Turf Spotlight - Turf Matters

The danger beneath our feet?

July 4, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Admin

The danger beneath our feet?: A number of media articles regarding possible health risks linked to artiﬁcial pitches have prompted Turf Matters to investigate further – and as Scott MacCallum suggests, we must avoid burying our heads in the rubber crumb.

I’m going to tell you a very sad tale from my childhood so don’t be embarrassed to have a tissue close at hand.

I must have been about ten and I got my ﬁrst pet. A lovely grey rabbit which we named Bilbo Baggins, after the character in The Hobbit, which my dad was reading to us at the time.
Bilbo was great. He ate lettuce, twitched his nose, ensured that my weekly task of cleaning his hutch was a worthwhile pursuit and generally became a member of the family.
Bilbo died. A second rabbit. Slightly more robust, and white this time, took up residence. He too was named Bilbo Baggins. Having taken time to learn one name there didn’t seem much point in deploying a new name for the family pet. Bilbo died.

It was only many years later that something occurred to me. Bilbo’s hutch, a splendid bespoke aﬀair of which I and, I assumed both Bilbos, were extremely proud, was, as I remember, ﬁreproof!
And the reason that it was ﬁreproof was that it was made from asbestos. At that time, the early 70s, asbestos was some sort of wonder material. However, since then some of its more deadly properties have become widely known and now the word “asbestos” sends shudders down the backs of anyone conducting a home survey or a home report, while commercial premises are shut down, or cordoned oﬀ, if even a small amount is revealed.

The Bilbos’ sad demise came to mind recently with reports of a young goalkeeper who had died from cancer. He had played on 3G pitches for a considerable period of time and his father had expressed his fears that the rubber crumb could have contributed to his condition. Indeed his father had previously written to the Government asking for a moratorium on the building of 3G rubber crumb inﬁll pitches.

A less tragic incident saw a colleague of mine end up in hospital after rubber crumb got into a cut received while making a tackle on an artiﬁcial pitch.
It got me thinking. Rubber crumb is regarded as key to making artiﬁcial pitches perform in the same manner as natural pitches, revolutionising maintenance costs and increasing volumes of play. In that regard it is superb, but the nagging thought in my head is – is rubber crumb the new asbestos?

Now there is no blame attached to anyone who felt that rubber crumb was the perfect solution to make artiﬁcial surfaces as good as they could possibly be. After all it was recycling – which can’t be bad, and all it was was a deconstructed Michelin Man, wasn’t it?

But we’ve moved on and we must ensure that what we are producing for the the sports lovers, from school children up to the recent phenomenon of walking football, needs to be safe. Period.
Turf Matters has spoken to a number of experts in the ﬁeld of rubber crumb: independent scientists, Government agencies and the European body tasked with producing the report into all aspects of the subject. Sadly, the people most reluctant to discuss the matter openly with us were those involved in the industry itself – often reports, which have said that any health risk resultant from contact of involvement with rubber crumb is minimal.

Elsewhere, there is continued work being done into the subject and there are other countries – the United States and the Netherlands to name but two – who are being more proactive and are already moving away from rubber crumb pitches.

And as one respected scientist, who has done much work on the subject, told us: when it comes to public health, the precept should be “If in doubt, don’t”.
It is a key time for the industry as ECHA, the European Chemical Agency, will be going public with its latest ﬁndings later this month. It may be they will come to the conclusion that health concerns are minimal, then we have nothing to worry ourselves with. However, if evidence of genuine health concerns are reported, well…

Take time to read the following pages – a lot of it is technical and highly specialist in nature, but we’ve tried to take the relevant information and, without dumbing down, highlight both sides of what is a very important issue – and then consider the questions I’d like to pose to those involved in the production, installation and maintenance of rubber crumb sports surfaces – those we have spoken with and those who declined to discuss the matter with Turf Matters.

Are you 100% sure that your rubber crumb is safe? And if the ﬁrst answer is only “Pretty sure” or “Not really” – what are you, or will you, be doing about it?
Turf Matters’ promise to you is simple: Whatever you are doing to make your artiﬁcial surfaces safe, we shall give you space in our magazine, and on our website, to enable you to highlight your work. Remember, Turf Matters, but lives matter more.

Making the The Headlines

Worries Mount Over Potential Link Between Artiﬁcial Turf And Cancer…

The federal government launched a new eﬀort in February to study health concerns related to synthetic turf, as worries grow about possible cancer risks to the millions of athletes who play on artiﬁcial ﬁelds across the country. Now, a former top soccer player who helped convince the feds to investigate the issue says more than 200 athletes have reached out to her after being diagnosed with cancer.

Amy Griﬃn, a goalkeeper for the U.S. national team that won the ﬁrst women’s World Cup in 1991, has been informally tracking American soccer players with cancer since 2009, when she noticed a “stream of kids” who’d played soccer on artiﬁcial ﬁelds were getting sick.

Griﬃn, now an associate head coach for the University of Washington women’s soccer team, told NBC in 2014 that she’d heard from 38 soccer players who’d been diagnosed with cancer. That tally has climbed to 220 athletes – 166 of them soccer players.

