Avoiding a sticky wicket

/in /by

Avoiding a sticky wicket: Scott MacCallum speaks with Ian Smith, Sports Turf Consultant for St Alban’s School, about climate change, sustainability – and the days when meeting Elton John was a regular occurrence.

Think back to last summer and the scorching temperatures.

Avoiding a sticky wicket

Avoiding a sticky wicket

We hadn’t seen anything like it. For many of us we could get by with desk fans and cold showers but for those working outside, and I’m thinking about those in the sports and amenity turf industry, they not only had to cope with the blazing sun, they also had to keep their surfaces alive. Not easy with water restrictions in place.

One man in the middle of it all was Ian Smith, Sports Turf Consultant for St Alban’s School, who, at the time, was also planning the programme for the annual Dennis SISIS Seminar which had been postponed from the previous two years.

“I was going to go down the environmental route with the programme anyway, but then we had the drought last year which made it even more relevant,” explained Ian.

“I had seen (Met Office Meteorologist) Aidan McGivern’s presentation on the 2050 weather forecast and when I was able to get Aidan to appear at the seminar it tied everything in.”

What made Aidan’s presentation all the more impactful was that the “shock factor” of the 2050 forecast was 40-degree temperatures in the UK and what would be the consequences of such heat. Those temperatures were reached in southern England last year – 28 years ahead of Aidan’s schedule.

“That really brought it to a head,” admitted Ian.

That led him to look to shape the day’s programme, which he widened to water resourcing, water capture and recycling, as well as how we should build pitches in the future to retain moisture rather than drain it away and what diseases might become more prevalent in a hotter, drier climate.

The Seminar, which attracted well over 200 turf professionals from around the country, was a huge success but left delegates with a genuine sense of foreboding about what the future will have in store if nothing is done imminently to change from the current course.

But Ian works at a school which has already shown its desire to do the right things when it comes to a sustainable model.

Avoiding a sticky wicket

Avoiding a sticky wicket

“It is something that the school governors are embracing. When we first set up the new site here at the school in 2000 I wanted to install irrigation with recycled water, but at the time mains water wasn’t that expensive and it was felt that with the hassle of cleaning and filtering etc, mains water was the way to go. Obviously in the 20 years since, things have changed.”

Now the school has plans for maximising the water at its disposal including capturing and harvesting rainwater which is something all facilities are going to have to investigate given that the Environment Agency is going to be clamping down on extraction licences for bore holes in legislation which is earmarked for 2028.

“We are looking to capture water from the pavilion roof which should help to reduce what we are drawing off the mains. ln future we are looking at the water which currently disappears in to a soak away on our artificial pitch.

“If we can store that water and re-use it on the sports field or in the pavilion it would be a good way of maximising our water usage,” explained Ian, who added that in an ideal world they would tap into grey water from water treatment plants, but sadly the school is too far away from the nearest one.

Much of the school’s drive towards a more sustainable future is led by the pupils, who have their own Green Council.

“We have meat-free Mondays and they have ensured all our lightbulbs are eco-friendly. From our perspective all our hand tools are now battery powered and when
the bigger pieces of kit come up for renewal, we have been told to look at the battery option if we can.”

There are 23 hectares (73 acres) of pitches at Woollams to be maintained by Ian and Head Groundsman Steve Ascott, Mark, Jason, Riz and Richard. “We are in the same position as most in that
we struggle to find staff . Our last two members of staff employed have not been experienced groundsmen and are of a more mature age, one laid tarmac and the other was a firefighter who had retired at 60 but wanted to keep working. They have both been brilliant.”

It is not just the pupils of the school that use the pitches. The Old Albanians, the school’s old boys’ club, have 30 of the 73 acres some of which they sub-let to Saracens Rugby, with the professional club spending quite a bit of money ensuring their two pitches were well-watered during the drought.

Ian’s own path to a top grounds management job started in familiar fashion, and familiar surroundings – an unhappy school classroom. So many successful turf professionals struggle academically until a light goes on in their heads when they discover a subject which really makes them click.

“It was classic really. I was no good at school. Both my kids are dyslexic and I think I was too. But I was just told I was stupid as pupils were told bluntly then. I was the invisible kid in the classroom who spent his time looking out of the window, because I’d far rather have been outside,” he recalled.

Avoiding a sticky wicket

Avoiding a sticky wicket

“I’d have loved to have been a professional sportsman, but I never made the grade. However, Watford FC was my big passion and in the school holidays they used to take kids on to do jobs, like painting the crash barriers. Some of the jobs were just horrible but rather than get £2 a week doing a paper round, I was getting £25 a week.”

