Feel The Power

/in /by

Feel the power: Laurence Gale takes a look at PowerGrass and chats with Graham Longdin, of Agripower, about its qualities

Within the last five years we have seen a dramatic increase in the installation of synthetic turf stabilisation systems, mainly driven from the success of the tried and tested stitched systems now being used in many stadium and training ground pitches around the world.

These Hybrid Grass systems come in all manner of guises, ranging from sown in filaments to insitu based synthetic carpets that are top dressed with rootzone materials and overseeded to produce an hybrid grass playing surface. One of the latest products on the market is PowerGrass.

And one of the first pitches to be constructed with this new Hybrid Turf system is one at Bisham Abbey installed by Agripower last May. A recent conversation with Philip Coxhill, Grounds Manager at Bisham Abbey, and Graham Longdin, MD of Agripower, gave me a greater insight into this new  PowerGrass  Hybrid grass pitch.

The system was developed in Italy with many trials ran to test it performance and ability to produce a robust reliable playing surface, the makers PowerGrass claim this hybrid turf has innovative features and offers better playing and growth conditions than any other system of reinforced natural grass or old type hybrid grass and at the same time is the only one that offers a sports field playable even without the natural grass. The synthetic turf is stable and the natural grass can be easily installed with simple seeding.

PowerGrass hybrid turf is not simply a product, it’s a complete system, this new system has been designed to take into account the many physical, chemical and mechanical inter-actions that take place when maintaining a natural turf playing surface. At present 95% of hybrid pitches are built purely on sand and some are in fact buried benneath the top, leading to very hard surface requiring aeration purely to soften the surface for the user. Powergrass is the first system to address the issue and seek to better the current trend.

To find out more, I contacted Graham, who had installed the new pitch at Bisham.

I believe this is the first Powergrass pitch in the UK to be installed?
Yes, we installed the Powergrass Pitch last June at Bisham Abbey working closely with their grounds manager Philip Coxhill.

Is this one of your own innovations?
Yes, we helped design the hybrid carpet and increased the amount of fibres avaliable for play, and enabling the system to cope with very heavy usage, rather than mimic the existing hybrids we sought to better them.

How long have you been perfecting this system?
The first fields were laid in Italy, and then followed up with two further fields in Holland, we then had our input, to make a more resilient surface for the UK market. The new carpet was first Laid in Grosetto in Italy which is the field TGMS (TurfTrax Ground Management Systems Limited) went to view prior to us being awarded the contract at Bisham, two further fields have been installed in the UK since then and we have strong enquires and looking forward to a busy season in 2018.

How does this pitch system work, what is its specification and how is it installed?
The pitch system can work either with a full construction  of a drained plateau with a shallow 80mm gravel raft , and 80mm of rootzone/sand, mixed with a combination of naturally occurring additives. The Powergrass carpet is laid and stiched together over the growth medium and then filled to a depth of 35mm leaving 25mm of free pile above the soil. A pre seeding fertiliser is then appliead  and then seed at a rate of 50g/ms.

All fields must have irrigation to promote controlled growth. Where the system differs from traditional ‘stitched-in’ hybrids is that it can be laid over existing pitches, subject to enhanced drainage if required, such as Bisham.Working in conjunction with a leading pitch consulatnt the existing field is accessed and tested to ensure that the Powergrass system works in harmony with the existing site conditions.  This innovative system can dramatically reduce on-site costs and reduce construction time in half.

What other systems are you up against?
Stitched in systems would be the target competitors as they are more recognised in the market place although far more expensive. Some other carpet systems rely on being biodegradeable and these has proven to have had some issues with establishing rootgrowth.

Powergrass allows the roots to penetrate the carpet backing from day one and is playable within four weeks from initial seeding as long as the maintenance regime is intensive and correct.

Other hybrid carpets are not stitched together and some are completely buried in sand and only stabilise the top sand layer or they replicate the traditional systems with fibre content around the 30000 fibres to 1 m2, Powergrass has nearly three times more fibre and combined with additives creates a softer surface and allows the fibres to be in play and protecting the crown of the grass plant.

Is this system suitable for both Rugby and football?
Testing is currently ongoing but initial results are very favourable with the pitch being used currently to 25hrs per week . Initial player feedback is very good with the resounding comment that it is a far softer and more comfortable pitch to play and train on.

What is the overall cost of supply and Installation of this product?

It varies depending on what is existing on site, it can be as little as £220,000 when installed on an existing well drained pitch or up to £440,000 for a full new construction with irrigation 

What is the recommended maintenance regime for this system?
We recommend that an overseeding of 5g/m2 every 6 weeks combined with a light scarification to keep the pitch in good condition and avoid any heavy end of season maintenance.

Other than that, treat as any high quality pitch, with cuttings being removed at all times, the surface is designed to be softer and doesn’t require regular vetidraining to relieve hardness only to aerate, at this stage we believe that aeration should only be required 1-2 times per season.

