Keeping John Deere connected

in /by

Keeping John Deere connected: Scott MacCallum was one of a small group of journalists who flew to Germany to see the latest technological launch from industry heavyweights, John Deere.

There we were, sitting in a lovely clubhouse in the middle of Germany, using an iPad to watch the movement of machinery on the legendary Carnoustie Golf Links, over a thousand miles away.

Keeping John Deere connected

Keeping John Deere connected

We could see a Gator making its way back to the sheds, or a green being cut out on the 14th.

Now there is more than one way in which this overarching technology can be viewed. Carnoustie had given their blessing to the be the example shown to the interested press and delegates, but yes, there is an element of Big Brother watching over your every move, but the more positive outlook is that you can identify inefficiencies or numerous ways in which time can be saved and resources used to their very best advantage.

John Deere has recently invested massively into the amenity turf industry, drawing much from the more advanced research and development from the much larger agricultural sector.

So there was much anticipation for the small group of press who were at the launch, held in John Deere’s European headquarters in Mannheim and those wonderful green machines with the yellow wheel inserts didn’t disappoint. The group were shown around the state-of-the-art factory, which is home to the two millionth John Deere tractor, which features the pictures of 300 of the staff who had worked on it.

John Deere Precision Turf technology has shown to increase productivity and efficiency. The focus is on connecting, guiding and managing the machines.

Connect The machines are connected using John Deere’s JDLink telemetry system. Machine data, such as hours, fuel level, or location is sent to the cloud-based John Deere Operations Centre . Fleet managers have a comprehensive view of individual machines or even the entire fleet whether they are on the go or in the office.

This allows precise planning of tasks, maximises uptime and uses the machine’s location to ensure optimal use. All golf equipment already has a JDLink modem for any turf-related operations. Starting with model year 2024, the 1500 Series TerrainCut front mowers and the TerrainCut 1600 Turbo wide area mowers will also be equipped with a JDLink modem.

There is the option to retrofit modems to commercial ZTrak Zero Turn mowers and compact utility tractors. Guide Precision guidance systems can be used to make turf operations more efficient.

Machines can accurately follow a pre-planned route, even in low visibility or during the night.

Keeping John Deere connected

Keeping John Deere connected

This allows the HD200 GPS Precision Sprayer to avoid overlaps or missed applications with a guidance system to accurately treat the turf. Standard Individual Nozzle Shutdown allows operators to only cover pre-defined turf, while lower maintenance areas are automatically left out.

This greatly simplifies the work processes as Public the operator can fully concentrate on the actual work process without having to take additional care to maintain the tracks. Components such as the StarFire receiver and the Universal Displays, plus technologies such as AutoTrac, enable the use of precision guidance systems.

The components can be easily transferred from one machine to another. Manage The John Deere Operations Centre provides a central platform for managing machine- and work-related information to make data-based decisions quickly and easily.

The Machine Analyser inspects and visualises machine data, for example, to identify service needs in time or to evenly distribute hours between machines.

The new John Deere Connectivity programme allows Course Managers, dealers and John Deere themselves to track machinery while out on the golf course from wherever they happen to be. It allows a much more objective assessment of performance.

“We can track how many hours a triple mower has worked and over time if we need to even up hours on leased equipment cutting units on tees mowers can be swapped with those on greens mowers as greens mower hours are much greater than those of tees mowers,” said Paul Trowman, John Deere’s European Marketing Manager.

This software integrates OnLink into the John Deere Operations Centre. John Deere Operations Centre PRO Golf provides solutions for managing golf course maintenance.

It provides functions to manage machine fleets and human resources.

At the same time, it provides information that greenkeepers need to manage their assets more efficiently and distribute tasks.

The work at John Deere shows that modern day technology can be a genuine force for good, a benefit to the industry and not something about which to be closed and suspicious.

Threat to our golfing jewels

in /by

Threat to our golfing jewels: As weather becomes more extreme, coastal erosion is an issue for just about every links golf course in the country. What can and should be done? Scott MacCallum reports.

At the risk of sounding like John Lennon. Imagine there’s no Wembley; no Aintree Race course too. Imagine there’s no venues, it isn’t hard to do.

Threat to our golfing jewels

Threat to our golfing jewels

You get my drift. What if Wembley and Aintree, along with the likes of Wimbledon, Lords and Murrayfield, just disappeared off the face of the earth?

Sounds implausible doesn’t it? You might even accuse me of being a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. That’s the fate facing some of the country’s oldest and most revered golf courses, as coastal erosion has seen increasingly large chunks of links land being reclaimed by the sea.

The list of courses is as worrying as it is long. It includes Royal Aberdeen GC, which has hosted a Walker Cup, a Scottish Open and a British Seniors Open; Royal Montrose Golf Links, the fifth oldest golf course in the world; Alnmouth Village Golf Club, England’s oldest nine hole links course; Fortrose Golf Links, the 15th oldest golf links in the world.

Not to mention the hallowed St Andrews Links where intervention work has been going on for a number of years. That’s home to the Old Course, the most famous golf course in the world!

There is an army of modern day King Canutes, in the guise of Course Managers, facing the challenge of nature, with no guarantee that the resources or solutions are available to avoid the inevitable.

In fact, research shows that 100 Scottish golf courses are facing, or will be facing, the impact of coastal erosion with many historical and outstanding English courses facing the prospect of course damage, including Royal North Devon in the south and Formby and West Lancs in the north west.

New data has identified the courses that are most at risk from the effects climate change and while some of the timelines appear to give a decent amount of warning, there is no guarantee that solutions will resolve the issues.

Betting odds company AceOdds studied data, provided by Statista, which shows that the UK’s sea level is expected to rise by up to half a metre by the turn of the century.

It is reckoned that up to 28% of coastline in England and Wales, and 19% in Scotland, is at risk of erosion and, with a significant proportion of the country’s courses on low-lying ground where the land meets the sea, the dangers are there for all to see.

They found that the courses used by Arbroath Golf Club and Leven Golfing Society have a ‘high-risk’ level of flooding from both surface water and river/sea water, sitting only 24 metres and 35 metres above sea level on average.

That gives both a 75% ‘erosion risk’ over the next 75 years.

In England, Formby Golf Club is the course most at risk from climate change. It sits five metres above sea level and has a high risk of flooding from surface water, with a 50% likelihood of experiencing coastal erosion in the next 75 years.

Other highly regarding courses facing varying degrees of risk include Royal Dornoch, Nairn, Moray and the aforementioned West Lancs.

But for some the impact has come much quicker than anticipated and the results are horrific.

Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club, on Scotland’s Black Isle, would have architect, James Braid, spinning in his grave if he knew what the golf course he laid out was now facing.

Last October it was visited by Storm Ciaran, which coincided with a high tide and historically low atmospheric pressure, and it created more havoc in the space of one night that the club had experience in many many years.

Massive waves washed away between five and six metres of land, with the 1st and 2nd holes particularly impacted.

Club Manager Mike MacDonald told Michael McEwan, of Bunkered magazine, that the club was aware if the issues and had begun making plans.

“Towards the end of 2022 we set up a coastal erosion sub-committee and throughout 2023 we met with various representatives from the Highland Council and Scottish Water to highlight the issues we were facing,” Mike told Bunkered.

However, they got very little support from either body, while other attempts to source funding from national bodies were turned down.

“So it wasn’t a surprise that we were impacted. What was surprising was the extent of the damage. It was far more severe and devastating than any of us had anticipated.”

The club has already used rock armour to reinforce the area around the 1st and 2nd, but it is a costly option leaving the club with a bill for £140,000 just for this one defence for one part of the golf course.

With little or no support coming from outside, the club is resorting to crowd funding and while this has produce some very welcome results it is but a drop in the ocean of what will ultimately be required.

Course Manager, George Paterson, is the man at the sharp end trying to keep the elements at bay.

George is a big fan of soft defences, rather than the rock armour which, while it has its place, does tend to shift the problem down the coast.

“We reclaimed 2850 tonnes of sand/Marram mix from the far end of the beach and established a dune area above the high tide watermark. It took three days and roughly 95 loads in a 30 tonne dump truck,” George told Turf Matters.

“This was banked up along the 250 metre eroded stretch of beach at the 1st hole and then we installed 500 metres of chestnut fencing to help stabilise the sand and keep foot traffic off it.

“This was done in March of this year, but a high tide in early April took away about three to four metres of the sand and we had to re-stake some of the fencing.

Since then it has re-stabilised and the sand has started to gather at the foot of the fencing again.

“Inside the fenced area, and along where our red hazard posts and public footpath are, we have sewn out a mix of creeping ryegrass and creeping fescue which is now starting to take hold.”

The issue at Fortrose is the same as at many similarly threatened links courses – there is no option of re-routing as the additional land just isn’t available.