Of the soccer players, 102 were former goalkeepers like Griﬃn. They spent more time on the ground and were more exposed to crumb rubber – the tiny rubber pellets found in artiﬁcial turf – than their teammates.

“I am not making any claims about what is happening with these players,” Griﬃn said. “But this problem isn’t fading. It’s going the other way.”
It hasn’t been scientiﬁcally proven that athletes exposed to crumb rubber have higher rates of cancer than the general population, and the synthetic turf industry insists its product is safe. Research shows that crumb-rubber pellets, made of recycled tires, can contain toxic chemicals, metals and carcinogens, but not necessarily at levels that threaten human health.
But the current lack of scientiﬁc consensus on the issue underscores why additional federal research is important. The last time the Environmental Protection Agency studied crumb rubber in 2009, it found potentially harmful substances in the material, but only enough to merit a “low level of concern.”

This year, the EPA said it could no longer stand by that study – which was limited to four crumbrubber ﬁelds – and announced a follow-up study with other federal agencies that will evaluate existing research, test diﬀerent kinds of tire crumb and involve outreach to the public, including athletes and parents.

Existing studies by federal, state and local government agencies “were not designed, nor were they suﬃcient in size or scope, to draw conclusions about the safety of all ﬁelds across the nation,” EPA spokeswoman Laura Allen told The Huﬃngton Post. “They cannot fully answer questions about what if any potential risks might be posed from exposure.”

The Daily Telegraph 15/10/2016
Why 3G pitches are being ripped up in Holland over health fears
Sam Wallace, Chief Football Writer

The parents of boys at the Ajax academy De Toekomst in Amsterdam received letters last week to reassure them that from now on, not only would their children not be playing on any of the club’s 3G pitches with rubber crumb inﬁll, but those pitches were being removed.

It was a swift response to the ﬁndings of a documentary on the Dutch public broadcaster NPO which revealed serious shortcomings in the government-sponsored research in 2006 that had declared the rubber crumb to be safe, thus beginning a 3G boom.

From 300 3G pitches in Holland 10 years ago there are now more than 2,000 of them, in a country where artiﬁcial turf and the 120 metric tonnes of rubber crumb used on each one – equating to 20,000 shredded tyres – is big business.

The attitudes uncovered in Holland by Zembla have been shocking, to say the least. Last year the Dutch government was lobbied successfully by the artiﬁcial pitch and tyre industries not to apply new EU standards for toy safety to rubber crumb. The fear in Holland is that the legacy of rubber crumb 3G pitches will only be known years from now.

On Friday, the Fifa president Gianni Infantino urged an investigation into the carcinogenic properties of rubber crumb and said that, on balance, he would rather Fifa invested the $4 billion set aside for football development over the next 10 years on natural surfaces.

Many clubs across Holland are now faced with the diﬃcult decision of closing 3G rubber crumb pitches to children, especially with parents worried by the evidence against the 2006 report. The same question will be asked of the Cruyﬀ Foundation, launched by the late, great Johan, which funds “Cruyﬀ Courts” in neighbourhoods all over Holland – 3G pitches, with the laudable aim of giving children a place to play.

One Dutch contractor, whose company lays 3G pitches, told Zembla journalists that there was a safer compound that could be used in place of the rubber crumb, an inﬁll made from cork and the ﬁbre of coconut shells. The problem was that it cost 15,000 more per pitch, which made it unpopular.

It also does not have the backing of the tyre and rubber lobby, under pressure to recycle millions of old tyres every year.

The Zembla investigators took their ﬁndings to the Dutch FA, the KNVB, who have accepted the 2006 study was as good as useless as a scientiﬁc document. At the KNVB’s headquarters in Zeist near Utrecht, a St George’s Park equivalent, they also have a 3G pitch. Out of interest, the Zembla journalist Roelof Bosma asked, what kind of inﬁll did they use on it? The man from the KNVB took a moment and replied that they preferred the cork inﬁll to rubber crumb.

Next steps

Turf Matters tried to speak with a number of people involved with rubber crumb, either the installation, the maintenance, or the testing of it, by telephone or via email. Some didn’t respond at all and most who did were reluctant to discuss the matter, either telling us that all available evidence had shown it to be of minimal risk, or referred us to the Frequently Asked Questions pages on websites or advising us to speak to recognised experts in the ﬁeld. So we did…

Professor Andrew Watterson
Professor Andrew Watterson, of Stirling University, has been researching the subject of rubber crumb for a number of years.

“Surprisingly, after decades of use, we still lack detailed knowledge about possible uptake of chemicals – some known carcinogens – from crumb rubber in 3G pitches and their mixtures,” he told Turf Matters.

It is also not known how the chemicals break down in the rubber crumb and the impact on the ‘safe’ thresholds for these chemicals, and their eﬀects over the medium and long term, that might have, nor, indeed, how they might combine with a range of other chemicals to which people may be exposed.