The failing of most existing Hybrids are hardness; historically the industry has been obsessed with drainage and this has led to pitches being built on straight sand which has excellent drainage properties but at the cost of the players premature fatigue and potential injuries. Powergrass has been developed by Agronomists, natural grass consultants and  carpet manufacturers and to this end it is all about the player and the grass and the system below and not about selling carpet volume.

When did you start the installation of the Bisham Abbey Pitch?
After some preliminary meetings with the clients (Bisham Abbey  represented by Phil Coxhill and their consultant partners  TGMS Limited.We, where able to start work last May effectively installing a Powergrass reinforced system into an existing fully drained pitch.

How was the Powergrass carpet installed?
We basically removed, koroed off the top 40mm of the existing turf and rootzone materials, power harrowed to open up the top 25mm and re-graded the levels. The pitch was then Vibra Sand mastered to reconnect the existing drainage bands, vertidrained to decompact the top 150mm and then top dressed with  cork, coco fibre and zeolite materials. This mix of organic matter was then incorporated into the existing rootzone to improve shock absorbancy and fertility.

The pitch was then final graded and  then rolled to firm the surface ready for the Powergrass system which was laid and stitched in place; after filling with a further 35mm of infill material the system was then fertilised and seeded with Barenbrug Bar RPR Stadium.

Having favourable soil and air temperatures in June, the seed was up in four days and we were cutting after ten days.  The pitch is now performing very well, with players commenting on how well it plays, especially noticing it is much softer than the previous playing surface. Also, the wear factor has been amazing, the pitch has been able to accommodate more fixtures, in fact it is now providing over 25 hours use a week compared to the 12 hours it could stand previously.

Phillip Coxill has been extremely pleased with the results and is now considering the installation of some more Powergrass carpet to increase the  training areas at Bisham Abbey.

Works complete, irrigation on for the first time.

Improving on a Masterpiece

/in /by

Improving on a masterpiece: An opportunity you would not let slip through your fingers! Scott MacCallum took the chance to visit the Machrie, a golf course very close to his home and his heart but which is not quite so easy for others to reach. He also manages to complete an entire article about Islay without once mentioning its most famous product – whisky.

Making changes to anything already regarding as excellent can be extremely risky and is often compared to adding a touch up to the Mona Lisa – best intentions may abound, but it rarely has the desired effect.

Now the Machrie golf course, on the beautiful Inner Hebridean island of Islay, wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to compare itself to that famous work by Leonardo da Vinci – leave that to the likes of the Old Course and Augusta National. However, it is still very near the top of the tree when it comes to outstanding British golf courses. So maybe the work that has been carried out over the last three years could better be compared to polishing the antlers on Edwin Landseer’s famous work, The Monarch of the Glen, particularly appropriate as deer do roam wild on the island. 

However, on this occasion, art or golf course critics would be hard pushed not to recognise that the original has been improved upon. The proud stag looking that little bit more majestic and those 18 holes, woven between the dunes at the Machrie, even more enjoyable to play.

The results of the golf course work, and the near completion of a stunning new hotel, are all the more remarkable given that just a few years ago it looked as though the Machrie, hotel, golf course and all would fade away leaving nothing but memories – not least the famous match in 1901 played out between golf’s great triumvirate, James Braid, JH Taylor and Harry Vardon, for £100, which was reputed to be the largest prize ever played for on the British Isles at the time.

In administration, hotel abandoned and golf course looking a little lost, it was bought by Gavyn Davies and his wife, Baroness Sue Nye, who fell in love with the place – at first sight – in 2011.

Since then that work on the Monarch of the Glen has been on-going and has probably even exceeded what Gavyn and Sue envisaged as they began the project.

Renowned golf course architect DJ Russell, himself a former Tour pro; golf course constructor Edinburgh Landscapes have seen short term contracts become long term as the work developed.

Also brought on board was Course Manager, Dean Muir, head hunted from Muirfield where he had been Deputy Head Greenkeeper, and Dean has been heavily involved in all the course work since his arrival three and a half years ago, not least in ensuring visitors and members of Islay Golf Club had opportunities to play while work was going on all around.

“DJ asked if we could have a chat about the prospect of coming over here and it sounded interesting,” recalled Dean.

“It was a good few months since previous Course Manager Simon Freeman had left and it had become very run down – the 9th green had thistles growing in it feet high. I came over again later and Gavyn and Sue flew up that day to meet me which was very flattering. I kept waiting for someone to jump out and say it was a big wind up,” said Dean, who was full of praise for the job that Simon and his team had done with limited budget.

But it was never going to be an opportunity he was likely to let slip through his fingers.

“I’d have hated to have turned it down and then, three or four years down the line, watched someone else take it on and think why did I not do that.”

That said it has not been plain sailing and has involved Dean embarking on a pretty steep learning curve, not least because of the move from the east of Scotland to 30 miles off the west coast of Scotland.

“I always knew that that the west coast was wet but you don’t really appreciate how wet until you are here. At Muirfield we averaged around 600mm of rain per annum; here we’re pretty much 1600mm. Someone told me that the Machrie was the wettest links course in the country and I think they are probably right.”