Montrose Golf Links lost seven metres of golf course in the last 12 months, having foreseen a loss of perhaps one or one and a half metres a year prior to that.

They actually moved the 3rd tee in 2017 but that has already disappeared and the half a million they have allocated to improving defences may only prove to be a sticking plaster solution.

South of the border, but not that far south, is Alnmouth Village Golf Club, in Northumberland, England’s oldest nine hole links course.

A vibrant golf club with 300 members it is all that is good about small golf clubs. When I visited an army of members were just completing a divotting session led by Head Greenkeeper, John Scurfield, and Club Secretary Ian Simpson.

Once they had finished their divoting stint they took me out to the 5th hole which had taken a battering late last year. The traffic cone marking the current edge between green and beach is a stark indicator of the power of nature.

The course may have suffered even more if it wasn’t for the concrete blocks that were installed as tank defences during the war.

They have done a remarkable job to holding back the tide but there was a gap of 100 yards between them, a gap which exposed the 5th.

There would have been no extensive planning process required to keep Hitler at bay, but in 21st century Britain that isn’t the case, and Ian had been told informally that any hard – rock armour – defence option would not survive the planning stage.

“If we could have moved some tank blocks or put some more in it might be able to slow the erosion down,” explained Ian.

“Long term we are probably going to have to move the 5th green, 40 to 50 yards left of where it is now.”

When we were there the tide was out but the spring tide comes right up to the edge and John has to remove seaweed from the top of tee boxes.

Tide is out water does come right up to the edge can see the seaweed line can see how high the tide comes. Recently not so high tides come springtime and spring tides right up agains the edge, combined with an easterly wind.

“You can feel the spray when you are out working on the course,” said John.

He arrived as Head man just before the latest erosion issue.

“I was a little bit worried that my place of work disappearing before my eyes, especially after always considering it one of the driest golf course in the north east of England,” said the man who was fulfilling a wish to work on a sand golf course rather than having constantly to be kicking mud off his wellies.

He has some longer term ideas which may help the golf course in a number of ways.

“The 6th hole is a blind uphill hole which is not idea for cutting from my perspective nor from a health and safety perspective for players. Ultimately we could move a few thousand tonnes of sand and reduce the height of the hole and flatten it out.”

It is great to see such positivity in a tricky situation but those potential solutions are not for the immediate future and hoping the weather is kind, and the next spring tides are not too severe, are key to the course avoiding any more damaging events.

Ian is currently waiting to see what options emerge so that financial targets can be set and fund raising campaigns put in place.

So what’s happening at golfing HQ in St Andrews.

Well, the R&A is aware of the issue, and back in 2020 invested up to £650,000 to fund golf course sustainability projects.

That amount wasn’t ring fenced for coastal erosion, but also covering green quality and general agronomic projects.

The R&A did however commission an Aberdeen-based company, Siskin Asset Management, who had submitted a proposal for a demonstration project of their new concept.

Traditionally, durable defence against erosion is based on hard engineering. In place of this Siskin had developed a concept based on well recognised soft engineering techniques. These techniques have been enhanced to improve durability and resilience in common coastal conditions.

This delivers mitigation of erosion at a lower up front cost and reduced lifecycle cost while being deployable using only community level resources.

Being based on soft engineering methods the concept also has a low environmental footprint.

The method uses a by-product of forestry operations called brash, akin to old Christmas trees. This natural product is baled before being arranged in a defined geometry and anchored in the back beach area of soft coastlines.

This structure then acts to capture mobile sediment and promote re-vegetation of the existing coast.

The overall effect being to enhance the resilience of the coastline against wave and wind attack.

After assessing the project the R&A agreed to support and approved funding accordingly. Both the R&A’s and Siskin Asset Management’s websites carried the same information:

The planned demonstration project is targeting the installation of the novel system along an approx. 100m section of coastline currently suffering from erosion. Once installed the demonstration site will be monitored as part of a three year PhD project to evaluate system effectiveness and provide learning. Information gathered during the demonstration project will be disseminated via update reports, conferences and standard media channels.

That was back in 2020 and while Covid will undoubtedly have slowed progress on what was to be a three year PHD project, there has been no further updates on either of the websites.

I was told that the R&A was still awaiting the report from that research and that it might not be until next year before that changes.

To date, and to the best of my knowledge, no information gathered during the project has been shared by Siskin Asset Management.

With time of the essence for so many of golf’s crown jewels we do need some urgency, some joined up thinking and some leadership from those with the power to provide it.

Nature is a powerful foe but the thought of accepting defeat and seeing some of our classic links disappear would be too much to bear.

To misquote the Beatles once again…

Yesterday
All our troubles seemed so far away
Now at looks like they’re here to stay

We can only hope not, and that golf clubs like Fortrose & Rosemarkie, Alnmouth and so many others are not left out in the cold attempting to stem the tide at a cost many of them will struggle to afford.

If you want something done well, do it yourself!

in /by

If you want something done well, do it yourself!: Scott MacCallum travelled to Northern Finland to find out more about Avant and their brand new battery technology.

Where better to develop new batteries than one of the northern-most locations on the planet? Avant are based in Tampare, Finland, 100 miles north of Helsinki, and a place which is renowned for being a bit chilly.

If you want something done well, do it yourself!

If you want something done well, do it yourself!

It is therefore perfectly suited to testing the extremes of new battery technology and, having developed a battery which can cope in such conditions, Avant has recently opened a new battery factory to product the power units to operate their sophisticated range of electric loaders.

“Following a lot of development we believe we have produced the perfect solution for our type of machine. Of course it is not the perfect solution for any kind of moving machine, but we don’t have a huge circumference to cover, compared to cars which need a huge infrastructure of for recharging points,” Avant CEO, Jani Käkelä, explained to Turf Matters.

“For us the electric vehicle are very viable as a solution of a way to create a machine with zero emissions. We don’t need a huge battery so the cost of the machine is still reasonable and then also the charging infrastructure doesn’t need to be too big. Overall the size of the machine has not altered from that of the diesel machine.

The Avant HQ, even taking away the stunning Nordic scenery, is impressive with the new battery factory fitting seamlessly into the overall plant, and it is the ability to produce their own batteries which is seen as a gateway to taking the company onto the next level.

The new OptiTemp battery packs feature a globally unique immersion lithium-ion technology offering Avant users several benefits.

The 4-module 27 kwh OptiTemp battery gives an electric Avant e5 loader twice the capacity of other loaders in its size class. With a 4-module battery it is possible to work the whole day with one single charge.

A globally unique thermal management system keeps the temperature optimised and gives you the same capacity in hot and freezing weather.

If you want something done well, do it yourself!

If you want something done well, do it yourself!

Rapid charging. Thanks to the structure of the battery, you can charge your battery in just one and a half hours with a rapid charger, which enables long workdays.

Unique solutions for safety – the structure and the immersion cooling system of the battery – guarantee 100% safe batteries. Avant has been producing compact loaders and attachments for over 30 years and they have risen to become the global market leader in their field.

But it was having worked with electric loaders and batteries for a number of years that the began to realise that there was no battery pack available to fulfil the needs of their loaders.

Since the battery factory – Avant Power, a subsidiary of Avant Tecno – was opened a few months ago he batteries now produced are truly fit for purpose – and fully capable of dealing with Finland’s extreme temperatures, but also in hotter temperatures in other parts of the world.

The new Avant e513 and Avant e527 loaders are almost identical, the only difference being the capacity of the batteries. The Avant e513 (13 kWh) is a good choice for short-term continuous use on cattle farms, horse stables, greenhouses or DIY and leisure time, for example.

The Avant e527 loader (27 kWh) with a larger battery is ideal for demanding professional use. Construction and demolition contractors will benefit from this model.

“For years, the market has been longing for fully electric loaders that would be more like diesel loaders in terms of functionality.

Until now, operating time and pricing have been key issues related to electric loaders, but with Avant’s new e series, we solve them both”, explained Jani.

A commitment to making a difference

in /by

A commitment to making a difference: Scott MacCallum talks with Rob Taylor, Head of Grounds at the 500-acre Worth School campus in West Sussex, a man who likes to get things done…

Having worked as a contractor for five years at Worth School, in Turners Hill, West Sussex, Rob Taylor was a natural choice for taking up the permanent internal Head of Grounds role in January.

A commitment to making a difference

A commitment to making a difference

Rob has not been slow in putting his stamp on things and is committed to making a difference to the outdoor experience at Worth, ensuring the very best quality and aesthetic to the lawns and pitches – whether that be for the annual Speech Day picnic or the constant flow of sport fixtures.