There is one particular job which remains stuck in Ian’s memory – and not for any good reasons!

“There was an old wooden stand, and this was just before the fi re which burned down the wooden stand at Bradford and people had been dropping rubbish through the gaps in the floorboards. The Fire Officer said that it was a real fi re risk and that we had to clear it out.

“So I spent six weeks, the whole of the school holidays, being lowered down between some floorboards that had been removed and picked up rubbish. The pile was taller than I was. I had to pick it up, put it in a bin and then pass it back up through the floorboards. I looked like a panda when I got out.”

He loved all the work maintaining the stadium, but particularly when he got out onto the pitch.

When he got to 16 and everyone else returned to school or went into sixth form he just turned up again at Vicarage Road.

“They asked why I wasn’t going back to school and I just said I didn’t fancy it. So they said that they might as well keep me on then. I signed a contract and that was that.”

Ian was at Vicarage Road for two and a half years before moving on to North London Polytechnic which was the Watford Training Ground where he worked for a further six years.

There can’t be many who get a reference from an England football manager, but Ian did – from Graham Taylor, while he was also on-hand to see that famous football club owner Elton John at first hand.

“Elton had a football pitch in his back garden which we used to look after. He was always around the club, popping into the tearoom. He liked it because we all treated him like a normal person and took the mickey. He loved that we treated him like one of the lads.”

Ian used to cycle the 18 miles each way from Luton to Watford to work and it was this journey which was to open the door to his links with St Alban’s School.

“I used to cycle past this beautiful little sports ground which belonged to St Alban’s School and I always looked at it with envy. Then I heard on the grapevine that the school wanted a bigger site – this one was just 16 acres – and being the cocky, confident person, I was I went to the school and said that I gathered that they wanted to build a new sports ground. I was the man to do it for them. I was 23 or 24 at the time.”

The bravado paid off as, armed with his Graham Taylor reference, the school bursar was impressed and said that there was a deputy groundsman job available and that the Head Groundsman, had two years until he retired.

“That would give me two years to prove that I could do what I said I could do.”

All went to plan up until the part about moving to the new site when three public inquiries stood in the way of a swift build. It wasn’t for a further nine years that it was finally finished.

“I was involved right from the start, working with the STRI and the Head of Sport to decide the requirements of the new facility and where everything should go,” said Ian.

He was also to sit in on all three inquiries alongside the school’s barrister so, if required, they could counter the arguments put forward by the local council.

Avoiding a sticky wicket

Avoiding a sticky wicket

“It was a fascinating few years,” he said with genuine understatement. Such heavy involvement did mean that when construction finally got underway, he was front and centre when it came to pitch construction so what he was left to maintain was exactly what he had specified.

Construction started in 2000 and finished in 2002.

“The pitches are still performing 21 years on. We did think that they would start to give us problems by now but we have installed secondary drainage and Sand master a couple of pitches each year. In many ways its strength is also its weakness because it drains so well all the time, drains are at four metre centres and we ameliorated lot of sand and then top dress every year. So we do get the situation we found last year with the drought. But you very rarely call a match off because it’s too dry.”

Ah yes, that drought. With Saracens using two of the pitches, the grounds team were using mobile sprinklers for two pitches on the old Albanian side and two on the school side, every school match was played on those two rather than the usual six they would have at their disposal.

“They had to amend match timings and they were played one after another starting at 9am and going on well into the afternoon.”

So, what happened to that original playing field which caught young Master Smith’s imagination and caused him to move away from his beloved Watford?

“That’s sad. I worked on it for 13 years before we moved to the new site and I put my heart and soul into it. It’s covered in houses now. The day the diggers came in, as a joke, I lay across the square with banners saying, ‘Save My Square’,” he laughed.

But for now, Ian is planning how to save his newer responsibility from the ravages of climate change and the rapidly increasing temperatures.

Feast of knowledge at Dennis & SISIS seminar

/in /by

Feast of knowledge at Dennis & SISIS seminar: For more than 10 years Dennis  Sisis have held pre-season  indoor seminars so it was fantastic,  after an enforced absence since  2020, have it back in the calendar.

The “Cricket Pit­ Maintenance in a Changing Environment” Seminar at St Albans School Woohham Trust,  one of the regular hosts, offered the 200 delegates a feast of knowledge and a genuine sense of normality.