From an agronomic perspective it has seen Dean making changes to his thinking and making grass choices which he wouldn’t have made had the Machrie regular rain patterns.

“I came over with grand ideas of fescue but I soon realised that I had to change tack. I spoke with David Greenshields, Barenbrug, and he suggested that we introduce some dwarf rye. I’d used it on walkways at Muirfield and thought that it would work so we went 20% ryegrass on the fairways with the view that if it didn’t work we could kill it out and go back to fescue. It worked a treat so last year we increased it to 60% in our overseeding and then, this year, we’ve gone up to 75%.”

He sees full establishment taking up to six years with the newly shaped sand based contours not retaining the nutrients to speed root development particularly with the rain flushing through anything which has been introduced to strengthen and speed up development.

“The greens have come through the winter exceptionally well but I’m looking forward to the time when we have more establishment and we can see the course performing well for 12 months of the year.”

Island life is suiting both Dean and his wife but being surrounded by sea has meant his planning has had to go up a notch.

“I have to plan everything a month to six weeks in advance and I organise for supplies to come inclusive of carriage as it allows me to make a like-for-like judgment when placing orders. I’ve also learned to have delivers sent to Glasgow instead of Tarbet, which is a few miles from the ferry port. Reason being that lorries run from Glasgow every day and only stop at Tarbet if they’ve got space on board so I’m more likely to guarantee my deliver. Things like that you learn from experience.”

Dean has employed a mechanic to ensure breakdowns don’t mean the visit from a mainland based dealer and wherever possible they aim to be self sufficient.

While Dean was getting to grips with the agronomics he has also worked closely DJ Russell and Eric Samuels, of Edinburgh Landscapes, on the changes to the course and other additions including the fabulous six hole par-3 course which will be a huge attraction to those new to the game and a nice distraction for corporate groups pre or post dinner. Together with the new Golf Academy which features both covered and open bays it will offer practice facilities that would shame many other clubs or resorts.

The redesign has seen the removal of many of the blind shots which were a feature of many older golf courses and it now flows through the dunes opening up the holes and the wonderful views which the course boasts.

“There were around 17 or 18 blind shots before and visitors would struggle from not knowing the course. Even members now lose balls on the 17th which remains a blind shot.”

Never overly peppered with bunkers the original new design had none but currently five have been added, two to frame the par-3 3rd green and two in the 6th fairway to concentrate the mind on the tee shot. The other one is at the back of the 7th.

“DJ was never against bunkers. He felt that the contouring of the ground meant we didn’t need them and having seen the course develop he wants to make sure those he does put in are in the right place.”

With the new 47 room hotel due to open in May or June the “building site” first impressions of the Machrie will disappear and it will become the high quality Campbell Gray Hotels run hotel Gavyn and Sue had always dreamt it would be.

Without actively marketing the golf course it has already crept up several spots in some of the course rankings and the completed Machrie will no doubt see another boost. 

“We have been keeping it under the radar as we’re not finished yet and first impressions currently are not great.

“Mark Ganning, of Hunter Industries, brought three American clients over last summer having just been at Carnoustie. He drove up the potholed entrance road, sand blowing everywhere, into the car park and our temporary facilities. One of the guys asked why on earth Mark had taken them here. They teed up, got to the top of the hill and saw the course open up in front of them with the Bay in the background. It was a beautiful summer’s day and they all fell in love with the Machrie.”

Another group of Australians had been enjoying the golfing trip of a lifetime playing every top course in Scotland when they arrived on Islay.

“They’d just played the two Machrihanish courses and had been to Dornoch, Cruden Bay, Trump, Carnoustie, St Andrews, King’s Barns, Muirfield, North Berwick, Troon and Turnberry. Every top course in Scotland. They were asked by a podcaster which were their favourites and they mentioned here and Dornoch.”

It is magnificent company to be keeping and with Islay, and the Machrie, either a flight or a ferry ride away, the inaccessibility will add to the attraction for many.

Wind, rain and, in the summer, midgies apart, Islay is a trip not to be missed if only to see that Monarch of the Glen looking better than ever.

Edinburgh Landscapes

Eric Samuel, of Edinburgh Landscapes, arrived on Islay for what he thought was going to be a 16 week project – a few tweaks to and amendments to the course. Three years on he is virtually an honorary islander!

“The project just grew and grew and we were delighted to be a part of it,” said Eric.

“It’s fair to say that had Gavyn decided to close the course the work could have been done in half the time but he didn’t want to close the course for those islanders and visitors who wanted to play.”

Edinburgh Landscapes have worked on some extremely prestigious jobs including Renaissance, Archerfield and the changes to the PGA course at Gleneagles in advance of the Ryder Cup but according to Eric the Machrie doesn’t lose out by comparison to any of the others.

“I would say that this project is up there with those other projects. It’s a fantastic place. You just need to walk the course and see the wonderful contours and the way the light catches them.”