“There have also been issues in the past about the accuracy or comprehensiveness of some of the crumb rubber data Safety Data sheets,” revealed Dr Watterson.
He also cast doubt on the quality and quantity of the inspection processes which are meant to ensure that those who work with rubber crumb or play on it do not experience health issues.
“There are real questions to ask about the protection of those making crumb rubber and those installing and maintaining 3G pitches. I am not aware that either trading standards’ oﬃcers or environmental health oﬃcers have carried out any health checks on users or workers on 3G pitches and crumb rubber children’s playgrounds.

“I put in a Freedom of Information request to the Health and Safety Executive about crumb rubber and they told me that since REACH came into force in 2007, it had carried out no inspections, monitoring or enforcement action on REACH chemicals present in crumb rubber and artiﬁcial turf,” he revealed.

“A good precept in public health is ‘if in doubt don’t’. When you could get large populations exposed to even small doses of what are known to be dangerous chemicals, especially at vulnerable points in human development, over a long period of time, that is a real concern.
“If products with lower levels of these dangerous chemicals in crumb rubber are available, then it would make good sense to use them. If alternatives like cork and coir are available that don’t present any risks of exposure, then that is even better. Both options may be available now.”
A government spokesman told Turf Matters, in a comment which mirrored the advice that was being given by Health Protection Scotland.

“Participating in sport and physical activity has signiﬁcant health beneﬁts, both physical and mental. However, it is also important that those taking part adopt basic hygiene practices.
“The most recent European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) report stated that there was a very low level of concern when playing on artiﬁcial pitches that contain rubber crumb. It recommended that people take basic hygiene measures when playing on those surfaces, as they would when playing sport on grass or any other surfaces.

“Sports governing bodies are working on providing general hygiene advice in the coming months in consultation with Public Health England,” said the spokesman, who was speaking on behalf of a range of bodies – Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; Public Health England; The FA; Premier League; Football Foundation; Rugby Football Union and Sport England.
However, that ECHA report also listed a number of other recommendations including the following:

– Consider changes to the REACH Regulation to ensure rubber granules were only supplied with very low concentrations of PAHs and any other relevant hazardous substances
– Ask owners and operators of existing (outdoor and indoor) ﬁelds to measure PAH and other substances’ concentrations in rubber granules used in their ﬁelds and making such information available to interested parties in an understandable manner
– Ask producers of rubber granules and their trade organisations to develop guidance to help all manufacturers and importers of (recycled) rubber inﬁll test their material
– Ask European sports and football associations and clubs to work with the relevant producers to ensure information related to the safety of rubber granules in synthetic turfs is communicated in a manner understandable to the players and the general public
– Have owners and operators of existing indoor ﬁelds with rubber granule inﬁlls ensure adequate ventilation public.

Dr Watterson is not aware of any of these recommendations which have been carried through.

American Research
Rubber crumb is something which is exercising some of the ﬁnest minds, not just in the UK and Europe but across the pond too.

Yale University chemists, Gaboury Benoit and Sara Demars, examined nine household mulches made from crumb rubber and six crumb rubber samples from sports pitches in the US to ﬁnd out what was present.

They tested for a larger number of chemicals than in any previous research and found 92 compounds and a range of cancer-causing chemicals and irritants. Some of these results may be relevant to the UK, others not because the sources, processing, treatment and use of crumb rubber in household mulches and artiﬁcial sports pitches can vary a great deal.
Professor Benoit is Grinstein Professor of Environmental Chemistry at Yale’s Environment School.

They estimated that up 20 cancer-causing chemicals might be leached out from the crumb tested. They noted, a point often neglected elsewhere, the lack of research on the very small particles that might be produced in crumb rubber and absorbed through the human skin. They had further concerns about the range of chemicals that could be produced in the crumb rubber manufacturing process. They found health hazards information existed on only about half the 92 compounds identiﬁed with the rest untested.

They further found “human exposure pathways in relation to shredded tires are poorly known, and almost impossible to simulate or test”.

The ﬁndings of these researchers therefore add to our knowledge of the potential human risks from known crumb rubber hazards and highlight the continued need for great caution in their use for all who may be exposed.

ECHA Comment
In June 2016, the European Commission requested that ECHA carry out a preliminary evaluation on whether the presence of certain substances in the recycled rubber granules used as inﬁll on artiﬁcial turf sports grounds could pose a health risk. In February 2017, based on analysis of published scientiﬁc literature, ECHA published its assessment and the conclusion was that “recycled rubber inﬁll causes a very low level of concern”.

Since then ECHA and the Dutch authorities (RIVM) have continued looking into this due to the uncertainties raised, to determine if further action is required. In particular, the Netherlands, in cooperation with ECHA, are investigating whether to restrict the placing on the market of plastic, rubber and other granules containing PAHs above a set concentration limit.
If it is concluded such a restriction is required, the proposal is expected to be published this summer (20 July 2018).

In short, if the authorities end up proposing that the Commission should decide a stricter limit for PAHs in rubber crumb it could possibly mean that in the European Union the same threshold would apply that is already used in restriction concerning e.g. toys.
Currently the concentration limit in mixtures, such as rubber crumb is either 0.1% or 0.01% depending on the speciﬁc type of PAHs. PAHs occurring in recycled rubber used in articles, such as toys, have a concentration limit of 0.0001%.

