them to remain on the register of FACTS Qualified Advisors.

Collier FQAs pass annual assessment

Collier FQAs pass annual assessment

Andrew Harding, Managing Director of Collier Turf Care Ltd said, “We are committed to ensuring that our staff are fully trained and competent so that we can deliver the very best advice and service to our customers. As the leading technical turf care company, we fully endorse the principles of professional qualifications and raising the standards throughout the amenity industry.”

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Win big with the Great British Garden Festival

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Win big with the Great British Garden Festival: If you’re visiting RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year, The Great British Garden Festival has an incredible prize on offer! Simply sign up to join as a member while you’re at the show and you will automatically be entered into a draw to win £1,000 worth of garden products kindly supplied by their Partners! 

Membership costs just £10 and gets you all sorts of exclusive access to savings on products as well as entry into gardens and events all year round.

Win big with the Great British Garden Festival

Win big with the Great British Garden Festival

Love plants? Love gardening? Love days out? The Great British Garden Festival is for you! Join as a member and save on all things gardening!

With the help of fellow green fingered friends, The Great British Garden Festival has created a searchable hub for you to find out about all of the amazing gardens and events that are right on your doorstep! All around the nation there are thousands of beautiful gardens, hidden gems and incredible events. All you need to do is check The Great British Garden Festival website to see thousands of places to go and products that you can save on.

The Great British Garden Festival is proud to have some amazing ambassadors that advocate their mission to support gardeners like you. With support from the RHS, Kew, Historic England, Historic Houses, Visit Britain and the National Garden Scheme why not get behind the Festival too? Their Ambassadors personify the very best in their respective fields, coming from all backgrounds and working lives, they represent the diverse nature of the nation’s love for gardens and gardening including famous faces from TV like Gemma Collins, Lee Burkhill, Flo Headlam, Mark Lane and Simon Lycett.

Enthusiasm continues to flood in from all over and their list of Partners is growing daily, adding new places that you can visit and new products that you can save on. With so many different offers available, there really is something for everyone. Encourage each other to get out and about and enjoy the green spaces.

Let’s make the world a little greener together!

Visit the Great British Garden Festival website at www.GreatBritishGardenFestival.org.uk to find out more and sign up to claim your deals!

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GMA pushes for guidance change

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GMA pushes for guidance change: The Grounds Management Association (GMA) has written to the Government to request a change to the recently published Guidance on Changes to rebated fuels entitlement, which fails to be inclusive of all sports when citing exemptions to the new red diesel legislation.

In a letter to HMRC and HM Treasury, GMA Chief Executive, Geoff Webb reminds policymakers of the commitment made in the Reform of red diesel and other rebated fuels entitlement Policy paper published in November 2021, which made clear that there would not be a withdrawal of an entitlement to use red diesel in areas such as heating and sports.

GMA pushes for guidance change

GMA pushes for guidance change

“We are calling for wording within the guidance to be changed to replace the multiple references to “golf courses and driving ranges” with a more inclusive term that reflects the HMRC’s original intention to maintain the rebate entitlement across the wider sporting community, says Geoff Webb.

“It is not acceptable to exempt only one sport when there are many other sports facilities with turf surfaces that rely on red diesel to fuel essential machinery and specialist vehicles to maintain grounds to a safe, accessible, and satisfactory standard.

“Grassroots, community, and professional clubs, as well as educational establishments will be hit hard with increased costs if this guidance does not get amended.

“The GMA remains fully supportive of the Government’s net zero ambitions and understands the rationale behind pulling fiscal levers to deliver environmental goals. It is, however, crucial that policymakers are fair and avoid inadvertently imposing punitive taxes that will have an adverse effect on individuals, organisations, and communities.”

The GMA will continue to engage with the Government on this matter and encourages others to write to local MPs to reiterate the points made in the association’s letter.

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Trilo S4 delivers multi-purpose performance

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Trilo S4 delivers multi-purpose performance: A Trilo S4 has proven its credentials as a multi-functional machine without compromise for the team at Richmond Golf Club.