Many of the contours are natural but there are others which have been man made by Eric’s son Robert, who was the shaper and who has now moved on to work with top American golf course architect, Kyle Phillips.

“What we aim for is to look as though we’ve never been here and that people can’t see the difference between the natural contours and those which we’ve put in.”

Eric was heavily involved in the development of the six hole par-3 course.

“DJ wanted six holes where every hole could be played from every tee. Sounds great but not easy as you have to have every green able to accept a golf ball from all angles. As it is you can do it from every hole bar one but it has been designed for juniors to play driver and run the ball up or people to practice their short games. Basically it was the old 18th hole. We marked it off and pushed some dirt about,” said Eric with typical Scottish understatement.

DJ Russell

For DJ Russell, pictured, a long established and respected Tour golfer, now resident at the prestigious Archerfield Club, near Edinburgh, becoming involved with the Machrie was a case of fate.

“It was a case of owners in it for exactly the right reasons and a group of people coming together to achieve something special,” explained DJ.

“We had Edinburgh Landscapes, who are spectacularly good at what they do and who have built some of the greatest modern golf courses on the planet – Loch Lomond, Archerfield etc. It’s a hell of a CV; me who has had a lifetime in golf and understands what golfers want and Dean Muir, who has been involved in preparing for Open Championships and producing links golf courses to the highest possible standard. You could not imagine a better scenario.”

DJ arrived initially to look to tweak a few things, change some of the poor holes and replace them with much better but it was a delay in the sourcing of a water supply which created the opportunity to do something on a much grander scale.

“We thought we’d get the water issue resolved quickly and get on with building the hotel but in fact it took three and a half years to get permission for mains water to the site. That gave me two and a half years to wander around the site and see what would make a really nice hole and then work out how I could link together 18 extremely good holes. There is no point if having a couple of spectacular holes and linking them with holes that are not so good.

“It was then a question of getting the owners to buy into the concept and then, just as importantly, getting Islay Golf Club’s backing,” said DJ who added that it was the hope that the golf club would always be the beating heart of the Machrie.

That achieved the new course would remove many of the existing blind holes and shots and replace them with a well worked route weaving its way around the wonderful dunes.

“If you got hit by a featherie it wouldn’t hurt too much. Get hit by a Pro V1 on the back of the head and you know about it,” was DJ’s explanation for the need for fewer of the blind shots for which traditional links golf was so well known.

As to the lack of bunkers DJ’s philosophy is to make the course playable to all. “There were a few bunkers on the original course but they can be a problem on links courses. For example there was one on the 14th but it meant that, downwind, unless you were an extremely good player you couldn’t land the ball over the bunker and keep it on the green.

“The Machrie is one of the ultimate links golf courses and nine days out of 10 you should be keeping the ball out of sky and along the ground. The course has been designed so that anyone can play a shot into the green but it is all about controlling the speed of the ball and distance control.”

He sees the wonderful six hole par-3 course as key to the ambition to make golf so much more accessible to the youngsters of the island.

“Fraser Mann is coming in as Director of Golf and he has been in charge of the junior golf programme at Carnoustie and we really want to put a golf club in the hands of every kid on Islay and see if they like it.”

Speaking with DJ his pride and passion for the Machrie just pours out of him.

“I hope in my heart that this becomes one of the places where you arrive with an expectation level which is high but that it is surpassed when you play the course.”

Shrewsbury Rugby Club

/in /by

Laurence Gale enjoys a nostalgic trip back to Shrewsbury Rugby Club: Our personal sporting heritage in this country, nearly always starts from our introduction into sport during our schooling days and then more progressively by the good work done by hundreds, if not thousands, of community sports clubs. 

My own sporting career started in the same way, introduced to rugby by my maths teacher Mr Williams. After leaving school I joined the Woodrush Old Boys team club, Woodrush RFC, a community club run by ex-players and volunteers.

As a keen rugby player who went on to represent school, club and county levels, cumulating in the opportunity of playing for several senior clubs, namely, Moseley, Worcester, Birmingham, and Nuneaton, Portsmouth and Newport enabled me to play with some great players and more importantly enjoy the benefits of belonging to a community run rugby club.

After my playing days, I coached rugby at several clubs and recognise the valuable work these clubs do for their local community. Also, having spent 45 plus years working in the grounds industry as a ex-Greenkeeper/Groundsman coupled with my coaching roles I value the benefits of producing safe well, presented playing surfaces.

In the past it has often been difficult to encourage clubs to invest money and resources to maintain their pitches however, since the formation of the National Lottery in 1994, we are seeing a vast improvement in the investment in pitch and club facilities.

A recent trip to Shrewsbury Rugby Club, where I incidentally coached in 2004-2006, gave me a chance to catch up with some old familiar faces and have a few beers.

I was very impressed with the condition and presentation of the pitches at Shrewsbury. In fact, they were some of the best community pitches I had seen for several years.

I was so impressed I wanted to find out how the club had managed to achieves this major shift in attitude towards their pitch facilities.