“Leave it better than you found it is an important motto, I’d love to stick to that value. I’d love to have every single home game played without worrying about the weather. I’d love well-draining pitches, which retain moisture in the summer. I’d love all our staff to be well-qualified and for them to be able to apply for jobs knowing that to have been trained at Worth School is a real plus point.”

Rob acknowledges it is his job to ensure the pitches on the campus are fit for purpose at any given time, which is no mean feat.

The 500-acre school campus comprising farm, fields and woodlands, is enjoyed by a large community of 670 day and boarding pupils as well as a thriving lettings business in holiday time where visiting schools and businesses enjoy the facilities.

“With 15 multi-sport pitches, five cricket squares, two grass six bay wide nets and a nine-hole golf course there’s always something to be done!”

Climate change, of course, remains a serious concern; a defining global issue and intrinsically connected with sport as Rob well knows.

“The biggest problem for us has been the weather, as the majority of our pitches are on clay-based heavy soil. We got through January but then the weather turned on us and it’s been shocking,” he added, saying that they had had 14 mil the night before, and that the February rainfall figure was 160 mil, double what it had been the previous year.

However, he brings two decades-plus of experience as he tackles a wide range of sadly common challenges.

“As mad as it sounds I’ve bought an electric post borer. Nine times out of ten the middle of the pitches are fine and you’d get away with a game, but it’s the corners that suffer so we’ve been putting in bore holes and back filling with sand – it’s a 19 mil bore. We did 34 holes in one corner recently and put in around two tonne of sand down to the depth of a metre and a half. It’s very labour intensive.

A commitment to making a difference

A commitment to making a difference

It took us a day to do that one corner, but it has actually worked.”

Rob’s medium to long term play is to put in perimeter drainage around the school’s playing fields and then add in lateral drainage.

“Just to put in the perimeter drain round one field is a significant cost and we’re waiting for the costings for the laterals. I’ve got a guy putting together a proper four year drainage plan.”

Rob’s initial involvement with Worth School came as a Contracts Manager for Nurture Landscapes, who had the contract with the school to offer support to the now-retired Head of Grounds.

“At the time I was running quite a big patch in the south east for Nurture but when the Head of Grounds retired I was asked by my manager to take over the responsibility as part of my wider remit. But it became a full-time job and when Nurture wanted to pull me out last September the school said that as I’d been at the school for five years I was on their TUPE list – which protects the employment rights of those who move to a new employer – and had protected rights. I decided I would rather stay with the school.”

With his feet under the proverbial table, Rob has set about making his mark on the school. His first move was to commission a consultancy to produce a report into what needed to be done to bring the school up to modern day standards.

“The first thing I did was change the seed, the way it was applied, and the fertiliser programme. I’ve moved to a new amenity seed, supplied by Burnham Brothers, and we’re now using a modern Wiedenmann seeder, which is double decked, so we are doing one pass rather than three. It’s amazing really. We hired it in from a local sports contractor who I’ve known for about 20 years,” said Rob, who himself has been in the industry for 22 years starting as a young lad at Whitgift School, where his grandad also worked.

On the fertiliser regime Rob is working closely with Laura Prior, of Symbio, who visits regularly.

“Laura is sound. She came in here last March and we did soil samples and the fertiliser programme has been tailored from there with her,” said Rob, adding that it fitted will with the goal of introducing a more organic approach.

When the weather has played ball, the pitches have been praised and allowed Rob and the team to show that the new regime does produce the promised results.

A commitment to making a difference

A commitment to making a difference

Rob’s desire to making the required improvements and get things done has been met by a refreshingly positive approach from the powers-that-be within the school. Even if that meant the introduction of a turbo-boosted learning curve.

“I even took the Bursar on a trip to look at vertidrains so that he could understand what it was I was talking about because he’d never seen one. As soon as he saw it in action he said ‘When do you want one?’.” Rob’s direct line manager is the Estate’s Bursar, who, according to Rob, is very like himself in that he will argue for whatever its required.

“The school is listening, but we are talking about a place where not so long ago the pitches were being cut by a 60-year old Ransomes Marquis, which didn’t even have a dead man’s handle!”

Another welcome addition will be the new maintenance facility.

The new building is being started during the May half term, while a Waste2Water system is being installed at the school farm, to be shared by the grounds team and the school mini buses.

Staffing and recruitment issues are common to virtually every Grounds Team, irrespective of which part of the country.

“We were three people down but two people are just completing their security checks and should start fairly soon.”

They will be joining Rob’s Deputy, Richard Sweetman; Foreman Gardener, Bob Brewer, and Assistant Gardener, Jean Pierre.

“There are a lot of young kids who do want to join the industry, but once they start they change their mind very quickly as it’s hard work!”

The recruitment plan in place will allow Rob to split his time between hands-on and office to enable the future planning which he is keen to implement.

Rob has no intention of leaving any time soon but if he ever does, he wants to leave it better than when he found it. Speaking with him you are left in no doubt that he will honour that pledge.

He is looking forward to the final and seventh member of the team joining in September and he is excited about the possibilities at Worth School.

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves

in /by

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves: Scott MacCallum caught up with three of the women who made history when they became the first all-women team to prepare a pitch for a professional football match in the UK.

Sunday, March 3, was a momentous day. For a start, basketball superstar LeBron James became the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 points but, on this side of the pond, a crowd of over 60,000 filled the Emirates Stadium for a Women’s Super League match – a record for a women’s domestic match in the UK – with the home team, Arsenal, facing their bitter rivals Tottenham.

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves

A tense encounter saw England striker Alessia Russo, score the only goal of the game from close range in the 49th minute, to send the home fans away happy and leave the Spurs fans wondering of what might have been.

That, however, is not the reason that the occasion was up there with LeBron’s achievement because, for the first time ever, the pitch was prepared by an all-female grounds team of 13 specially selected women, from sporting venues all over the country.

It goes without saying that the match went without a hitch.

It is a shocking statistic that women – aged 21 not 18 mind you – were given the vote in 1928, yet in 2024 only 2% of those working in the grounds maintenance industry, a job eminently suitable to both sexes, are female.

So the opportunity to showcase the skills of the Emirates 13 was seen as a wonderful chance to display that the industry is very much a place for women and that it is a career option from which many more would take great pleasure.

Turf Matters spoke with three of the women involved, Beth Gibbs, before the big match, and Liddy Ford and Meg Lay afterwards.

“I got the invitation to join the team in the middle of January and it didn’t take me too long to accept,” recalled Beth, who is a Groundsperson at Wellington College, in Somerset, and one of the recently appointed GMA NextGen Board Members.

Beth was so keen to be one of the ground-breaking team because of the message it sent out to other young women considering their futures.

“I think it’s definitely a massive milestone because at the moment there are only 2% of women in the industry and with us getting together it shows what we can do and that we are no different to the men. It shows that this is a job for younger women, that they can definitely do it and that it is a good career for them.”

On that appalling 2% participation rate Beth has thoughts on why the number is so low.

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves

“Some people believe that they can’t do it from a strength perspective – that they are not going to be strong enough to push a mower. It is a physical job, but there are a many young women who would be more than capable.

The more we talk about it the more women will appreciate that they are able to do the job,” said Beth, who showed her own credentials by becoming the GMA Young Groundsperson of the Year in 2023.

The fact that the industry is so male dominated at the moment also doesn’t help the cause.

“Because it is so male dominated many women don’t see it a job for them, so they don’t push themselves to have a go at it. Also the industry as a whole isn’t promoted in schools so not a lot of people know about it.

“My friends don’t really understand what I do. They think I just cut grass, but I was talking to them about being on the team at the Emirates and they were very jealous,” revealed Beth.

Liddy, who is on the grounds team at St George’s Park, and Meg, who has recently joined the grounds team at Lords, are both also on the GMA’s NextGen Board and, speaking after the match, were both still buzzing from the experience.

“The cool thing for me was being with a group of women for a change. That was something I really appreciated. I really enjoyed getting to meet some really lovely people and it was great to be a part of it.

I just felt really lucky,” said Liddy. For New Zealander, Meg, being so close to the action was the real buzz.

“I was sitting right beside the pitch and I remember looking over to my left and the England Captain, Leah Williamson, was about five metres away and thinking how have we got here. That was a cool moment,” said Meg.

“It showed just how close we were to the action and how key a part we play in it. Every game of professional sport which is played on grass has happened because of ground staff. It’s a billion dollar industry and wouldn’t exist without us.”

The 13 who were led by Tara Sandford, a well-respected member of the groundstaff at the Emirates, had met up the day before and had a run through at the Emirates.

“We went through everything we needed to know including practising with the portable goals and cutting the pitch, before we went back to the hotel for a meal together before the big day,” said Liddy, who knew her fellow NextGen Board members and a few of the other team members who had visited St George’s Park for a day.

That practice really paid off as, under pressure to turn the pitch around for play after the warm-up in 15 minutes, the team completed the task in just six.

