Manchester Rugby Club Welcomes New Signings

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Manchester Rugby Club Welcomes New Signings: The team at STIGA is discovering just how remarkable their robot mowers are when it comes to maintaining sports grounds — and rugby pitches are no exception. When the latest recruits, Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns, joined the ranks at Manchester Rugby Club, it was a clean-cut conversion straight between the posts.

Tim Holmes of Manchester Rugby Club shared:

“Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns joined the Manchester Rugby Club Grounds team back in October 2024, having signed from STIGA. As part of the partnership, STIGA provided full training on how to get the most from the mowers — and they made an immediate impact. Their work ethic has been incredible! They operate day and night, seven days a week, and we saw an instant improvement in the quality of the pitches.”

Manchester Rugby Club Welcomes New Signings

Manchester Rugby Club Welcomes New Signings

As a volunteer-run organisation, Manchester Rugby Club relies on a dedicated team of individuals who give their time freely. With four full-size rugby pitches and additional training areas to maintain — serving over 400 members every week — pitch upkeep is a huge task.

“The arrival of Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns has been a game-changer,” added Holmes. “They now manage two of our pitches, including the main stadium and a floodlit training pitch. This has significantly lightened the load on our volunteers while massively improving the quality of the turf. The grass never gets too long, there’s no unsightly clippings, and the lines they mow are incredibly sharp — the pitches look and play better than ever.”

The improvements haven’t gone unnoticed. A recent visit from the local Grounds Management Association advisor brought high praise:
“They told us our stadium pitch is one of the best in the North West — and the condition of the grass is excellent,” said Holmes.

The club couldn’t be happier with the STIGA partnership.
“We can’t thank STIGA enough. Their mowers are outstanding, and the STIGA app is so easy to use — we can always see what the boys are up to. Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns are now firmly part of the Manchester Rugby Club family — and long may that continue.”

In true rugby fashion, Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns even celebrated their arrival at the club with matching tattoos. The STIGA team was delighted — and agreed they’ve never looked more handsome.

You can read more about STIGA’s autonomous robot mowers and other STIGA products here: www.stiga.com/uk/

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BOSS ORV appoints new AODES dealer

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BOSS ORV appoints new AODES dealer: BOSS Off-Road-Vehicles has appointed Devon tractor and machinery dealer Blakewell Services as the latest AODES dealer. AODES is the multinational All-Terrain Vehicle and UTV brand of the Shandong ODES industry company, established over thirty years ago in Shandong, China.

Blakewell Services is a family-run business founded by Richard Tanton, who has been in the agricultural trade since 1971. He built the business from selling and servicing tractors at home, expanding to a workshop until he outgrew the premises, and moving to Mill Road Trading Estate in Barnstable, where he continues to grow the family business. Blakewell Services has diversified over the years into horticultural, groundscare and garden machinery through purchasing other businesses and consolidating the company’s sites.

BOSS ORV appoints new AODES dealer

BOSS ORV appoints new AODES dealer

BOSS ORV National Sales Manager, Neil Everett, says, “The AODES range of petrol ATVs has filled the gap between the diesel and electric ATVs and UTVs we distribute, and we’re very pleased to welcome Richard and his family as our AODES dealer for Devon. We know they run a great business with friendly faces and reliable service and machinery. AODES is a really high quality and price competitive product. Blakewell Services is perfectly placed to sell to prospective customers in the area.”

Blakewell has also opened a farm and country stores to supply the local community with their needs for rural living. They say the AODES ATVs make the ideal complement to their diverse range of machinery and services.

For more information about BOSS ORV distributed machinery, you can call 01785 561046

E-mail: sales@bossorv.co.uk Web: www.bossorv.co.uk

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Euromonitor certifies Segway Navimow as market leader

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Euromonitor certifies Segway Navimow as market leader: Segway Navimow, the robotic lawn mower arm of Segway, has been named as the world’s No.1 brand for wire-free robotic lawn mower sales volume by global analytics company Euromonitor International. The accreditation affirms Navimow’s status as a leader in the robotic mowing sector.

Sales were measured across all applicable channels throughout 2024, including Amazon, DTC stores, dealer shops and offline merchandise stores. Euromonitor defines a wire-free boundary robotic lawn mower as a machine used for both residential and commercial applications that operates without the need for a physical boundary wire for navigation, typically by adopting technologies such as UWB, Virtual, RTK or 3D Lidar.

Euromonitor certifies Segway Navimow as market leader

Euromonitor certifies Segway Navimow as market leader

Segway first entered the market in 2022 with the launch of the Navimow H Series. This was followed by the second-generation i Series in 2024, and most recently, the release of the X3 Series earlier this year.

Commenting on the news, George Ren, CEO of Segway Navimow BU, said: “A simple, wire-free setup process, alongside outstanding reliability and performance, has driven Navimow sales ever since the H Series launched three years ago. We’re incredibly proud of this achievement and the Segway Navimow team will continue striving for success, ensuring we innovate to meet the evolving needs of consumers and offer a precise, user-friendly mowing experience.”

Graham Gilbert, Vice President Consulting at Euromonitor International, added: “I would like to congratulate Navimow on its outstanding market performance in 2024 in wire free robotic lawn mower sector globally. We scanned the wire free robotic lawn mower market and generated competitive landscape insights through a variety of methods, including expert interviews, in-store visits, and desk research. Based on the research findings, Navimow is the global NO.1 brand measured in terms of total brand sales volume in units of wire free robotic lawn mower in 2024.”