Like most community clubs they are always run by a core group of committed individuals, often past players, who want to put something back. Shrewsbury have one such man in Glyn Jones, their current president and treasurer, who for 49 years has held many roles. He began his playing days in the late 1960s, went on to coach the club, held several key posts, however it was when he took over the role of Treasurer in 2004 that the clubs fortunes started to change, with a drive to improve the club facilities.

In 2004 they managed to raise £90,000 to self-fund the re-fabrication of the clubhouse, this was soon followed in 2006 by raising an additional £32,000 to complete the work adding new changing rooms and a new club house roof.

In 2007 the club managed to secure £15,000 to build a new gym and refurbish more changing rooms, with all the building works completed, it was mow time to focus on the grounds, with a programme to improve the pitches and install some new floodlights.

The first phase began with a small self-funding budget of £8000 to refurbish the first team pitch floodlights in 2008. Away from the club, Glyn runs his own landscape gardening business, with a very much hands on role, this affinity with grounds maintenance was one of reasons he wanted to oversee the larger project of improving the club’s four pitches/training areas.

The pitches at Sundorne have always been prone to drainage problems, due to their heavy soil make up, especially during the winter months, tasked with marking the pitches every week, Glyn knew only too well the work required and the significant investment that would be needed to improve the four pitches.

It was then a case of the club putting together a number of bids over several years, applying for appropriate funding via the RFU and Sport England.

In 2006/7 season the club acquired a grant of £65.000 from the RFU to primary drain the training pitch, the following year the club self-funded £15,000 to pay for secondary drainage (sand bands) for the training pitch.

This was soon followed up with another successful bid for £120,000 to fully drain (primary/ secondary drainage) and install a new set of floodlights on the second team pitch in 2012/13. 

Finally, in 2014/15 the club managed to get a further £145,000, with the club having to find 15% (£15,000) to undertake the installation of a primary and secondary drainage system to the first team pitch along with a brand new set of floodlights.

In total the club has managed to invest over £500,000 on both the clubhouse and grounds in the last 13 years and the net result has been the transformation of Shrewsbury Rugby Club.

With all the work complete it was now a case of ensuring an ongoing maintenance programme was implemented to insure the pitches remain playable and fit for purpose, especially when several senior teams and a large junior section using the pitches on most days of the week.

In fact, Glyn has taken on the role of maintaining the pitches himself. Glyn has put out the mowing of the pitches to the local council, who come in on a weekly basis, usually Wednesdays and cut all the main playing areas with an 18 ft wide Major rotary deck maintaining a height of cut of 75mm. He also gets the council to come in and aerate the pitches a couple of times a year using a combination of Vertidrain and Linear aerators.

He also gets the pitches sprayed with a selective weed killer, the marking out of the pitches is done by Glyn and Derrick on Thursday or Fridays using a spray jet line marker along with some pedestrian mowing/strimming of some amenity grass areas around the club house.

As for end of season renovations, it often depends on how much money there is left, but generally they allow enough to top dress all four pitches with 120 tonnes of sand and overseed any worn areas.

In total the club spend around £25,000 on annual maintenance work, most if not all this money comes from the generosity of local sponsors and any fundraising events.

It goes without saying these community clubs would not survive without the commitment and guile of these dedicated members. Having seen for myself at close hand the work Glyn has achieved over the last 20-plus years at Shrewsbury RFC is beyond belief. He and the rest of the dedicated members at Shrewsbury should without doubt be congratulated on these major achievements.

I just hope this next generation of players respect and enjoy what must be one of the best run clubs in Shropshire.

 

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY RFC

Like all good clubs Shrewsbury can trace its origins to a bar, in this case the now demolished George Hotel. In 1908 a casual conversation between Freddie Richards, Bill Jones and a man called Deakin led to the formation of the club and a first fixture at Sutton (now Sutton Road) against Stafford. The pitch was rented from a farmer and attendances at the first game were sufficient to buy goal posts, jerseys and balls; how times have changed! The result of that first match remains a mystery, but obviously it was enjoyed by all who participated.

The ground had moved to Upper Road Meole Brace with the headquarters moving from various hostelry to hostelry dependant on the behaviour of the members and friendliness of the landlord. After the second World War a subsequent President Geoff Warn reformed the club with himself as Secretary and T. Gordon Hector as President. Matches were played at Longden Road or Shrewsbury School, until the club moved to the West Midlands Showground in the 1946/47 season. Bert Williams who was originally captain in 1938/39 then re-took over the Captaincy until 1955/56and followed Mr Hector as President in the early 1960s.

Then came the the highly successful years of the sixties during which time the 1st XV were virtually unbeatable. The playing success led to a very good club fund raising, through the Shrewsbury Amateur Sporting Guild run by Arthur Richardson, enabling the purchase of the present ground at Sundorne Castle in 1964. The early-1970s saw the club going through indifferent times with the loss of some familiar fixtures and sadly the death of Sir Derek Capper in his first year as President.