Feast of knowledge at Dennis & SISIS seminar

Feast of knowledge at Dennis & SISIS seminar

The programme was devised by the school’s Head of Grounds, Ian Smith and for the morning session at least, hit delegates like a sledge hammer.

The extremely polished Robert Ja‑ , of Howardson Group, was the Master of Ceremonies and he did an excellent job all day of keeping to time and pit­ ing in comments and questions to ensure a smooth running show.

A weather forecast for 2050 and information that abstraction licenses may be revoked or restricted in 2028 offered a glimpse into the future that turf managers would perhaps describe euphemistically as “challenging”.

The weather forecast came from Met Office meteorologist Aiden McGivern who delivered his paper via video. He admitted that the projections he had included were two years old but that already some of the extremes in temperature had been rea­ched.

He talked about regularly topping 40 degrees in the UK – a level that created a new British record last summer – but that it would become a common occurrence. Aiden also said that temperatures in India would hit the high 40 degrees, and that there would be bans on outdoor working whi­ch would impact farming and, of course, sports turf maintenance.

Aiden was followed by Andrew House, of the Environment Agency, who broke the news about the changes to extraction licenses whi­ch will be brought in in 2028. Anyone hoping that this might result in a more beneficial outcome for turf managers would undoubtedly be viewed as optimistic at best.

Ton Hanson, Managing Director of Environmental Solutions International, and George Warren, Anglian Water’s Integrated Water Management Lead, looked at what we might be facing over the next few years and what water might be available to the amenity sector, or not, as the case may be.

With the picture painted it was time for two well known faces to come up with solutions.

Alex Vickers, now a turf consultant but with 25 years of experience at TGMS and as Director of the MSc programme in Sports Surface Te­chnology at Cranfield University, and Dr Christian Spring, the STRI’s Group Principal Scientist, spoke on “Root Zones for a Changing Climate” and “Pests and Diseases of the Future” respectively.

Complete with red bucket and a sponge Alex was able to illustrate how water operated in rootzone while Christian identified whi­ch diseases and pests would thrive in hotter dryer summers and wetter winters.

The morning was a well balanced and thoughtful session and perhaps was a case of better off knowing what we are likely to be facing in the short, medium and long term, than innocently thinking that everything would remain mu­ the same and that the weather we have been experiencing lately is nothing more than a blip.

After lunch­ provided by the s­chool catering staff , the afternoon session ki‑ ed off with Dr Iain James, the ECB’s Head of Facilities Services. Iain spoke on “What Does Sustainability Mean for Grass Roots Clubs?” and covered everything from recycling old kit whi­ch carried old sponsors names to stripping parts from no-longer-used mowers.

There could be no better duo to deliver the final formal talk “Cricket Pit­ Preparations – difference between north and south” than Vic Demain, Head Groundsman at the Durham CCC, the most northerly Test ground in the world and Karl McDermott, who was Head Groundsman at Hampshire CCC, the most southerly Test Ground in England, and now Head Groundsman at Lords.

Vic and Karl know each­ other inside out and were able to josh and joke while offering the assembled gathering some insights into both their jobs. In Vic’s case the earlier and earlier start to the season is an added factor while Karl spoke of the complications created by the slope when watering the most famous ground in cricket.

The day ended with a Q&A Session with Vic and Karl, as always, sharing their knowledge on a wide range of subjects.

Sponsors for the day were Turf Matters; Stuart Canvas Group; DLF Seeds; RT Machinery; Boughton; SIS Grass; Grounds Training; Mansfield Sand; Origan Amenity Solutions; Turf Tank and White Horse Contractors.

Video game that mirrors real-life

/in /by

Video game that mirrors real-life: We’re sure many Turf Managers relax by coming home from work, having dinner and then settling down in front of the computer to play games. No doubt there are some experts in Minecraft, or Grand Theft Auto but most will be no more than casual players.

However, a new game is guaranteed to uncover some of the top players in the country from the ranks our turf professionals.

Video game that mirrors real-life

Video game that mirrors real-life

Lawn Mower Simulator is a video game developed by a Liverpool-based company, Skyhook which allows you to delve into the serene British countryside on real world licenced mowers. These include manufacturers such as Toro, Sitga and Stag. LMS enables you to experience the day-to-day running of your lawn mowing business while exploring the charming scenery on display.

The idea came into the mind of Managing Director, David Harper, one afternoon as he observed landscapers at work in the park.