Barrus, one of the UK’s leading importers and distributors, recently launched a new e-commerce website for Segway Navimow robotic mowers in the UK. Visit uknavimow.com to find your nearest stockist, access product information or purchase the Navimow i105e.

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New home builders overlooking the value of quality lawns

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New home builders overlooking the value of quality lawns: For many years, home builders haven’t appreciated the value of good quality lawns, not only for the benefits that a lawn brings to the environment & personal well-being, but also the impact that a nice lawn has on the kerb appeal and saleability of a new home.

Most new homes are sold with a newly turfed lawn, but as the demand for affordable housing increases, and development land is at an all-time premium, lawns are shrinking! Analysis in 2023 estimated the average English garden space to be 255m2. New build homes are required to provide a minimum of 30m2 of amenity space, and thankfully, most garden areas are bigger, but the Turfgrass Growers Association estimates that the average size of a new-build lawn is just 55m2.

New home builders overlooking the value of quality lawns

New home builders overlooking the value of quality lawns

In addition to the shrinking size of new lawns, homebuilders are squeezing budgets so much, that landscapers are forced to do minimal preparation on, what are often small, enclosed garden plots, with poor drainage and reduced light from high fences. The low landscaping budget forces landscapers to use the cheapest turf available, often a “contractors’ grade”, rather than a good quality premium turf, from a reputable, accredited supplier.

Using a lower grade of turf, combined with poor ground conditions, and minimal preparation is inevitably going to result in a substandard lawn, and this common practice is putting people off natural grass, and all its benefits!

Regretfully, it is common for Landscape Architects to unwittingly, specify turf containing plastic net and for some landscapers to consciously chose it as a way of cheapening cost. The Turf Grass
Growers Association which represents most of the turf grown in the UK, has actively moved to ban plastic net by October 2026, and in the meantime, any turf containing plastic net will not meet the TGA specification. The industry should remain vigilant against the prospect of gardens being contaminated with unnecessary plastic. Natural turf has good ‘green’ credentials that should be promoted when considering the use of alternatives such as hard landscaping and in particular artificial grass.

Artificial turf is quickly going out of favour as the public become more environmentally aware. However, there are lots of other lawn alternatives being used because homeowners are frustrated with poor quality lawns. If a lawn is created with good quality turf, grown to the TGA standards, laid on a well-prepared bed of free draining topsoil, there are huge benefits to a natural lawn, including carbon sequestration, oxygen production, flood reduction and air cooling as well as the positive impacts on mental health and well-being for homeowners and their pets.

Increasing the lawn budget by £100-£150 for the typical 55m2 lawn could ensure that premium turf can be used, and that landscapers have the budget to complete the ground preparation to a good standard. The average price of a new home in the UK is reportedly £422,000, and even if that figure is skewered by some high-end homes, and premium locations, there should be enough in a developer’s margin to cover the additional cost. Even if the developer won’t pay, at least offer the new homeowner the option of a premium quality job at a fair additional cost.

Developers should also be ensuring groundworkers save the very best soil on site, to be reintroduced into gardens, and that soil is not contaminated with subsoil when excavated. There should be no excuse for bricks, tiles and other building materials to contaminate gardens. What’s the point in thorough site contamination investigations if tradesman contaminate the soil during the building process.

Of course, there will be many new home builders, landscape architects, groundworkers and tradesman that take all the right steps to ensure the best possible lawns, but it’s about time that the value of a good quality lawn was appreciated throughout the industry.

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Baroness trio prove on pitch and on point

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Baroness trio prove on pitch and on point: A trio of ride-on machines from Baroness have emerged victorious in the comprehensive search for new mowers at Ardingly College in West Sussex.

The maintenance of the 250-acre site is a year-round operation for Deputy Head of Grounds Emile Ellis and the team of eight, with the two new LM551B’s and GM2810A from Baroness swiftly becoming MVPs for areas both on and off the pitch.

Baroness trio prove on pitch and on point

Baroness trio prove on pitch and on point

When not playing a crucial role in curriculum sport, the facilities at Ardingly College are in demand from a number of school camps and local sports clubs. This means that time is truly of the essence with all of the maintenance so, with the existing mower fleet starting to tire, investment in replacement equipment was needed. “We cast the net very wide when looking for new mowers and demonstrated all the various makes and models” Emile explains. “The Baroness mowers stuck out straight away for their build quality and simplicity of operation.”

After an extensive demo period, two LM551B fairway mowers and a GM2810A rotary mower were installed by dealers Lister Wilder in November 2024 – the first Baroness machines for the college. “You can tell the machines are incredibly well thought through. They do everything they need to without any unnecessary electrics or fuss which makes them a pleasure to set up and use.”

“We use the LM551B’s for everything ‘on pitch’ which includes our cricket outfields, winter sports pitches and other areas with a lower height of cut.” He continues, “We’ve noticed a significant difference in the quality of cut and finish, and the units definitely stay on cut for much longer. I used to go round with a spanner in my pocket to adjust the units between pitches but now it’s one check first thing and you’re set for the rest of the day.”

“The GM2810A is used pretty much everywhere else, on all the areas that don’t support play but where we still want to retain presentation. It does a fantastic job. It tackles grass of all lengths and is also a lot bigger than its predecessor which means not only are we achieving better results, we’re achieving it quicker than before.”

Changing to a new brand of equipment can be daunting, but the service Emile says they received from Mark Carter at Lister Wilder and Luke Collins from Baroness took away all of the anxiety. “The team had full training on all of the familiar features and all of those that are unique to Baroness which means everyone is comfortable and can get the very best out of the machines. We couldn’t be happier with the support and the results we’re seeing, and we’re going into the main grass growth season well and truly at full speed.”

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