Alternatives?

Cork is regarded as an alternative inﬁll with similar performance levels without the health concerns of rubber crumb. It is more expensive and doesn’t fulﬁl the brief of being a recycled product. However, there is another option and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it comes from one of the few companies that were happy to talk to Turf Matters on the subject.

Murﬁtts Industries have been in the tyre recycling business since 2002, and it was around ﬁve years later that Mark Murﬁtt became aware of the whispers emanating from the United States regarding the associated health concerns.

“My response then was to bring in the best expert I could and ask him what he could tell me and much of that, at that time, was anecdotal evidence,” recalled Mark, who subsequently worked to develop an alternative inﬁll that is genuinely safe.

He admires the work of ECHA, whose remit he describes as “basically to protect humans and the wider environment from the chemicals we use”.

“What they have done is to set limits for consumer products, and these are one milligram per kilo for eight speciﬁed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) found in ‘Articles’ and half that, 0.5 milligrams per kilo, for children.”

Any product adhering to these restrictions is classiﬁed as an “Article”. As an example, the plastic on an artiﬁcial pitch, i.e. the ﬁbres which make up the strands of artiﬁcial grass, is classed as an ‘article’ and subject to the tight regulations. Rubber crumb inﬁll is categorised as a ‘Mixture’, which has a very diﬀerent set of acceptable limits.

“We thought this was a bit odd. A ‘Mixture’ has a PAH limit set which is several thousand times higher than an ‘article’, which means the rubber crumb you take home in your socks, shoes, ears is legally allowed to have higher PAH levels than the plastic ﬁbres on the pitch,” explained Mark.
“On the one hand, 3G pitches are brilliant and assist in the campaign to get people more active but on the other hand, parents and coaches were having concerns about letting their children play

on artiﬁcial pitches.
“How could we alleviate those fears? We know that our rubber crumb is a brilliant inﬁll for performance, but it doesn’t meet the criteria as an ‘Article’ – although by the existing legislation it doesn’t have to. So how could we take that material and make it better and safer?

The answer?

“We developed a polyurethane coating that releases no PAHs or heavy metals, and we encapsulate the rubber crumb granules so that the hybrid inﬁll meets the criteria as an article. It’s called PRO-gran,” said Mark.

“Launched in November, PRO-gran is generating interest from around the globe. We are seeing a signiﬁcant need for a high-performance inﬁll that delivers exceptional performance beneﬁts, lasts for the lifetime of the pitch and meets the EU’s toxicology criteria as an article.

“It’s perfectly natural that standards keep rising, that’s the way it should be. There is no point in society going through the ages and not becoming a little bit smarter. We’ve only got one crack at this place!” he added.

murfittsindustries.com

Park Life

July 3, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Admin

Park Life: A report by the Heritage Lottery Fund, State of UK’s Public Parks, suggests that in the UK 34 million people visit a park regularly. To put this into context, more people visit one in a year than voted in the 2015 General Election.

The Victorian philanthropists who had the vision to create the world’s first public parks understood the importance of green space for the health and wellbeing of society. Access to good quality green space is vital if we are to tackle some of the challenges that we face, including the growing problem of obesity, the rise in mental health issues and the feelings of being disconnected from the communities in which we live. Research shows that having well-managed, accessible green space contributes to tackling many of these issues.

This is where the Green Flag Award can help, because it supports organisations that provide quality green spaces. Parks are only well-used and valued if they feel clean and safe. Fear of crime is one of the biggest barriers to certain groups using a park to exercise or relax and if a park looks unloved and uncared for, this can lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour.

Launched in the UK in 1996, the Green Flag Award has transformed our country’s green spaces. It was introduced to reverse the decline in the quality of our parks that had happened in the 1970s and 1980s and it has worked.

When it was launched, only seven parks met the standard required to fly a Green Flag Award today more than 1,600 parks and green spaces have a flag flying. The Green Flag Award has delivered change in the UK’s parks and green spaces and raised standards by setting the standard. It has shown that running a park that is well-used and valued by its community is about more than just cutting the grass.

It has established that effective management and the use of skilled staff, along with support of the local community, are key to creating fantastic public parks. In addition, the Green Flag Award has supported the professionalism of the parks sector. It has provided an opportunity to share good practice through a network of more than 800 volunteer judges that supports new applicants.

For those running our country’s parks and green spaces, the Green Flag Award is an invaluable tool, whether the space they are managing is a traditional park, a cemetery, a shopping centre or a university.

The Award helps focus activity on the important elements of management and provides a proven, successful framework. It enables the development of a costed management plan that allows resources to be focused in areas that will have the biggest effect. It also allows managers to demonstrate that resources are being used to their best effect and money is being spent appropriately and delivering value for money.

The aim of the Green Flag Award is to ensure that everyone has access to a quality green space and to enable them to live more healthy lifestyles.