“We were a well-oiled machine,” laughed Meg. What is common to Beth, Liddy and Meg is that none of them had planned on a career in grounds care, they just fell into it, based on a love of the outdoors, sport and a desire not to be stuck in an office behind a desk.

In fact Liddy has just been joined by another young woman at St George’s Park while since joining Lords earlier this year Meg has now has another woman to keep her company.

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves

“Lords has gone from zero for 220 years to two in the space of a couple of months,” said Meg.

All three, as NextGen Board members, are keen to work towards making the career better known about and better appreciated both for young women and young men.

“The NextGen stuff is really exciting at the moment. We’ve got a whole new bunch of fresh faces and we are really excited about what the group can achieve
going forward,” said Meg.

The success of the Emirates’ team was lauded by the GMA, the hosts of the match, Arsenal and the Barclay’s Women’s Super League.

“To see a team of 13 experienced and talented women prepare the iconic Emirates Stadium pitch in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators and viewers across the UK, was a highly significant moment in the GMA and the grounds management industry’s history,” said Jennifer Carter, the GMA’s Director of Communications.

“The lack of visibility of women in this field remains a significant barrier, but we are confident that moments like these, and more in the future, will be pivotal in convincing more young people especially females, to explore this promising career path,” added Jennifer.

The work of the team was also praised by Vinai Venkatesham, Arsenal’s CEO.

“This is a celebration of what’s been achieved by women in sport, but also serves as a reminder of the work we need to do together to ensure more young girls are encouraged to break into the game.

“It’s important we continue to build on these moments to inspire the next generation and accelerate the sustainable growth of the game,” said Vinai.

“There are so many incredible women working not only throughout football, but across many other industries too, and it is amazing that we have been able to bring 13 of the country’s most highly-rated female ground staff together to play such a crucial role for this tentpole fixture in our calendar,” said Nikki Doucet, CEO of the Barclay’s Women’s Super League.

The whole event can be signed off as a total success and should act as a wonderful advert for the industry. It will certainly be interesting to know how big an improvement on that 2% women participation there is when LeBron James scores his 50,000th NBA point!

Welcome to our side of the business

in /by

Welcome to our side of the business: Scott MacCallum chats with Henri Lansbury, who has swapped his football boots and designer washbag for gardening gloves and a directorship of a burgeoning new company in the amenity and retail turf industry.

It could have been the shortest chat of all time, but I thought in for a penny, in for a pound, when I said to my latest interviewee. “Your family must be delighted that, having pottered around in sport for most of your life, you now have a proper job!”

Welcome to our side of the business

Welcome to our side of the business

Fortunately Henri Lansbury, he of Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, West Ham, Aston Villa and Luton fame, to name just a few of the clubs whose jersey he has worn, took the comment in the manner in which it was intended, and laughed.

In fairness, we had met before, as I’d interviewed him on stage at last year’s GroundsFest, so I was pretty sure I was on safe(ish) grounds.

“You could say that. The famliy keep calling to ask me to do their garden, but just I tell them I’m too busy,” he smiled.

Henri was talking about his new post-football life as Director of Grass Gains, a company he founded with two groundsmen friends he knew for his footballing days.

And to show just how wrapped up in his new career he has become, he had to delay the Zoom call as he had been held up while out cutting a client’s lawn!

With most retired footballers gravitating towards getting their coaching badges and ultimately moving into management, or becoming a TV pundit, Henri’s new role is perhaps surprising. But not if you caught him doing a unique lawn mowing goal celebration following a goal for Luton against Hull in 2022.

And if anyone thinks it’s just a case of someone with time on their hands exploring a glorified hobby, they too will be pleasantly surprised. Grass Gains has hit the ground running and is attacking the industry on two fronts – the amenity sports turf sector and the potentially lucrative retail market.

Grass Gains has professional “Black” Editions, of its range of products – Lawn Bulk, Super Seed and One Shot Wonder – which are tailored specifically for sports teams. They are also able to create programmes for football clubs and golf clubs.

“If clubs book us in and want a certain bespoke programme designed for them, we can do that. We are now going into the sports side, including liquids for hybrid pitches. We’ve done a lot of research with some friendly boffins in white coats which has complemented the experience of life at the sharp end that our guys bring to the table” explained Henri.

He is very much looking at tapping into the new approach being taken by the more recent intake of sports turf professionals.

“The older generation of groundsmen is coming to the end so, for me, to be able to go in with the new generation of groundsmen, is what I really want to do. I love it. I follow all the groundsmen on Linkedin,” said Henri.

“Craven Cottage was one of the best pitches I played on and at BTME this year I met up with guys at Fulham, who asked me to spend a day with them, take in a match and even help with the divotting at half time,” he said, with all excitement of a young club mascot.

Seeing things from “the other side” has given Henri a real understanding of the work that generally goes on behind the scenes.

“When playing you are going in there and training and playing. You’re not really taking in what has gone into getting the playing surface to where it is. I then started to learn more about the work that goes into producing that pitch and that a team of guys is out there night and day getting it ready for us.

“I started to chat to them a lot more and they gave me a lot of knowledge. I’ve got so much respect for every groundsman out there.

It is incredible what they do.”

“Speaking as an ex-player I can say that pitches are so good now that no player can seriously blame their injuries on the surface. It may be a little too hard, or a little too soft for them, but they are all so good. The ground staff put so much effort into a pitch. It is like their baby at the end of the day.

“It hasn’t always been the case. I used to think it was never my fault if I slipped on the pitch, but now I blame the player. He’s got the wrong boots on!”

But not everyone has the privilege of playing their football on the highest quality of surfaces. Many Sunday league and junior games are played on pitches which are not remotely close to that level. One of Henri’s goals is to improve those pitches and thus increase the enjoyment of football for those who are not going to be gracing the magnificent stadiums around the country.

“We are developing a grass roots blend, as my main thing is for kids to be able to play on nice pitches. Providing a grass roots blend for them will make a huge difference,” he explained.

He talked about helping a friend with his council run pitch and the issues he faced.

“The council had a moan at me when they saw that I’d cut the pitch, but I told them that they’d put a big tractor on the pitch and were leaving inprints and I asked how they expected people to play football with tractor prints on their pitch?

“So I took along a tractor-drawn vertidrain and showed them the turf tyres that they needed for the tractor. I even offered to lend them some kit, just because I wanted the pitch to be nice for my friend.

I fertilised it, sprayed it and asked the council to keep it in good nick, but I went back the other day they had the big tractor, with the agricultural tyres, out again.”

Henri is sure that their grass roots blend will be ideal for councils and sports clubs.

“I’m hoping to team up with the FA because I know they give a lot of funding for the grass roots game. Every player started out at a grass roots team and if I’m not giving back through coaching I’d like to give back in another way, by giving them a nice pitch.”

That love of the gardens and pitches, together with a desire to find a role when his football career came to a conclusion in 2023 after a 16 year professional career, at the age of 33 all came about during Covid.

Henri takes up the story… “During Covid we were at home and I had a guy come round and cut the grass but he left it a bit long, which wasn’t ideal as I was training on it. I couldn’t get him to come back so I asked one of my groundsmen friends, Mark Pettit – who had been at Arsenal and who is now Premiership Lawn Care – if he could get me a lawn mower.

“Mark asked what I needed one for and I told him that I wanted to cut the grass. He got me a Hayter Harrier and I was hooked. I just l loved looking back and seeing the stripe in the grass.

Ever since then it just sucked me in and I continued doing it.”

As things progressed Henri became more interested in the subject and how he could get his lawn to look as good as possible.

“I’d spray it for weeds and fertilise it but my missus was going through an organic phase and didn’t want me to put anything that was toxic because of the kids and the dog. I was telling them they had to stay off the lawn for 48 hours… even if the sun was out.

“So I asked Mark if there was any organic fertilisers out there but he said there was nothing on the market. I had tried some off the shelf products but they just weren’t doing it for me. Then my wife suggested that we make an organic fertiliser, as there was obviously a gap in the market.”

So, inspired by the words of Mrs Lansbury Henri sat down with Mark and Josef Farrow, Groundsman at Oakham School, a former Young Groundsman of the Year, and Mark’s brother-in-law.

“Working with our scientist colleagues, we came up with a product and trialled it on our lawn and around the kids and the dog.

Initially it was going to be just for our garden but because it was so much better than the products that were out there already, we decided that we should look to expand out horizons,” explained Henri.

“We just got a small batch initially and I would go to my mum’s house, my nan’s house and my auntie’s house, put it down and they’d all say that it was amazing. My nan’s a big gardener and she couldn’t believe how good it was and said that there was obviously a gap in the market and that we should start to make it commercially.

