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Charity walk was something to SHOUT about

December 1, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Admin

Charity walk was something to SHOUT about: Ian Darler B.E.M completed his Walk to Qatar on the 19th November ahead of the clash with Accrington Stanley at the Abbey Stadium. The U’s Stadium Manager & Head Groundsman is raising money and awareness for Shout 85258 – the Club’s Mental Health partner – by walking the equivalent distance […]

ICL trio work in sustainable approach

December 1, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

ICL trio work in sustainable approach: The Course Manager at Hesketh Golf Club has revealed how three ICL products play a significant role in his sustainable approach to golf course management. Peter McVicar has been the Course Manager at Hesketh Golf Club for fifteen years after initially learning his trade on the west coast of […]

Charity walk was something to SHOUT about

December 1, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Admin

ICL trio work in sustainable approach

December 1, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

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Charity walk was something to SHOUT about

December 1, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Admin

Charity walk was something to SHOUT about: Ian Darler B.E.M completed his Walk to Qatar on the 19^th November ahead of the clash with Accrington Stanley at the Abbey Stadium. The U’s Stadium Manager & Head Groundsman is raising money and awareness for Shout 85258 – the Club’s Mental Health partner – by walking the equivalent distance from London to Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup kick-off.

That’s an incredible 5,681,280 yards or 3228 miles!

Charity walk was something to SHOUT about

Ian, tell us a bit about your background with mental health, and what motivated you to start your walk?

Having suffered and overcome mental health issues myself, I’ve got good knowledge of what it is when you’re at the lowest point in your life – however it was the tragic passing of a very close friend that made me start the walk for Shout 85285. Having spoken to him the day before he took his life – you would never had known there was anything wrong with him. It’s something I’ve since really beaten myself up about because I believe that anybody who hasn’t experienced mental health issues would probably think that when someone is suffering, they’re a misery and down in the dumps – but that’s not always the case. I managed to hide my depression and PTSD for over 18 months by laughing, joking and being over enthusiastic about everything but that in itself was exhausting.

When I spoke to my friend the day before he took his life, he was buzzing, he was really enthusiastic following Cambridge United’s results, and with him having been involved within the club for several decades all seemed normal, and he just seemed hyper due to all the success around the club.

What happened the following day will stay with me for the rest of my life, and I thought that if I could change this outcome for just one other person then I would do all I could to make it happen, so the walk was a simple way of getting the message out that if you are struggling with your mental health, don’t suffer in silence, you need to tell someone. Equally, if you think someone is struggling, you just need to ask them if everything’s okay, but don’t only ask once, ask them twice, are you sure you are okay. You may well be surprised by the reply?

What was the aim of the Walk to Qatar, Ian?

The walk was originally meant to be a million-step challenge, but following the success of that in getting people to talk about mental health, discussions between myself and the Club’s charity partner, Shout 85258 continued as we wanted to keep people talking about mental health and reduce the stigma that surrounds it and football is a great way of engaging people in discussion.

We then decided to extend the walk, with the World Cup looming, to 5.7 million yards, 3228 miles the distance between London and host nation Qatar.

The overall aim of both challenges was to raise awareness of mental health issues and make people aware of the help that is available. Shout 85258 offer an amazing service for anyone who is struggling with mental health and currently have on average 2,400 conversations a day.

What I didn’t expect was for people to reach out personally for my help. Over the past 12 months I’ve had dozens of people reach out to me acknowledging they have mental health issues and that they had never spoken to anyone about it before – several of which were people going through serious mental health challenges. I have also spoken twice at national conferences for the Football safety Officers Association which also had the dramatic effect of thirteen people coming forward to say they were suffering with mental health issues having never opened up about it before and they then assured me that they would seek professional help – Let me tell you this was more rewarding to me than winning Groundsman of the Year awards or getting a Queen’s honour, because that’s potentially saving somebody’s life.