“It was that moment that led development on the project to commence in January 2020 and was released in August 2021 to Steam and Xbox Series S|X. Lawn Mowing Simulator is now available on Xbox One. We brought together our highly skilled team here at Skyhook with our publisher Curve Games to bring our vision to life,” explained David.

So now you can take your work home and keep your grass cutting skills as sharp as ever!

Conserving water for the future of turf sports

/in /by

Conserving water for the future of turf sports: It’s official – fresh water supplies are dwindling, demand for water is steadily rising, and regulations on how much and for what purpose water can be used are becoming increasingly tightened. Finding ways to use water more efficiently is no longer an environmental nice to have; it’s a fact of life for most turf facilities today and imperative for our industry’s future.

As a turf manager you’ll always need water – it’s a fundamental building block of turf – but there are a number of steps you can take to influence how much water you need.

Conserving water for the future of turf sports

Conserving water for the future of turf sports

One of the biggest potential impacts on your water consumption can be made by redirecting water that already exists.

Plant selection can also play an important role in how much water is needed to keep your property at its visual best. Choose turf varieties such as fine fescues that require less water than others such as perennial ryegrass.

Even with these changes, irrigation is still essential and ongoing maintenance of your irrigation system is an effective way to reduce the amount of water wasted. Moisture sensors, weather monitors and other high-tech tools are also available to help you use your water conservatively.

Even after irrigation, there is still one more hurdle to getting water to your turf as efficiently as possible: your soil. How well your soil performs can have a tremendous impact on how much water you use.

Soil:water repellency interferes with how even the most well-placed water moves, leaving some areas a little too dry while making some a little too wet. This is certainly not a new phenomenon, but research indicates that it is much more common than previously thought.

Water repellency is one of the most pervasive water use issues, and it is also one of the easiest and most cost-effective to fix. Soil surfactants lower the surface tension of water and restore the wettability of effected soils, allowing water to move into and through the profile more efficiently. This reduces the amount of water lost to run-off and preferential flow

“Revolution is one of the very few products that makes a dramatic difference and actually changes the way turf is managed. It affects everything including the turf, the distribution of water, fertilisers, and other materials” – Sam Rhodes, Woodhall Spa GC.

Most courses have best management practices in place for their properties, but not all commit them to paper in a formal document. There are a number of resources available that provide guidance and templates for creating one, but should you bother? Absolutely.

Water conservation is a realistic goal, with both environmental and financial upsides.

Like it or not, the call for sustainability – and the challenges that presents – are going to be big issues for a long time. Doing what you can at your course does more than just protect a diminishing global resource – it protects your course, your job, and the future of the sports turf industry.

Life after greenkeeping

/in /by

Life after greenkeeping: Former Course Manager and BIGGA Chairman, Andy Campbell MG, offers advice for those who are considering a career change.

Once a Greenkeeper always a Greenkeeper: while this may be true in ‘sprit’, the current dearth in available talent in the industry would suggest in reality this is no longer the case.

Life after greenkeeping

Life after greenkeeping

The increasing difficulty many are having with regards to recruitment poses real and long term problems for many Clubs and as with most supply and demand situations, it will need a thorough re-think with likely increases in pay and improvement of working conditions hopefully being the end result.

So what are your plans should you find yourself thinking of leaving the Greenkeeping fraternity (and please note that this article is NOT a cry for you to do so!) either through circumstances beyond your control or as a pre-determined career move?

For many it comes as a great shock when “your time is up” and a mad scramble for alternative employment ensues. With the fast paced nature of life and volatility of employment we are all experiencing perhaps now is the time to plot out your future and assess your skill set, filling in the skill gap where necessary – if all goes well and you choose, or are allowed to, stay as a practising Greenkeeper these additional skills may serve you well in any case.

There are many occupations closely linked to Greenkeeping: Sales, advisory work, sub contracting services such as aeration etc, construction among those. They all have the major benefit of keeping you in contact with the Greenkeeping family which, for many, serves as a comfort.

For some, the progression may well be starting their own business: certainly not for the faint hearted, or those looking for an easy life. The majority of start ups do not survive more than five years according to statistics and real determination and a thick skin will be required by anyone not wishing to be one of those failures.

Let’s look at the common skills and attributes shared with Greenkeeping and starting your own business – this could be a business serving the Golf and Greenkeeping sector or not:

  • Enhanced communication skills
  • Good financial management
  • Determination
  • Energy
  • Ability to work under pressure
  • Desire to keep on improving
  • Ability to solve complex problems
  • Ambition
  • Self-motivation.