“So we came up with the name, Grass Gains. We started going on Instagram with before and after pics. That was when we decided to take it to the next level.”

Initially they launched their aforementioned range of three products – Lawn Bulk, Super Seed and One Shot Wonder – into the retail market and these are now available through Home Base.

Henri is certainly not playing at his new vocation. He worked out that they needed a fresh modern look to attracted the younger people who are buying their first houses and wanting to make something of their first garden.

“If you make a garden look good it is like having an extra room in your house. You definitely want to be outside in the summer,” explained Henri.

“We took that leap of faith and it is now paying off. As you said we are going into Home Base on-line and in stores and they are very happy with it. We are building up the brand and looking to modernise gardening for the younger generation,” said Henri, adding that he’s now got a lot of his mates into gardening who see how therapeutic it can be.

Henri is now so confident in his ability to restore his lawn that he is more than happy for bouncy castles to be a feature of the Lansbury children’s parties.

“If the lawn is damaged I enjoy bringing it back to its best.”

Far removed from his once a day training sessions Henri is now discovering just what real work is really like.

“This has taken up so much time. My phone goes non stop. I tellpeople that I’m available 10 to 2 and 8 to 10, to fit in with dropping the kids off at school and picking them up. When we’re at home I ask not to be messaged until later in the evening.

As a recognised sporting figure Henri knows that he can open doors in a manner in which most new starters can’t, but he also knows where he gets most job satisfaction.

“I try and do a bit of all elements of the job and attend the meetings when I can, but my happy place is getting people’s gardens to how they want them. I’ve currently got about four or five renovations to do. Today I was just out cutting and strimming a lawn for a client.“

Grass Gains is trying to gain a foothold in a very competitive market filled with multi-national companies. It’s very much David against a bunch of Goliaths.

“I love being the underdog and am very ambitious for the company. From the retail market we want to be the number one go-to product in five years’ time. We are really going to push that side of it. On the sports side of it we want to be known for giving quality to the groundsmen and something that they can rely on. It’s not just me, who is a novice at it all.

“There are many great people behind it all and I’m just the face of the company. It is a passion for me to love good pitches and golf courses. Any grass area, I want to have our products on there. I think we have ruffled some feathers already.”

Who would doubt him and, having been used to the stands and terracing singing his name, it may be that Henri will still have his name ringing out but this time from the depths of the stadium, or the practice ground, and emanating from the maintenance facilities.

The most famous school grounds in the world

in /by

The most famous school grounds in the world: Eton College’s Lee Marshallsay became the first school Grounds Manager to become the GMA Grounds Manager of the Year, proving that it’s not just the boys in the Eton classrooms who are high achievers. Lee spoke with Scott MacCallum.

The Battle of Waterloo, perhaps one of the most famous triumphs to be carved onto the bedpost of British military history, was said by the very man who led our forces, to have been won on the playing fields of Eton.

The most famous school grounds in the world

The most famous school grounds in the world

Now in all likelihood the Duke of Wellington didn’t say it, or to be charitable, no-one is around to prove that he did or didn’t, but what it did was ensure that those very playing fields became the most famous school grounds in the world. An accolade held to this very day.

Can you think of anywhere to rival them?

What the quote actually meant, apocryphal or not, was that the excellence embodied by Eton, and its fellow British public schools, was what carried the country to victory. That ethos remains in place in 2024, a mere 584 years after Eton was founded in 1440.

So, it is perhaps fitting that the man charged with looking after those famous fields has also achieved a degree of excellence which marks him, and his superb team, out from the crowd.

Lee Marshallsay was crowned Grounds Manager of the Year at the recent GMA Awards, held at Headingley, in Leeds.

“It was a real shock as the winner normally comes from football, cricket, tennis or horse racing, so I certainly didn’t expect my name to be called out. I believe it is the first time that someone from a school has won the award.

“But it was great as it was only possible for me to win because the team had won the Top Independent Schools Grounds Team award earlier in the evening, so it is an award for the whole team.

At 37, Lee is still a young man but he has packed a lot into his 20 years as a groundsman and grounds manager and he has a CV which includes two other schools at the very top of the independent school tree – Harrow and Charterhouse, both of which he was Grounds Manager.

But the role at which he has excelled was very much second choice by way of a career.

The most famous school grounds in the world

The most famous school grounds in the world

“I actually wanted to work in taxes and excise, but I didn’t get the grades,” laughed Lee, as we stood on the balcony of one of Eton’s famous pavilions, about to conduct a Turf Matters, YouTube video interview.

It says a lot for Lee’s single minded focus that he would have contemplated a job which doesn’t feature strongly on many people’s list of dream occupations, but having seen those aspirations dashed, he embarked on another activity which doesn’t offer much by way of love and affection either.

“I was a football referee to quite a decent standard,” he revealed, adding that he was a referee at Conference level and assistant referee at National League level.

With his commitments at the school he has retired his whistle and flag, but he does attribute refereeing for adding to his man management skills.

“Dealing and managing people in stressful situations on the pitch showed me that everyone is different and everyone has to be handled in different ways. I miss the 90 minutes of a game, but I don’t miss everything else that goes along with it.”

It was actually flicking through the prospectus of Oaklands College, shortly after his tax man dreams had been thwarted, that he fell upon the Greenkeeping and Grounds Management course.

“So that’s what I did,” he said of a decision which must go down as one of his best ever.

“I did a one year’s course including some work experience at Tottenham before getting an interview at Harrow School.”

Lee worked his way through the ranks at Harrow before eventually becoming Grounds Manager. He made the move to Charterhouse after 12 years and it was further four years before the attraction of his current employer saw him make the move… four years ago in the middle of Covid!

His attitude to being the man in charge of the most famous sporting fields in the world is refreshingly down to earth.

“I personally don’t look at the fact that it is Eton any differently to how I looked at it at either of my previous schools.

First and foremost I’m looking to produce playing surfaces for the boys. It’s just on a bigger scale.”

Lee manages a team of 30 at Eton which is split into three areas – the playing fields team, which looks after 38 winter sports pitches covering 600 acres; the gardens team which looks after the formal areas of the school and the gardens of the 25 boarding houses, and the landscaping team which works on the meadows, the hedges, the trees and the management of Dorney Lake, which was the venue for the 2012 Olympic Rowing regatta.

The most famous school grounds in the world

The most famous school grounds in the world

There are also 500 acres of farmland which doesn’t come under the management of Lee and his team.

“My goal is always to try and improve year on year and I feel that as a team we’ve gone on a bit of a journey since I came here. We aren’t perfect but we always want to be better, and always try to be better.

“We came second to Whitgift School in the GMA Awards last year so to win it this year shows that we haven’t rested on our laurels. We went again and have been recognised and that is great for the team to show them that the hard work they’ve put in has been recognised,” said Lee.

If there is one thing that Lee is particularly hot on, it’s presentation.

“We have parents and grandparents visiting the school, as well as other visitors and people who walk around the grounds, as we are an open site in the town, so presentation is very important.

I want to make sure that we are always on point, that pins are straight goal posts are clean etc.

All small things, but they are noticeable if they are not done well.”

Lee may not have learned the phrase back at school in Borehamwood, but he is an advocate of Carpe Diem – seizing the day!

“The biggest thing I’d say about this site is when the opportunity comes up to do work, you’ve got to do it because if you miss the boat you may not get the chance again for some time.

“The reason that is the case here at Eton is the weather. We are getting more rain and with the Thames so close to us our water table is higher than most, while our fixture list, with over 1500 boys on the role, is packed. There is play on most pitches every single day but if there is a gap we will go on and carry out work,” said Lee, who explained that the boys play sport from 2pm every day.

There is one sport that doesn’t give Lee too many headaches when it comes to presentation. The Eton Wall Game is unique to the school, and bizarre barely covers it.

Two teams, one comprising pupils from College, which is one of the boarding houses, pit themselves against a team made up of the “Oppidans”, pupils from all the other boarding houses. The combination of rugby and football doesn’t produce much by the way of scoring with many matches finishing 0-0 but it is a spectacle nonetheless.

The most famous school grounds in the world

The most famous school grounds in the world

It is played on a strip of ground called the Furrow five metres wide and 110 metres long, next to a slightly curved brick wall erected in 1717.

The St Andrew’s Day match, in particular, is viewed by many as one of the highlights of the year which sees almost the entire school turns out to watch.

It is a bitterly contested clash, with the Oppidans currently holding a slight advantage at 48 victories to the 43 of College, with the remainder ending in draws.

“We don’t have to prepare the pitch for the Wall Game, but it is tradition for the Head Groundsman to toss the coin before it starts,” revealed Lee.

While that is not something any other Grounds Manager has on his list of tasks, there are many others which are just the same as any grounds team up and down the country.