In the 1980s the club enjoyed further success under the captaincy of first Chris Pittaway and then Keith Faulkner. After some lacklustre years in the 1990s the club became regenerated with the enthusiasm of former coach and Chairman Alan Davies, Secretary Graham Jackson and Chairman David Brown. This work has been continued by Glyn Jones Chairman/Treasurer and Gary Dean, Secretary, who together with others have seen through the financing and construction of extensions to the club house and the improvement of facilities which have recently seen the addition of a gym. The club can now boast of a large and ever increasing mini and junior section, under the Chairmanship of Grant Mckelvie, assisted by Sam McKelvie, with James and Sarah Ballantyne.

World Class, without resting on their laurels

/in /by

World Class, without resting on their laurels

Laurence Gale travels to Derby to see developments at Dennis and Sisis: It has been a couple of years since my last Dennis and SISIS factory visit and it’s always good to catch up to find out about any new developments and see what new products may be coming on to the market.

Like most proactive companies, R&D and product development are important in driving the company forward. It was at the recent IOG SALTEX show where we saw Dennis’ new PRO 34R rotary mower and a battery powered pedestrian rotary mower – and judging by those who saw them, it is safe to say that these products are highly anticipated. The rotary mower is a totally new concept for Dennis who, until now, have been renowned for producing their iconic range of cylinder mowers.

World Class, without resting on their laurels

Our visit started with a very warm welcome by company owner, Ian Howard, whose vision has been instrumental in the success of the Dennis and SISIS brands. It was apparent that Ian “along with his vastly experienced senior management team” have ensured that the company is in more than capable hands.

In 2011, SISIS was acquired by Howardson to sit alongside Dennis as a division providing the groundcare industry with a truly comprehensive range of British manufactured products. This monumental acquisition signalled the start of a perfect partnership in which the two brands are now synonymous with world class turf care equipment.

Without resting on their laurels, the Howardson company continues to work hard on improving the value and versatility of both Dennis and SISIS products. In the last seven years their machines have continued to gain UK and global recognition and this is supported by the robust and dedicated sales/marketing and demonstration team.

The further acquisition of Crocodile Precision along with continued significant investment by All British Precision in the engineering process of the components, has further enhanced the company’s ability to produce a larger range of quality British made products more efficiently.

In recent years we have seen the Dennis/SISIS branded machinery being used at many of the top-flight sporting venues for football, cricket, rugby and bowls both home and abroad.

One of the main reasons for this has been due to the fact Dennis/SISIS has listened to its customers and have taken the opportunity to redesign and develop new products. Take, for example, the new PRO 34R rotary mower, which the team have been working on for over two years to bring to the market. This was a direct result from listening to the requirements of many of the world’s top groundsmen.

This new 34-inch-wide machine offers a powerful vacuum and cutting unit that helps present and clean up sports pitches. This machine has been on trial at several Premiership football clubs thus enabling the company to thoroughly test the machine and Iron out any potential problems.

As with most Dennis products they are built to last, with a proviso it needs to be able to guarantee at least five years of untroubled service working on the harshest of terrains. This new machine sits nicely with the G860 range of mowers, designed with many similarities in terms of hand controls, engine and chassis and comes with a good back up service and a reputation of Dennis reliability.

It was apparent that Dennis are also very up-beat about the other rotary mower waiting in the wings, which was first seen at 2017’s SALTEX show. Their new battery powered pedestrian mower gained a lot of interest. It certainly looked a robust, well designed innovative machine from the Dennis stable and they have been working with Bosch for a while to bring this mower to fruition.

The concept of Dennis moving into battery powered machinery is no doubt in their minds, especially in the way the industry is starting to embrace these new technologies. There will certainly be plenty of opportunities to ‘battery-fi’ many of their products in the coming years.

The company were happy to share their sales figures in terms of positive growth year on year since 2010, which is testament to all the hard work being done by all parts of the business.

The current sales figures are split 60% UK and 40% overseas with the company having 30 dealerships servicing and distributing products in the UK, coupled with a further 45 dealerships worldwide. Sales abroad are growing all the time and Dennis will, for the third successive year, be supplying many of the venues in this year’s World Cup in Russia.

The sales team is backed up by a field support/demo team and the combination of experienced field staff, backed up by technicians and the support of all the factory staff, together with a renewed marketing strategy led by Roger are the reasons why Howardson Ltd is growing a reputation of building quality British made products for the professional turfgrass industry.

It was then time for our tour of the factory, beginning with a visit of the metal fabrication and tooling areas which feature in the All British Precision department. The investment in robotic milling and tooling systems has reduced waste and speeded up production of key parts.

We then visited the new powder coating paint shop, a very clean and appropriate facility that enables the company to be in control of the quality and number of parts being painted.

Finally, we saw the assembly area, where staff concentrate on assembling and putting together a range of Dennis and SISIS products, multi-tasking and sharing job roles so they can be more flexible to meet customers’ orders.