The number of Green Flags Awards flying in Britain –and further afield – today is the proof that many others share that vision.

As a green flag judge, I get to visit some amazing parks and open spaces every year. Judging usually starts in April and completed in June with flags awarded in late August.

This year I judged several parks, one of which was Priory Park in Dudley. The town of Dudley has a long and illustrious history and heritage with is famous castle, National Nature Reserve, limestone and mining history, and fantastic canal system. Dudley Priory is a little known gem nestling in the heart of the town centre. The Dudley Priory was founded by Sir Gervase Paganel and served a community of monks and lay people for several hundred years until it was demolished during the 16th century by Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries.

The Priory Park restoration project which was funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund has developed the park significantly and has restored and enhanced many of its impressive features from its 1930’s inception and beyond. One of the most impressive features which has been improved has been the ruined Priory itself

The Ranger posts which have also been funded for five years have meant that themed events and activities with schools and community groups take place on a regular basis and the park is now a lively and vibrant place once more. Local people have been trained to deliver sporting, horticultural and heritage-based events in the park, and the park pavilion itself, once a derelict and burnt out shell has been reinvigorated and revived to become a local hub for the community, in a splendid green landscaped setting.

Trees make an important contribution to the park’s special landscape and historic interest. The 2009 tree survey recorded 501 trees within the park, with just over half of these being classed as mature. In recent times a significant number of large mature specimens have been removed as a result of disease and as a precautionary measure to protect the safety of visitors. Further felling of 51 trees as part of the restoration work was recommended in the tree survey and has now been completed.

During my visit I get to meet the people and staff responsible for managing the park the lead officer responsible for Priory Park is Liz Stuffins who obliged me by answering a few questions about her role and the work undertaken as part of their Business plan for Priory Park.

Turf Matters:- How long have you been working for Dudley MBC ?

Liz Stuffins:- I have been with Dudley MBC for nine years

TM:- What is your role with the council and how many parks and open spaces do you manage?

LS:- My role is Development of Parks and open spaces, my team works with residents, visitors and sports groups to improve and restore parks, and make them more pleasant places to visit. I manage large capital programmes such as Lottery Funds, 106 planning obligations, funding and other funding sources to improve parks. We have had large public Health grants and government grants to deliver projects, and we work with community organisations to improve volunteering and events and activities on sites. We have 28 main parks we work on.

TM:- How is the maintenance work carried out in the park?

LS:-The maintenance work at Priory Park is carried out by site based staff plus the north area team who are peripatetic. We also have a number of volunteers who assist the site-based team, plus the apprentices who use the site for learning and project delivery. Although the Authority no longer has glasshouses to grow bedding, the Council is working with Dudley Mind who are working on a Growing in the Park project. They manage the glasshouses and the apprentices will work with them to gain this experience as part of their training.

TM:- Why do you support Green Flag? What benefits do you get from having the award?

LS:- The Green Flag Award is really important to the Borough as it sets the standards for high quality parks. The four Lottery funded parks have all got Green Flag status, plus we have two other parks which have the Flag where the community or public Health have helped to fund raise for intiatives/projects in Coseley and Dudley Town Centre.

TM:- How many green flag sites do you have ?

LS:- Six sites have Green Flag Status two of these are Nature Reserves, we are working on a cemetary project which we hope will get Green Flag and some Community projects such as allotment sites.

TM:- You have a good apprentice ships scheme running in the park, what benefits do you get from running this programme?

LS:- The apprenticeship scheme has been running since our government funded Future Skills project ceased 7 years ago. The Council is really committed to training up young people to provide a better workforce. The Green care team recognise that the workforce is very old and close to retirement and needs to develop succession planning.

TM:- As an industry do you think we are doing enough to encourage the next generation of parks managers or are we a dying breed?

LS:- Our industry has a huge opportunity to train others and to encourage others to join the industry. Parks managers need so many different skills these days, but there are people who want to work in the environmental industry, but not necessarily have the traditional horticultural training that parks managers of old had. I have a background in ecology and environmental management with a passion to see local people care for their local green spaces. We are seeing local people becoming the champions for parks with the rise of the Parks’ Friends’ movement.

TM:- What further improvement would you like to see in the Park?

LS:- Priory Park really does need to become a thriving hub for Dudley’s regeneration. Dudley has a number of excellent visitor attractions, Zoo, BC Museum etc, the Park needs to be sold as part of the tourism package. I am working on delivering the café at the park which we hope will be open next year. I would also like the park to be hosting more events and activities, the Churches Together event is being held next weekend and the Friends have several ideas for events in the future.

I really enjoyed meeting the staff and getting to know what Dudley MBC had in mind to secure the future of Priory Park, I may be tad biased, but you really cannot put a price on these valuable parks and open spaces, we collectively have a duty to secure their future for the next generation. Maintaining Greenflag status without doubt plays an important role in doing this. I like to thank Dudley’s MBC staff and friends of the park who made me feel very welcome on the day, and we will all look forward to finding out if they managed to maintain Greenflag status later in the year.