Purchased initially to assist with the mammoth task of collecting leaves from more than 3000 trees around the parkland course, the interchangeable heads and ability to flail cut and scarify has seen the S4 out and assisting with maintenance year-round.

Trilo S4 delivers multi-purpose performance

Trilo S4 delivers multi-purpose performance

Bought from local dealers Ernest Does in time for the autumn of 2019, the S4 was a straight replacement of another Trilo unit which, as Course Manager Les Howkins explains, had been a workhorse at the London club for over 20 years. “Every year, we’d go out with our Trilo SG700 and over its long working life, it never missed a beat! The build quality was fantastic on that and continues to be with our new S4 which was one of the major reasons we purchased another Trilo, despite looking at what else was available.”

“The Trilo S4 is also an ideal size for us – it features a large 4m3 hopper to collect large quantities of material but is compact enough overall to easily navigate our relatively ‘small’ 104-acre course. It is equipped with the brush head for leaf clearance between early September right through to Christmas, by the time the Oaks have dropped, and it does a fantastic job of cleanly collecting leaves and other debris in a single pass.”

Come the spring, the brush is swiftly swapped for the flail head for the quick cut and collect of acid grassland – an issue for Les and the team on the carry areas between the tees and the fairways. “This causes long, wispy growth which we cut down once a year using our S4. We then switch the flail out for a third attachment – a scarifier head – to thin out these areas before the new season begins to prevent any thick, matted growth.”

“We loved our SG700 and our S4 retains the fantastic build quality and reliability that we previously enjoyed, with the added benefit of now being able to conduct multiple maintenance tasks.” Les concludes, “With a lot of machines that are billed as ‘multi-purpose’ you find they’ll do one job really well, and not perform on the others but the S4 does all three superbly!”

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Toro winners selected as volunteers

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Toro winners selected as volunteers: To be selected is a honour like no other and two previous winners of the Toro Student Greenkeeper of the Year Awards have been successful in gaining a place as a volunteer at the 150th Open at St Andrew’s in July.

The 2018 winner Daniel Ashelby from Reddish Vale Golf Club and last year’s winner Matthew Milligan from Rudding Park will help prepare the Old Course’s famous fairways for the international event at the home of golf.

Toro winners selected as volunteers

Toro winners selected as volunteers

When it comes to the opportunities that come with winning the decades old competition – and to shine a light on the fact that there is still time to make nominations into the 2022 event – we talk to Daniel Ashelby about what’s happened to him since being crowned champion four years ago.

“Since winning I’ve gone onto be head man at Hartford Golf Club in Cheshire and now I’m working at my dream club. Both roles have given me some absolutely fantastic experiences. At Hartford, during the pandemic, I was running the course by myself and that taught me to trust my instincts and put so much of what I’d learnt over the years into practice.”

Attending Massachusetts Winter School for Turf Managers as part of his prize for winning the Student Greenkeeper of the Year Award set off a passion for education and Daniel is now in his final year of his degree in golf course management.

With educational, international, all-expenses-paid prizes for the winners, runners up and nominators, there’s nothing to lose by nominating your best candidates into the 2022 competition.

And of course the future opportunities for the winners are endless, as Daniel says: “All the networking, learning experiences and personal development that transpire from winning the award have contributed greatly to me being in this position now.

“Being selected as a volunteer for The Open is literally a dream come true. Only those who have the right attitude, skills, ambition and qualifications succeed, and I do think winning the award had a role to play in this. There’s a correlation to the type of people I’ve met on the journey and the paths I’ve been put on that have led here. They go hand in hand.”

So what about those lecturers and employers who think they have a shining star in their midst? What would Daniel say to those those people who have the power to change one of their students or employees lives?

“Just do it. Putting that person’s name in the hat is the first step to opening up a world of possibilities and opportunities,” he says. “And if you’re thinking about nominating somone you’ve nominated before, do that too! Don’t let them feel knocked back if it didn’t work out the first time. Since then that person has grown up, evolved and has a better chance than ever before.”

Nominations into the 2022 Toro Student Greenkeeper of the Year Awards can be made now until 31 May online at BIGGA. This year’s finals will be held on 5-6 September.

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