“A few summers ago we had the dry hot weather where everything burnt off and died while we had the frosts at the end of that year while we’ve had the floods as well.

“As people who work on grounds we have to adapt and we learn how to know where we can make a difference and which parts of our land that we need to avoid. This time last year was a nightmare for us in terms of trying to get things done to the cricket square.”

Lee has come a long way from that 16 year old unfulfilled tax man back in Borehamwood. What would the Lee, with 20 more years’ of experience under his belt, say to him to cheer him up?

“I would say to grab every opportunity that comes your way because you just don’t know where it is going to take you. And in this job, if there is something you want, you can really go out and get it.”

And coming from the man who now looks after the most famous sports fields in the world, that is very sound advice.

The Best Golf Course in the World

in /by

The Best Golf Course in the World: Scott MacCallum chats with Andy Johnston, the man who has steered Sentosa Golf Club to the top of the golfing tree.

It’s just after Christmas so I’m guessing that your quizzing skills are still fairly sharp. So here’s one for you.

The Best Golf Course in the World

The Best Golf Course in the World

Which of these golf courses is the odd one out? The Old Course, St Andrews; Augusta National, the Serapong Course at Sentosa Golf Club, Singapore; Shinnecock Hills, New York, or Carnoustie?

The Answer?

None of them! They have all been voted The Best Golf Course in the World by the World Golf Awards.

Of course, Serapong is also the only course among that elite group not to have hosted a Major, and the only one in Asia, but it’s my quiz and I decide the answers!

Seriously though with The Old Course having won the category each of the first five years following the Awards’ inception in 2014, Carnoustie was the next winner, then Augusta National who retaining the title the next year, before its American cousin, Shinnecock.

The triumph of Sentosa Golf Club, the first Asian winner, late last year, did raise a few eyebrows. Not least from the Club’s own General Manager and Director of Agronomy, Andy Johnston.

“Best golf course in the world. I mean, Holy Smoke – really? I was pinching myself,” recalled Andy.

The Best Golf Course in the World

The Best Golf Course in the World

“I was floating of Cloud Nine, and still am,” added the American, who, as a golf course architect, first became associated with the club when he was brought in to do some remodelling work in 2014, and never really left.

He was also blown away by the reception he received from the Sentosa team when he arrive back from the airport having collected the Award.

“It takes a world class team to make a world class club and when you talk about the best in the world the greeting I got from 80 plus of them was pretty special.”

Being the first Asian golf club to win the award, and following in such illustrious company is significant.

“It shows that the growth of Asian golf is gathering pace and how much more progress we are making. It also shows that we are getting to the point where we are becoming competitive within that ‘Big Boy’ fraternity.”

So what it is about Sentosa Golf Club, and the Serapong course in particular, that has enabled this huge geographic breakthrough? Who better to tell us, than Andrew himself.

The Best Golf Course in the World

The Best Golf Course in the World

“It’s one of those tracks that touches your soul. As soon as you head off to the 1st tee you are thinking that this is something special – you know immediately that it is special. Then when you get to the 2nd you get a peek at what’s coming. Hit the 3rd and you have the entire world in front of you. You’re looking down on the town three kilometres away and you are on an elevated spot which sits over the entire bay. You see the ship yards down below you and, downtown, all the sky scrapers. The next five or six holes are all different, and each one memorable. The whole course has a unique playing strategy and you can’t wait to play it again and again.

“You just can’t get enough of it,” enthused Andy.

But that wasn’t always the case for the Serapong, and Sentosa Golf Club, founded by the then Prime Minister of Singapore and which celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

“Back in 2005 the Serapong wasn’t even the best course in town, never mind the world, but at the time I was working on a project in Beijing when I got a call from a friend of mine saying that Sentosa was looking for an architect. They weren’t looking at a huge project just some fairly small tweaks so I jumped on a plane and made a pitch to the Green Committee.

“I must have made a really compelling case because we signed an agreement, almost on a napkin and I got to work the next day.”

With the project completed, six months later the club called Andy to say that he was still the club’s architect and that they wanted to renovate the Serapong fully and was he interested. Was he ever!

“I literally got on a plane that night and came over. The club had a new business plan and wanted to get into hosting tournaments,” said Andy.

The course had been designed originally by Ron Fream and was built on 80% reclaimed land.

“Ron did an unbelievable job because he tracked the course when it was basically still in the ocean. I’ve seen pictures of him in a boat pointing out a green. How he was measuring, in the  life of me, I have not a clue.”

But while the course was excellent, it had really small greens which couldn’t take the traffic and while the bunkers were ok they didn’t support modern day golf strategy.

“So we made some significant changes to the course’s personality. That’s when the course started to get going to where it is today. We introduced massive greens with subtle undulations, we increased the bunkering and made these huge tees so we could take the traffic and have surfaces fit for championship golf. That’s when the engine really got running,” said Andy, who added that they now cut the tees to the same height as the greens.

The tees are Platinum Paspalum, because it recovers quickly from divot damage, with the rest of the course Zoysia.

The Best Golf Course in the World

The Best Golf Course in the World

It wasn’t an overnight success, however, and from 2006 to 2010 it was a difficult time for the club. Then, with 60 days to go until a Singapore Open, and having just lost their Superintendent, Andy took another phone call from the club asking for help.

“The previous General Manager called me and asked that, as nobody knew the property as well as me, would I help them out.

“I have an agronomy background – of all the skills I have, design, operation, agronomy, agronomy is the thing I really excel at, and ultimately we were able to pull a rabbit out of a hat On the Monday pro-am we were running at 13 on the stimp. Singapore had never seen speeds faster than that.

“We’d exceeded everybody’s expectations when it came to conditioning and I just never went home after that, and I hadn’t meant to stay!” he revealed.

And not only that, in addition to his role of Director of Agronomy he found himself General Manager when his predecessor left.

“I didn’t mean to become GM. I was just told that I was going to be GM, even when I told them I didn’t want to be GM. Even today I hate being GM… kind of!” he added with a smile.

But it is still the golf courses, there is also the 18 hole Tanjong course, rather than the food and beverage side of things, which rocks his boat.

“I’m the first person here every morning at 5.30 and that has never changed in the 14 years I’ve been here. I get every morning started with the crew and work closely with our Superintendent, Irishman Rodney McEwan.

“I couldn’t have a better sidekick, if I could call him that. He takes it personally and it means something to him. No matter what I dish out to him it gets done and it’s quite incredible how he does it.”

And it’s not an easy gig maintaining a golf course on the equator.

The Best Golf Course in the World

The Best Golf Course in the World

“I’ve worked in every corner of the world and I think this is the most challenging. We have every disease known to man sitting in the soil 365 days a year, just waiting for the right conditions to flourish.

“Everything is full on. Most of the world goes through the seasons and there are times when you have to work hard and there are heavy growth periods but there are also off periods and simpler windows. It never stops here for us. Every day is full on.

“To put it in a UK context. August is probably the most difficult time of the year for you, because it is the hottest and the most humid. Guys are chasing hot spots and there are disease pressures coming out of their ears. Every day is August for us and our aim is to be thinking ahead of Mother Nature. That’s the goal. If you can be ahead of Mother Nature you will win.”

With two golf courses and the surrounding grounds to maintain Andy has an agronomy team of 75.

“It sounds a lot but if you break it down it’s probably comparable with a South Florida course. We have 25 guys on each course, there are eight mechanics, four in the admin office, then there is a small landscaping team of six or seven. So it’s not as big as it sounds.”

So how does he keep everyone motivated to achieve the standards that takes a course to Best in the World status?

“We have something called the 10 Five Star Touch points. In at number eight is ‘Earn Your Five Stars Every Day’. I say this to the team on such a routine basis that they are sick of me.

“No-one gives a rat’s ass about the awards we’ve won – and they have won a plethora of huge awards including World’s Best Eco-Friendly Golf Facility three years in a row – after that day. They measure us by the experience they have had on that day. So every morning I tell them to wake up and earn their five stars.”

Having reach the pinnacle what now for Sentosa Golf Club?

“The Chairman asked me the same thing not long ago and I said that the runway was still very long and we still had a lot to that we could do. We may not win awards like this every year but we are attempting to build a brand and it is extremely important that we can continue to expand upon that and deliver the best service possible and produce the best conditions possible.

“The ceiling is unlimited on what we are going to achieve.”

Key to that is Sentosa’s position on the planet.

“When you look at Asia, albeit Singapore is a small city state, we are in the best spot. We have the best airport, which is a hub where everything comes in and out. It is the safest city in Asia. You don’t have to worry about that when you get here whole at the club we are surrounded by 17 high end hotels. We have everything at our fingertips to continue to grow.

“We are no longer just a great golf course. We are a brand, and that is what I want to continue to develop.”