Rugby Groundsmen Connected

June 20, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Laurence Gale

Rugby Groundsmen Connected: As a past player, coach and club groundsman, I am only too aware of the importance of having a decent surface to play on, Having said that, there are still many rugby clubs that for one reason or other fail to invest the appropriate time, resources and money in keeping their pitches in a fit for purpose state.

Far too often, this lack of investment ends up with the pitches over time becoming unplayable during wet weather conditions and needing a fair amount of work to bring them back to an acceptable condition.

Most clubs rely heavily on the goodwill of ex-players and members to help with the maintenance of their pitches. However, they can only achieve this if they have the right equipment and resources made available coupled with the relevant knowledge to undertake the maintenance of these pitches.

A recent meeting with Ted Mitchell, RFU Club Facilities Technical Manager and Keith Kent, Head Groundsman at Twickenham Stadium enlightened me on the work the RFU have being doing to support rugby clubs who need advice and help with managing their facilities and pitches and their popular Rugby Groundsman Connected scheme is certainly making a difference.

Rugby Groundsmen Connected (RGC) is the RFU’s easy access, two-way communication network between the RFU and rugby union groundsmen. It is the main communication channel for the RFU to provide information and advice to groundsmen and also has special offers and exclusive benefits for members. Everything the RFU does related to pitch maintenance will now come under the banner of Rugby Groundsmen Connected. Groundsmen Connected is for anybody that has any involvement in the upkeep of rugby pitches; complete novice to Premiership groundsmen. Anyone can register to join RGC at no cost. Registration is by email to groundsmenconnected@rfu.com. Once signed up they will receive regular communications with advice, information and the opportunity to ask questions.

RGC now has well over 1,000 groundsmen registered and Keith has been very supportive of the scheme and has himself visited many clubs up and down the country to pass on his advice. To help recognise the good work being done by these dedicated volunteers the RFU arranged a groundsman’s ‘Money Can’t Buy’ experience sponsored by the Mitsubishi Motors Volunteer Recognition Programme.

I, along with five other club volunteer groundsmen; Adrian Robertshaw (Ross On Wye RFC), Julian Roberts (Devizes RFC), Nigel Mortimore (Topsham RFC,) Colin Hudson (Lutterworth RFC) and John Upton (Volunteer Pitch Advisor), were given a tour of the stadium and a chance to meet up with Keith and his two trusted assistants, Ian and Andy, who spent the day explaining the work they do to keep the hallowed turf at Twickenham in tip top condition.

After an interesting and informative tour of the stadium that included the chance to sit in the royal box, visit the changing rooms and other executive boxes, we were then given opportunity to go down onto the pitch and try out some of the machinery they use.

Keith was keen to demonstrate the wealth of equipment available to help maintain rugby pitches to a high standard. On show was a range of cylinder mowers, rotary mowers, aeration equipment, and compact tractors fitted with Quadraplay units, outfield spikers and slitters.

All in all a great day and one we all will not forget; very educational and a great way to honour the work of these dedicated club volunteers. I personally enjoyed the day immensely, which was topped with the news that my application to become a Volunteer Pitch Advisor for the RFU, working across the North Midlands area, had been accepted.

For me this is a very special opportunity to work with the RFU to deliver one of their key initiatives of their Rugby Groundsmen Connected programme. I am looking forward to visiting many of the clubs I played for and against during my playing days. These clubs have been the cornerstones of sport in the community for many years and this new role is to ensure they continue to thrive and provide decent playing surfaces for the next generation of rugby players.

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A data-driven approach

May 15, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Turf Matters

A data-driven approach: How a decade of technological innovation has put groundsmen more in control than ever before…

Groundsmanship today looks completely different than it did 10 to 15 years ago. The time of solely fieldwork has made place for a more data-driven approach. Technological advanced tools enable groundsmen and greenkeepers to both monitor and control the growing conditions on sports playing surfaces.

When SGL brought grow lights to the market 15 years ago, new possibilities emerged for maintaining high quality sports playing surfaces. While the lighting systems are the innovation that they are most recognised for, SGL were also one of the firsts to switch from a product driven approach to a system based on monitoring and data analyses.

Technology has raised the standards and the role of the groundsman has become more essential than it ever was before.

SGL offers guidance to groundsman in the form of monitoring tools, cost management tools and various grass grow lighting and grass care products. ‘Quality is the exclusion of chance’ is one of the rules by which SGL operates.

This statement finds its origin in the rose greenhouse Porta Nova, one of the most technologically advanced rose greenhouses in the world, of which SGL founder Nico van Vuuren is also co-owner. “In roses, we are looking for the best quality rose, one which keeps its beauty for as long as possible. With SGL we help our customers to create the best quality pitch. That is the main focus,” explained Nico.

The only way to leave as little to chance as possible is by researching, analysing and modelling. The perfect growing circumstances and the way to achieve those are of course different for every pitch, court or green. Therefore SGL developed various models within the monitoring tools to forecast growth circumstances for every specific circumstances.