Dennis/SISIS are very proud of their business and are keen to continue to serve the turf grass industry with investment. In recent years we have seen the popularity of their free seminar and education days grow. The annual cricket day which now attracts well over 200 groundsmen.

All in all, Dennis and SISIS have been very busy in the last seven years and are beginning to see the fruits of their labour.

I would like to thank Dennis/SISIS for the opportunity to visit and see first-hand the work they do behind the scenes to ensure Dennis and SISIS remain one of the leading British manufacturers in the turfcare industry.

Demain’s the name

/in /by

Demain’s the name: When the name of the Professional Groundman of the Year was announced at the IOG Awards Dinner in November, there was one man in the huge function suite in the National Motor Cycle Museum, in Birmingham, not paying too much attention.

Vic Demain, Head Groundsman at Durham County Cricket Club, in Chester-le-Street, was basking in the warm glow of success, having seen his team named Professional Cricket Grounds Team of the Year earlier in the evening and he had to be nudged to get on his feet to go collect the award.

“I looked to the stage and there was my name on the screen and my first thought was that this can’t be right, it has to be a mistake. But it slowly sunk in and I went up and collected the award,” recalled Vic.

To be fair to him his surprise had a degree of justification. A cricket groundsman had never won Professional Groundsman of the Year while, a mere six years before, Vic was a groundsman working in recreational cricket.

“My name is now engraved on the Cup alongside a host of legends in the world of groundmanship. Everyone on it is so deserving and I feel I shouldn’t be included among them, that I’m a bit of an imposter.

“That said it’s been absolutely brilliant. I still haven’t come down and I have to pinch myself that it’s happened,” said Vic, speaking to Turf Matters in his first interview since his success.

The story of how Vic came to join luminaries of the industry is remarkable and one which should provide inspiration to anyone who has been knocked back, got up, got knocked back again, yet still rose to the top of the tree.

He left school at 16 in Faringdon, located between Oxford and Swindon, and took up an apprenticeship at a local building company. Apprenticeship completed Vic launched his own business which he ran for 20 years until the housing market crashed in the mid-90s and his company folded.

“I’d always been a lover of cricket and was the sort of guy every club wants. I’d cut the grass, I’d do the fixtures, my wife would make the teas, I’d take coaching courses. Anything, so long as it was involved with cricket. On the field I wasn’t very good, but I was really keen and made the most of what limited ability I had. I just loved the game,” he explained.

Looking for employment, ideally in cricket, he applied for and eventually, at the second attempt, got the job of Cricket Manager on a private estate, where he learned rudimentary groundsmanship.

“I knew nothing about it whatsoever, and remember this was before the days of internet, so I got out and spoke to the old boys who were looking after their own grounds, and learned a lot from them.

“After about four or five years we got the ground up to Minor Counties’ standard and Buckinghamshire played there. It really was the best job in the world.”

Until the next set back.

“We had a change of management and the new manager decided that cricket was costing the Estate too much money and took the ground down the contractor route. I was made redundant.”

Next step was to Milton Keynes and Campbell Park working for a contractor but a yearning was growing for his own ground and when he saw an advert for a job at Uxbridge Cricket Club. He jumped at it and fortunately for Vic they jumped at him and it was there that he spent the next seven seasons as Head Groundsman, a ground where Middlesex played a number of games

Now this next bit is all-important for those of you feeling that life has passed you by and stretching out ahead is not so much a potential pathway to success, but a rut.

“It was the wet summer of 2012 and Nottinghamshire came down to play Middlesex. It never stopped raining, but we worked diligently and while we didn’t get a result in the end, we did manage to get quite a bit of play.”

Keep reading…

“At the end of the season Nottinghamshire were looking for a Deputy Head Groundsman and I thought, I’ve got no chance as I’d not worked at that level, but decided to throw my hat in the ring anyway. However, I’ve been told that when the Director of Cricket saw the applications and noticed the Uxbridge connection he said, ‘That’s the guy I want because when we went to Uxbridge they worked so hard to get the game on’,” said Vic. 

It’s a lesson for everyone.

“I try to impress upon people that if you work hard, put in the graft, don’t hide in the shed when conditions are bad, and always been seen to be doing your best, someone may notice you. That’s exactly what happened to me.

“Honestly, I was about 50 at the time and was beginning to think that it was time to start winding down a little, but my career has really taken off in the last five years. Look whats happened to me, these last five years have just been crazy. You couldn’t plan for it.”

The final piece in the career jigsaw came in 2015 when he applied for the vacancy at Durham.

“I guess I’m one of those people who always wants to test themselves and I wanted to work at the highest possible level and for me, at Durham, the biggest attraction of all was that I knew in 2016 there was going to be a Test Match. There are not many Test Grounds and not many people who have done a Test Match so for me that was huge.”

But Durham wasn’t a job for the feint hearted. The pitch was well known to be damp and bowler friendly. Also the club was experiencing financial difficulties, brought about by the contractual obligation when Durham became the latest addition to the County Championship in 1992 that the Riverside be developed as a Test and International venue. This is a part of the country not regarded as a cricketing hotspot.