And with the attraction of playing the best course in the world, golfers will be swarming around Sentosa like bees to the honeypot and spreading the name of Sentosa to all their golfing buddies.

The Future…

in /by

The Future…: With Turf Matters celebrating its 10th birthday thoughts go to 10 years down the line and what life will be like in the mid 2030s. Scott MacCallum was given a glimpse into the future by Husqvarna and JCB.

In many ways, 2014 seems like ancient history. Back then, we saw Scotland voting to remain as part of the United Kingdom; Brazil were tonked 7-1 in the semi-final of a World Cup… held on home turf in Brazil, and Conchita Worst, sporting a very fine gown and a very fine beard, won the Eurovision Song Contest for Austria.

The Future…

The Future…

It was also the year that Turf Matters was launched, and this issue represents the 10th anniversary of the magazine.

With so much, good and bad, occurring over the last 10 years, it led to me to ponder where we might be 10 years from now. Could we be being picked up from the pub in our driverless car; might we have all our mail and deliveries dropped down to us from drones, while might we all have chips inserted in our wrists, thus removing the need for all money, keys and forgettable passwords?

But what about our industry? What are some of the things that we might expect when the 20th anniversary Turf Matters drops to you from your friendly drone… Hang on… will we still have printed magazines in 10 years’ time?

Now I don’ t have a crystal ball but I have been lucky enough recently to attend two events which shed some considerable light on what developments are being made towards 2034 and beyond. A quote which is attributed to either science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke or Bill Gates, and raised in Paris, and tweaked slightly for our needs is also worth re-stating.

“We tend to overestimate what can be achieved in two years but underestimate what can be achieved in 10.”

Husqvarna’s Living City 2023, held in the wonderfully nostalgic Jardin d’Acclimatation, in Paris, was a two day look into the future, while a couple of weeks later I was one of a select group of journalists invited to attend a briefing at JCB’s Headquarters, in Staffordshire, to look at the extraordinary progress they have made in hydrogen power.

What I discovered was that 10 years is well within the scope of some amazing advances in technology and thinking. Looks like Arthur or Bill might have been spot on.

Living City 2023, saw 160 people attend for 13 different countries and covered a range of topics from global change and how that was impacting cities – the temperature rise in northern hemisphere cities is four degrees against a global rise of one and a half degrees – to how biodiversity 10 years down the  line will be increasingly seen as the lifeline for the future of the planet.

Paris has a target to be the greenest city in the world by 2030 while London Mayor Sadiq Khan has promised to plant two million more trees in the city. New York has a policy of every missing tree having to be reported

One speaker was Douwe Snoek, a renowned Dutch landscape architect, who told the audience that we had been building our cities all wrong. Douwe will be featured in the next issue of our sister publication, Landscaping Matters, but in essence he said that too much influence had been given to the car and future cities should give limited access to the car.

The Future…

The Future…

Opening the Conference Yvette Hensall-Bell, President Global Professional for Husqvarna, revealed that more than one million species were at risk of extinction if the status quo was maintained and said that the company had set up a Biodiversity Advisory Board, pulling together some of the finest minds on the subject to work on finding solutions and lobbying Governments.

They also presented papers on how there will be a return to quietness, with the removal of the brute force of engines and all the toll that puts on the body.

Gent Simmons, Vice President Global Product Management & Development – Professional, spoke on the need for sustainability in all areas, even citing safety trousers which currently tangle in a chainsaw to bring it to a sharp stop, at the overall expense of the trousers. Building sensors into safety trousers would instantly bring the chainsaw to a halt and not damage the trousers.

“It is about encouraging customers to move from more of a business model approach to a more sustainable one and adding customer value is how this is achieved,” explained Gent, adding that no new project at Husqvarna progresses now, until it is proven to be fully sustainable.

“No project will be started without a plan to have fossil independence,” said Gent, who added that the philosophy at Husqvarna is to encouraged engineers not to make “new stuff” but to make “stuff better”.

Gent’s closing words were that his greatest wish was to return nature’s balance, something which we’d lost over recent years.

So what else?

Well, we’ve had robots for a number of years now which have become adept at cutting lawns or amenity areas before heading back to their base to recharge.

Well how about, in 10 years’ time, a team of robots which will carry out a range of different turf management practices – aeration, chemical application etc – silently in the middle of the night?

And these robots won’t need to be guided by satellite or guide wires, they will be using AI to work autonomously able to identify where they can and cannot go and, in a golf environment, know the difference between fairway, greens and bunkers.

The robots will arrive in a mini vehicle which will act as their recharging base while they are on site.

With the current recruitment crisis within the industry, it will allow human staff to get on with important jobs during their regular working hours.

For more remote working Husqvarna’s R&D has given thought and provided solutions to the challenge of powering chainsaws and the like for a full working day. Among those was a fully kitted out vehicle with recharging points and storage for all manner of spare batteries and equipment itself.

Much of the pathway to progress revolves around battery power, something which Husqvarna believes will be essential for hand tools for the foreseeable future, and which is make more possible by innovative ways of recharging and supplying sufficient batteries for an entire day’s work. It is worked that is being mirrored at many of the most innovative hand tool companies in the world including Stihl and Pellenc, both of whom are well advanced with their own battery power development work.

Interestingly, however, they believe that hydrogen is the ultimate fuel to provide fossil independence. The problem for the hand tool industry is that currently a hydrogen powered hand tool would need to be six times larger than they are at present.

That obvious limiter to progress does not stand in the way of JCB, whose range of vehicles are sizeable enough to cope with a hydrogen engine.

The Future…

The Future…

How do they know? Well they’ve built one and it is already powering prototype JCB’s at their testing quarry a few miles from their Headquarters.

In fact, a fully fledged hydrogen engine was not the first option considered when viable alternatives were being assessed by the JCB engineers. Further up that list were indeed, battery and hydrogen fuel cells, which initially ticked a lot of boxes and where thought be a quicker route to zero carbon fuel.

While extensive research determined that battery is still the optimum non-fossil option for smaller vehicles, including in that category, domestic cars, it is not practical for equipment with an operating weight of over six tonnes.

JCB’s chief innovation and growth officer, Tim Burnhope, one of the most decorated engineers in the country, explained that with domestic cars now averaging 8,000 miles a year, a drop from the pre Working from Home era of 12,000 miles, battery power remains more than a viable option.

“At JCB, we believe that it is important to use the right technology for the right application. For low power applications, close to built infrastructure, and potentially with additional demands on product such as noise, and where fume extraction is an issue, battery-electric technology is applicable,” said Tim

“These machines tend to be more compact, due to the nature of the work, and while are on-site all day, generally only work a couple of ‘power hours’ in a day. An example of this in the turf and landscaping industry would be electric ‘golf’ buggies, which have been commonplace for many years due to their low power application, low noise and proximity to charging infrastructure.”

For huge excavators, which in countries like India car run for 22 hours a day, lifting and emptying fully loaded buckets every 21 seconds, batteries wouldn’t cut the mustard.

The Future…

The Future…

“For larger machines and equipment, the job site tends to be more remote, building the infrastructure need (e.g. utilities, road, rail, and housing) for the first time. As such fuel needs to be mobile and fast to replenish to enable machines to operate whenever and wherever they are needed to. Hydrogen is a zero carbon fuel, which can be brought to machines and refuelled in a matter of minutes – making it an ideal future fuel for construction and agricultural machines.”

The example Tim gave was of a busy quarry with 100 excavators. The required recharging points would mean that power would require to be drawn from a considerable distance at a current installation cost of £1 million a mile. Of course, when the quarry was drained of resource the expensive recharging infrastructure would be redundant.

“Continuing down the battery power route would also mean that net zero by 2050 would not be achieved, as predictions suggest that it would stop at around 10%,” explained Tim.

The hydrogen fuel cells also had similar success-limiting deficiencies.

“We worked at developing a machine which would work for 16 hours a day, not even the 22 hours that is required in places like India. However, even that would require £400,000 worth of fuel cells – 4.3 times the cost of an existing excavator, and it would weigh 10,000 kilos.”

Machines must also have a resale value to make them viably options for customers and having been worked at such a rate they wouldn’t be an attractive proposition without a hugely expensive replacement battery pack.

“Hydrogen fuel cells were therefore too complicated, not robust and too expensive,” explained Tim.

And so it was that during a break in Covid lockdown in 2020 a team of JCB engineers  sat down with Lord Bamford, JCB’s Chairman

“It was July and Lord Bamford laid down his Chairman’s Challenge. He wanted us to produce a hydrogen engine by Christmas,” recalled Tim.

Now, rather than leave the meeting with spinning heads and a desire to find the nearest darkened room in which to lie down, the team of engineers got to work and met the Challenge. Not surprising when you appreciated the desire and ability of the JCB engineers to the push the envelope. The world’s fastest diesel vehicle, as driven by Andy Green, sits in the corner of the factory floor. It achieved a speed of 365 mph on in Utah, USA, in 2006,  if you are interested.