Tools, such as the Analyser, provide groundsmen with 24/7 growth data which gives groundsmen access to a great amount of information about the circumstances on their pitch. An online portal shows all relevant information, but also contains models for forecasting. The weather forecast has already been an indispensable guide to every groundsmen in the world for a long time.

SGL developed different models that make it possible to give advice for every specific situation. So for example a fungal disease forecast has been developed that predicts the disease pressure of over a dozen different diseases, based on the weather forecast and data from the SGL Analyser. Also a growth model has been developed that specifically advises where to use the supplemental lighting on the pitch and for how many hours in order to achieve the desired quality, taking into account the current quality, the weather forecast and the past and future pitch usage. Based on all of that data, groundsmen can make calculated decisions regarding their daily and long term maintenance.

While monitoring and analysing of the circumstances is the base, groundsmen need tools to follow up their findings and control the conditions. There are many growth factors that need to be controlled in order to create a perfect playing surface. Think about light, temperature, humidity, air movement among many others.

The development of grass lighting systems has progressed very quickly over the past few years. SGL has developed new systems that are designed for specific situations based on customers’ needs. For example, the SU380 FLEX is developed for stadiums with low and/or narrow pitch entrances. Currently SGL is testing a new IQ55, a closed climate control lighting system, with Infrared heaters and irrigation, which has a unique germination mode. There’s also extensive ongoing research with LED systems that have given interesting results.

One of the most important innovations of the past year has been the machine that prevents fungal diseases from spreading by means of UV-C light instead of fungicides: the UVC180. Many countries are banning the use of chemicals for turf grass disease treatment and so there is a high need for a biological solution. UVC light is already successfully being used in greenhouses so that’s where SGL started its research.

SGL designed a walk behind machine that could operate fully automatic. The prototype was tested by Paul Burgess’ team in Madrid, followed by multiple other stadiums, training pitches and golf greens across Europe. That the treatment is effective was clear very soon. With the feedback of Paul Burgess and all the other users, SGL designed a final machine that is effective and easy to use on many different sports surfaces.

That these new tools are not only available to the elite few has been shown over that last years. More and more stadiums and training grounds across Europe, also from lower leagues, use the technology to achieve the best possible results. This has been made possible by more effective energy management tools and the availability of smaller systems and SGL SELECT; refurbished equipment that comes with full warranty at a fraction of the cost.

The access to a substantial amount of data and tools create the possibility to grow a high quality pitch, which has increased the expectations and thus the pressure on the groundsman. In this digital age every little thing is under scrutiny. Sports playing surfaces form the stage on which top athletes need to perform at their very best, while being watched my millions. You simply cannot take any risk with that. All that matters is creating that top quality in the most cost efficient way. The great amount of data and tools available, offer a lot more possibilities than years ago, but it also means that groundsmen have a lot more to pay attention to. There are more decisions to be made, maintenance to be planned and tools to be used in the best possible way.

These tools do not make the groundsman less important, on the contrary; groundsmanship has grown to be a science and the people behind the curtain have become scientists with a professional and practical approach.

The Lakes

May 15, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Turf Matters

The Lakes: Laurence Gale travelled to Australia and persuaded an ex-pat greenkeeper to write about his experiences greenkeeping on the other side of the world.

A recent family trip to Sydney to see my daughter, afforded me the opportunity to visit some local sporting venues, I was particularly interested in visiting the Lakes GC, knowing that Simon Blagg, a British Greenkeeper, was working there.

After a few phone calls I managed to contact Simon who is now the Assistant Superintendent at the Lakes Golf club. We arranged a date for me to visit the course and duly met up some days later. Upon arrival at the club I was introduced to the Courses Superintendent and head mechanic, followed by a whistle stop tour of the course and facilities.

I was fascinated to find out more about the course and how Simon had adapted his skills to work in a quite challenging climate. I would like to thank him for his time and taking the time to put pen to paper to produce this fascinating in-depth article.

Growing Turf Down Under – Simon Blagg

From growing up in my home town of Madeley, Cheshire in the UK, to working at The Lakes Golf club in Sydney, Australia; the past fourteen years of my turf career have been an amazing experience to date.

I completed my turf qualifications at Reaseheath College and while there, I worked at Keele golf course which has now unfortunately closed down, before spending two great summers under John Turner at Leek Golf Club, who taught me a significant amount about sustainability in the turf industry. At the same time I was working as groundsman of Maer Cricket Club.

In 2008 I set my sights on the Ohio State Turfgrass internship program, where I worked at Whistling Straits, in Wisconsin, and then onto the Doral Golf Resort, in Florida.

Working on the Blue Monster course, I got to experience my first golf tournament when Doral hosted the annual World Golf Championship event.

After I returned to the UK I worked two seasons at Loch Lomond Golf Club. The club hosted the Scottish Open a week before The Open. In between the first and second season at Loch Lomond I secured a summer casual position for six months at New South Wales Golf club in Sydney. This was when I got my first taste of life in Australia. I met my now wife, within the first week of being in Australia.