All of these are what most successful Greenkeepers need in abundance and the superb education now offered by BIGGA, GCSAA and others can ensure that any skill deficits can be quickly strengthened.

A look around the exhibition halls at BTME in March would enforce the view that many Greenkeepers have chosen the trade or self employed routes. Trade companies have long recognised that the skills and empathy former greenkeepers have with their peers holds great advantages in securing sales and customer loyalty. For some making the jump to the “dark side” does not work out with many citing that they miss the element of fulfilment that Greenkeeping gives them.

Others, of course, thrive – being appreciated, rewarded and having more time, especially weekends, to yourself as well as being free of the debilitating weight of expectation unfairly placed on them by misinformed and ignorant Golf Club memberships. Perversely, starting your own business is more akin to the Golf Club environment certainly in the early stages of start up with long hours, low rewards and sometimes difficult clients – the major difference… YOU are in control.

In my case, the idea of being self-determined and free of corporate shackles had been brewing for a decade or more: I have had the simple guiding principle of five year planning for a large part of my career, sometimes the plan goes longer and sometimes shorter, but to think longer than five years to my mind is overly optimistic and borders on complacency. I am fond of two sayings passed on to me years ago – “What got you there won’t keep you there or get you to where you want to be”, and ”Don’t let inertia be your friend”.

Having a broad experience across Golf including Greenkeeping, General Management/Director of Golf roles, Sales and Association involvement I needed to find a way of utilising those experiences to create a business that linked each sector and which frankly leveraged a wide network of contacts to mutual gain. Now past the five year mark and having survived Covid personally, and as a business, this is what I now have and the second five year plan is now in motion, broadening the scope of the business and preparing it and me for life when the body won’t do what I want it to… in short, transitioning.

There you have it some 750 words in, perhaps the most important word, skill or attribute I believe you will need in today’s world: transitioning.

The ability to change course, react, adapt and move forward. What will give you this ability? Experience and skill set for sure because these bring confidence and self belief, key ingredients if you are to beat inertia.

Of course, there have been difficult times and lots of lows as well as highs, again just like most Greenkeepers’ average year – the pursuit of excellence sic success is a journey not a destination.

Anyone thinking that starting out on your own will lead to a land of immense wealth and luxury yachts is either in need of a good shake or is perhaps thinking of a business that will escape the attention of HMRC but may be of more interest to the local constabulary!

It is harder than ever today with excessive red tape, particularly if you are importing and exporting, high taxes, employment law etc to make huge returns, unless you have access to large bundles of cash with which to gamble. What you can create is something that will give you endless pleasure, grief, a sense of fulfilment and pride and a comfortable living… yes, a bit like managing a Golf Course except this is yours.

That brings me to one of the most dangerous traits exhibited by Course Managers (and I plead guilty) that the Golf Course is THEIRS – it isn’t and it won’t ever be. Change that notion or you will eventually perish and join the ranks of the bitter and disillusioned.

If you are thinking of a career change, whether through necessity or simply because you have hit a ceiling, then start planning now. I instinctively knew when the plan needed changing (well, most of the time, on occasion my employers knew before me, although in truth on each of those occasions I did know, but chose to ignore the signs – not clever) and had prepared well for the next stage. Sometimes that planning was as simple as having a day dream, momentary thought about what could be.

Those thoughts took me from comfy Cheshire to St Andrews to Northern Ireland and back to St Andrews effectively beating inertia, definitely giving my family a bumpy ride but also experiencing great people, places and moments.

When we sit back in later years, the phrase that it’s not the miles you travel but the stops you have on the way may well be most pertinent.

One of the key aspects of planning your route is to know what you have and know what you need.

Self-delusion will lead to failure. Be honest with yourself. I see too many people promoted into positions based on what they have achieved in their current role, but then are exposed because they are devoid of the skill and experience needed in the new role. It has certainly happened to me in my career but by good fortune I was blessed to be surrounded by good people and mentors that got me out of some pretty ugly situations.

Happily, every bad situation and one of these I endured for all of a five year plan, subsequently gave me the experience and stickability to survive thus far in business. Time is only ever wasted if you fail to learn from it and often it’s the bad experiences that prove most beneficial.

So, in conclusion, this is not a call for a mass exodus from Greenkeeping: It continues to be one of the most rewarding careers with a great, friendly and dedicated family of colleagues. More, it’s just a call to action to PLAN and not fall victim to circumstance.

Be in control, have your eyes open and extend and fortify that skill set. As you will see, the skill set is so transferable that the world truly is your oyster…GO FOR IT.