“I started in March 2015 which was too late to do anything with the pitches. When I arrived I was concerned about the poor grass coverage on the pitches. We are lucky that we have a big square but five or six of those pitches were not going to be usable until July.

“The other issue I faced was that, for me, Nottingham had been the furthest I’d been north. I’d been used to working around the London areas which has a completely different climate. My pitch at Uxbridge was probably the most batsman-friendly you’d ever see so, in order to get the bowlers interested, I’d leave 10-12 mm of grass on each pitch.

“I tried to do that at Durham in my first season but the ball was going around corners and the batsmen were not happy at all. The one thing about that season was that the cricket was hugely entertaining for the person buying a ticket. No game ended in two days, but we had a lot of three day games and every game we played ended in a result.”

It wasn’t until the end of that first season that Vic finally got a handle of the pitch, and not before he sought the sage-like advice of the very man who would know.

“I couldn’t fathom out how pitches always seemed to be a on the damp side despite me trying to dry them out. All I could come up with was that water was coming up from underneath the surface. So what I did was track down Tom Flintoft, Head Groundsman here 30 years ago. He’s a lovely guy and I’ve spoken to him a lot since. I asked him if there was chance that my theory was correct and straight away he said to me that there was more water under the square than there was in the River Wear!”

Knowing the issue and resolving the issue are two completely different things however.

“In the short term there is really nothing you can do outside of digging up the pitch and putting in a membrane to prevent the water reaching the wicket but with our financial constraints that wasn’t going to happen.” Vic’s appreciation of what he was dealing with coincided with an instruction from the ECB to all Head Groundsmen that pitches should be more spinner friendly and the change to the toss rule which gave visiting Captains the option of bowling first.

“With the history at Durham no-one was ever going to say they were going to bat first so our pitches simply had to change. What I did was shave all the grass off and got them to be flat, white and reasonably hard so, after a game or two, we actually did see the away team wanting to bat first. The bowlers weren’t too happy and maybe it wasn’t as exciting cricket for the paying public. Perhaps there is still some middle ground to be had,” said Vic, who did become a hero to Keaton Jennings, who based on the amount of runs he has scored on Vic’s pitches, has since opened the batting for England.

Oh, that Test match and the reason Vic took that leap of faith north.

It was against Sri Lanka in May 2016 and to be honest that leap of faith Vic took in moving north looked decidedly misplaced when the week before a Sri Lankan team, shorn of its legendary batters and bowlers who had retired, were twice skittled out cheaply at Headingley in a match which barely lasted three days.

“People were saying that on our traditionally bowler friendly pitch that it could all be over in two days, but luckily England won the toss and batted, putting on over 400. Then having added to the run of low scores and being forced to follow-on the Sri Lanka’s showed some real mettle and batted well to overtake England’s first innings total and the match went into a fourth day.

“It was a reasonably good Test and all the reports were positive, but it was cold, mid-May, the weather wasn’t great and crowds weren’t huge.”

It tended to sum up the plight of Durham.

At the end of 2016 the financial problems came home to roost. Despite finishing fourth in the First Division Durham were relegated for financial reason and, to really kick them when they were down, they started each competition of the 2017 season on minus points.

The Board was removed and a new one put in place led by Chairman Sir Ian Botham, who has used his profile and contacts within the game to pull Durham through these immensely difficult times.

“A lot of people were very concerned about their jobs. My staff were worried, we were all worried and it was one thing after another – bad news after bad news after bad news – so, 12 months later, to be able to take these two wonderful awards back to the club was just fantastic.

“We knew that we were up for Headland Amenity Professional Cricket Grounds Team of the Year. We’d been short-listed along with Hampshire, as we had been the previous year when we lost out to Essex, so I was hopeful that we might have a chance. I was hugely delighted when we won not just for my team but for Team Durham back at the club – all the staff.

“It was brilliant for my small team – my Deputy Mark Patterson who has been at the club for over 15 years; Ben Hall, who has been here for eight years and for Amy McKewan, who is in her second season here and doing her apprenticeship. My coming in just three years ago was difficult for us all. I was joining a team which was already established and for Mark and Ben they had only ever worked for one boss and become used to doing things one way. I was never going to be the same and change is difficult to deal with, particularly with the wider issues going on.

“But three years on we’ve got there and our Award is a rubber stamping and recognition for what we have achieved. I think part of the reason we got the award was our ability to produce what we have done under financial constraints.”

An hour listening to Vic and you can fully understand why he also picked up the Ransomes/DLF Johnsons Alex R. Miller Groundsman of the Year award. His enthusiasm and drive are infectious and he possesses a can-do attitude which has survived through a number of career disappointments.

Five years on from the last of those disappointments, and a time when he was considering looking for a job to ease himself into retirement, he sits alongside the very best groundsmen that this country has produced.

Whether he believes it or not, he fully deserves that honour.