New South Wales hosted the 2009 Australian Open. I had gained valuable experience from my from my time at New South that summer. I returned to Loch Lomond in 2010 to assist with the preparation for what would be the club’s final Scottish Open. I can’t thank Dave Cole, at Loch Lomond, enough for what he taught me during that time, including his attention to detail and how to keep incredibly high standards.

After the home summer of 2010, I was lucky enough to secure a sponsorship at Roseville Golf Club in Sydney. I worked my way up the rank and eventually became Mark O’Sullivan’s assistant in 2013. I remained at the club for another two years and after a total of five years, and an Australian citizenship achieved, I decided to apply for the Assistant Superintendent position at the Lakes Golf Club in Sydney. After a successful interview, I started at the Lakes in early January 2016.

The Lakes is on the southern side of the city, roughly around 15 minutes from Sydney’s central business district. The area is a popular golfing destination, with the Lakes backing on to both Eastlakes and Bonnie Doon Golf Club and The Australian within a 5km radius. The club is within the Botany Wetlands, a series of interconnected ponds forming an open space wetland corridor stretching to 226 hectares.

Over the years the course design has been altered, in particular in 1950s when the state government put plans together to build a six lane express-way right through the middle of the course.

The club then employed American Robert Von Hagge who agreed to redesign the course. Von Hagge’s redesign was constructed and completed by June 1970. During the 70s and 80s, the Lakes was renowned for its fast true greens. However, by 1994 the greens were beginning to show their age and the winter grass population was too much. The club then decided to resurface all of the greens with SR1020 Bent grass.

By 2006 the greens were again over populated with Poa Annua and did not meet specifications. The board approached Mike Clayton to conduct a course master plan.

The club decided to rebuild both the 1st and 18th greens first. After the members’ approval of the two new greens, Clayton was commissioned to rebuild the remaining 16 greens and two lady’s greens.

The redesign included rebuilding the whole golf course as well as upgrading the Irrigation system. The greens were seeded with A4 bent grass. Tees Santa Ana couch and the fairways that were altered were returfed with common Kikuyu. Roughs and dunes were over seeded with Fescue. The course was re-opened in July 2009. The current course measures 6286 metres.

In 2010 the club hosted The Australian Open, which was the first tournament since the 2002 ANZ Championship. The club was asked again to host the tournament for both the 2011 and 2012 Australian Opens. The 2011 tournament was a successful, hosting pros of the likes of Tiger Woods. It was seen as good preparation for the 2011 Presidents Cup. In November 2018 the club will host its seventh Australian Open.

Anthony Mills has been Superintendent since 2012 and Aaron Taylor and I have been Anthony’s assistants since January 2016. We currently operate with a full team of 19 that includes two casuals and mechanic. An additional four casuals will be added to the team to assist with preparation for the Australian Open.

I’m a strong believer in getting overseas talent to come over and work for six months. We try and take the casuals on from September through to the end of February. For those coming from the UK, this often works well with the end of the UK summer and then heading into our summer period. On a working holiday visa, it allows you to work with two employers for two six month blocks. It gives young greenkeepers a fantastic opportunity to come and work in Australia and learn about managing warm season grasses in different climates.

Projects leading into Australian Open 2018

In November this year the club will host its seventh Australian Open. Over the last 18 months we have been very busy with construction projects. These have included rebuilding tees and resurfacing cart paths and extending sandy waste areas. In April 2017, we commenced our biggest project of all; the upgrade of the practice precinct area. The old practice facilities were beginning to look a little fatigued. The greens had a large percentage of Poa Annua and did not compliment the greens out on the course with very little undulations. Safety was also a big factor in the redesign. We were seeing a small percentage of golf balls leave the driving range and land on the 10th and 11th holes. The upgrade of the practice facility involved the following:

– Rebuilding both practice putting and chipping greens.

– Rebuilding and lowering the height of the range tee by 500mm.

– Installing a Tee line driving range mat for use in winter.

– Installing target greens on the range fairway to replicate shots played out on course.

– Installing further mounding on both sides of the range to protect golfers on the 10th and 11th holes.

– Installing mounding around the teaching facility.

– Rebuilding a new chipping green with suitable practice bunkers.

– Rebuilding the 10th Championship men’s and lady’s tees.

– Rebuilding the 1st gold tee.

– Installing a new concrete pathway to both the 1st and 10th tee.

The new putting green was seeded back in May 2017 and was opened in late September. All of the major earth works and turfing was completed by November 2017. The new turf driving tee was recently re opened and we are hoping to have the chipping green re opened by the end of March.

With all major projects complete we are now concentrating on fine tuning the golf course heading into the winter months and November will be here in no time at all. Planning and preparation is essential when preparing for a tournament of this size.

Finally, I wanted to say how great it was to catch up with Laurence Gale back in December and I’d like to thank Turf Matters magazine for allowing me to contribute this article.

Outstanding opportunities for greenkeepers – down under

Simon is always on the lookout for keen, enthusiastic greenkeepers from the UK who are interested in travelling to Australia to work the summer season. For further information about working in Australia in 2019, please email Simon at Asstsuper@thelakesgolfclub.com.au

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