The engine they produced has the same dimensions as that used in fossil fuel-operated JCB machinery, so can be fitted into the same chassis while they have the same level of performance.

It is a huge breakthrough and JCB is now just the first of at least 130 hydrogen development programmes going on around the world at some of the biggest companies in a range of different usages so progress will undoubtedly intensive.

The one challenge which is still to be met satisfactorily is refueling.

An extensive nationwide set of hydrogen filling stations is a long way off so a solution for the early adopters of hydrogen powered machines had to be found.

JCB have come up with, and built, a mobile hydrogen filling vehicle which would travel around an area refilling hydrogen machines thus ensuring that down time for those valuable workhorses is minimised.

That may be a useful option for operators of a large fleet of machines or those who tap into a refilling service but the dream of freely available hydrogen filling stations is still a little time away.

So, that question of where will we be when Turf Matters celebrates its 20th birthday…

“The landscape in 10 years’ time will certainly be a growing mixture of both technologies; where the line is between the two will be highly dependent on application, location and cost,” predicted Tim.

Overall the glimpse into the future, as offered by both Husqvarna and JCB, is extremely interesting and shows that the landscape of our workplace, and life in general, will be markedly changed. Husqvarna’s work on battery development and holistic lifestyle changes and JCB’s progress on ensuring that large vehicles will emit steam rather than fumes should assist in achieving, or getting close to, nett zero

Many thanks to Husqvarna and JCB for inviting Turf Matters to two extremely interesting events

Potential unleashed

in /by

Potential unleashed: Millfield School has an enviable roll call of high achieving alumni. Scott MacCallum speaks with Craig Richardson, Head of Grounds and Gardens, to find out how they do it. 

Ask many people at which school they would have loved to have been a pupil and I’m pretty sure the name Hogwarts would feature strongly.

Not for me, though, the school I would have loved to attend is Millfield School, in Somerset.

Potential unleashed

Potential unleashed

I grew up learning about the great names who had been educated, and honed their sporting prowess, at Millfield School and I wanted to join them, not because I was particularly adept at any sport. Quite the reverse, I’m pretty inept at most sports. But I love sport and while I was never likely to achieve what the likes of Sir Gareth Edwards, Duncan Goodhew, Helen Glover, Adam Hastings, Tyrone Mings, Andrew Castle, Lando Norris, Chris Robshaw, Mako Vunipola and Huw Jones, to name just a handful, I would undoubtedly have become more proficient with some top quality coaching.

The site itself is phenomenal, and coupled with coaching of the highest quality, you can see exactly how the school has acquired its reputation.

No amount of talent or high level one-to-one coaching, however, can succeed without a quality surface on which to show off skills, and the man in charge of managing the sports surfaces, as well as maintaining the fantastic gardens around the school grounds, is Craig Richardson, Head of Grounds and Gardens.

“The brilliance of this school is that we pretty much cover every sport. It’s not just football and rugby in the winter and cricket in the summer, we’ve got grass tennis courts, we’ve got golf, we’ve got equestrian, the list goes on. Up until this year we had our own polo pitch and we still have an annual polo event. It’s a fantastic spectacle,” said Craig, in his calm north east accent.

With such a range of sports for which to provide surfaces, the entire site is 240 acres, Craig is fortunate to have a strong team of over 20 whose goal, set by Craig, is akin to those goals set for the elite sportsmen and women who are lucky enough to attend the school.

“We try to maintain our sports surfaces as close to professional surfaces as we can. There are going to be constraints because of time and also finance, but that is what we try to do.

“And we try to take it one stage further because, rather than just look for those standards for the first team pitches, we want to make all of our pitches to the same standard. So, whether it’s the under 15 Cs or the A team, I believe they should be playing on the same standard of surface.

“That is what we aspire to. Do, we get it right all the time? Probably not, but that’s our goal,” explained Craig.

The school, in the village of Street, was founded in 1935, a mere stripling alongside some of the country’s public schools but in those 88 years its sporting claims to fame has been unmatched. Where else, for example, could boast of having been represented at every Olympic Games since 1956.

Indeed, at the Rio Games in 2016, eight Millfieldians took part and won a total of four medals, in rowing, swimming and rugby sevens. Go back to the London Games in 2012 and Millfield was the most represented UK school.

There are 130 sports coaches on staff who oversee 24 diff erent sports including, in alphabetical order, athletics, badminton, basketball, chess, clay shooting, cricket, cross country, dance, equestrian, fencing, football, golf, hockey, karate, modern pentathlon, netball, rowing, rugby, skiing racing, squash, swimming tennis, trampolining and triathlon.

There is one word for that stable of sporting opportunity – WOW! Facilities include, a 50 metre swimming pool, the equestrian centre, sports halls, cricket nets, putting green, squash courts, water based hockey pitch, outdoor tennis courts, netball courts and a nine-hole golf course.

Definitely spoiled for choice! And it’s not just in sport which Millfield has produced the goods.

The world of entertainment can look to the school for producing some if its biggest stars – Lily Allen, Tony Blackburn, Sophie Dahl, and Rose Leslie, among a host of others, saw the firm foundations of their careers built at Millfield. The current Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace, is a former pupil.

“There are so many talented people at the school and it is good to be in and around it,” said Craig, who recently watch the school’s long jump record being broken by one of the girls.

Despite having risen to the top echelons of grounds management Craig was actually a late starter. He spent the early part of his adult life in the casino business, where he worked around the world before a yearning for a career which would expose him to a little more sunlight.

“I was playing a lot of golf between contracts, and saw the opportunity to do something different with my life,” he recalled.

He approached a local college and they found him a work placement at Woodspring Golf Club, in Bristol, where he was lucky enough to fi nd Course Manager, Steve Chappell, there to mentor him. Steve went on to be Head Greenkeeper at Gleneagles for the Ryder Cup in 2014 and is now a Course Manager in Slovenia.

Potential unleashed

Potential unleashed

“He was great to work for and we had a young team which produced some very good surfaces.”

Having cut his teeth on golf he then moved to Ashton Gate, home of Bristol City Football Club, where he spent 15 years.

“I remember I started two days after 9/11 in 2001 working under Martin Plumley, who was Grounds Manager. When he moved on a year later I took on the Head Groundsman’s job. At that time we just had the stadium to look after, but I then took on the responsibility for the training pitches at Clifton College.

“We then build a training ground next door and helped level an area for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital School to enable them to create more sports fields before taking on a management contract from the school to look after the facilities.”

Towards the end of his time with Bristol City he had taken on the role of Head of Operations.

“It was amazing really. We were developing three stands at the ground and it was very exciting to be involved with the club. But then the job at Millfield came up. I had a great job at Bristol City and it took a lot to get me to move but with everything the school had to offer it was too great an opportunity to miss.”

As everyone knows, the trick is when starting a new job is to make a good impression early and Craig knew what he wanted to do. Using renovation techniques he’d learned at Bristol City from people including Premier Pitches he introduced new practices which had an immediate impact on the school’s playing surfaces.

“I was lucky that there was a good budget in place and we were able to buy a fraise mower, a disc seeder and a top dresser while we already had a fl eet of tractors and the manpower to carry out the work that I wanted to do. The pitches had never been fraise mown before, but it was something that I knew would bring about significant improvement.

“We also installed drainage and irrigation into a number of pitches and we now take the top off every pitch every year and top dress.

We’ve fraise mown the cricket square for the last three or four years and this year is probably the best we have had them.

“It has allowed us to do our renovations in-house and so we have been able to improve our surfaces and protect the investment that has gone into the pitches.

“Hopefully the school appreciates that and the children can appreciate what they have here when they go to other venues which perhaps don’t drain as well and perform a little bit differently.”

Standards across industry are rising all the time and expectation levels rise accordingly, but any pressure to clear the bar at a school which demands the highest standards is handled with a degree of sensible.

“I don’t think the pressure weighs on us. You can only do what you can do. We are limited with the soils that we have, the drainage that we have, the irrigation that we have and the finances that we have.

“We are not a premier league football club which can spend a lot of money on fertilisers and the latest technology etc, but seeing what can be achieved does give us something to shoot at – we should be trying to improve ourselves and improve the surfaces that we have to look after.”

It would take a very experienced eye to blind test successfully any Millfield pitch against the pitch of a professional team in a range of sports, so Craig and his talented team of groundsmen and gardeners are an extremely good fit for a school where striving for excellence is a non-negotiable.

For me I left the school still regretting that I hadn’t been fortunate enough to have attended but just wondering how many more pupils they would attract if they offered quidditch on the curriculum?