I think people have either read the chapter Life Changing from my book Life’s A Pitch or from my walk diary entries on my charity website (cambridgecharityfundraisers.com/the-shout-journey) – to which they can relate to it. I’ve not had any professional training regarding mental health, only my personal experiences. I know how I cheated in terms of hiding my depression and PTSD, and I know how I recovered.

The last week of the walk I only had to walk 30 thousand yards to cover, in which the final steps of the walk were from Parkers Piece central Cambridge to the Abbey Stadium and took my step total to 6.2 million steps.

So far, how much money have you raised for Shout 85258 and how can people donate?

We’ve raised £16,000 and donations are still being pledged – which is absolutely incredible when you think of the state of the economy currently and how people are challenged financially. I think it’s just amazing how people are contributing, and they can rest assured that every penny they donate will help Shout and help others dealing with life’s challenges, these donations will potentially help save more lives.

People still wanting to donate can do so by visiting my charity page, which is

Cambridgecharityfundraisers.com There’s a whole section on there about the Walk to Qatar, which includes a button that takes you straight to the charity page you can donate to.

Every penny counts, and what I think people need to remember is that it could be someone in their family that it helps.

Following your incredible achievement, what’s next for Ian Darler?

The first thing is to give myself a break and have some good quality family time until Christmas, which I’m sure my family will appreciate! This walk which has lasted over 12 months has been really time consuming, but in the New Year I have plans to hold a mental health lunch which will involve inviting companies and individuals in order to make them aware of some of the signs to look out for in their staff relating to mental health issues. We hope to have some top guest speakers from the football world in attendance.

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ICL trio work in sustainable approach

December 1, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

ICL trio work in sustainable approach: The Course Manager at Hesketh Golf Club has revealed how three ICL products play a significant role in his sustainable approach to golf course management.

Peter McVicar has been the Course Manager at Hesketh Golf Club for fifteen years after initially learning his trade on the west coast of Scotland. In creating the majestic course at Hesketh, Peter has been committed to taking a sustainable approach to greenkeeping.

ICL trio work in sustainable approach

“It is no secret that over the years there have been less and less regulated products available for greenkeepers to use and there will be even less soon,” he said.

“We’ve not used a fungicide in over 12 years. Yes, we get a bit of disease every now and then, but we accept it, and the members are on-board with this approach too. Communication with them is so important because we need to tell them what we are doing and why we are doing it.”

As part of the sustainable approach, Peter relies on three ICL products in the form of H2Pro TriSmart wetting agent, Vitalnova Links biostimulant and Gronamic Golf 6-2-4 – an organo-mineral fertiliser.

He explained how these three products benefit the course.

“We apply Gronamic around March, which gives us a nice gentle boost at the start of the year without any excessive growth which we are keen to avoid – it just makes everything healthy. I like the fact it has a turf proven seaweed incorporated as well as a recycled phosphorus source in the form of struvite to help keep everything ticking over.

“Initially we just used TriSmart on the greens but based on the results we decided to roll that out to other areas such as tees, fairways and approaches, as well as the greens. The results have been especially impressive on the fairways, and we are managing to keep them healthy going into winter. We have good coverage, and the difference has been down to TriSmart.

“Last but certainly not least is Vitalnova Links which is a very special product in my eyes. It has the unique seaweed extract SMX combined with the carbohydrate based biostimulant Blade, which is two products we used to apply so to have that together in one formulation is very beneficial from both a cost and practicality point of view.

“These are all products that I like to always have in my arsenal,” continued Peter. “With price increases going up all the time you need to be using products that perform, and these ICL products do exactly that.”

Peter admits that taking the sustainable approach is not without its challenges and that the ever-changing weather conditions will continue to make life difficult. He believes it is imperative that greenkeepers start looking towards the future.

“Temperatures will continue to change, and we have to keep looking forward to both practises and products that can futureproof the course as much as possible,” he said. “I think with the research that is happening, particularly from companies like ICL, there will effective be solutions available.

ICL trio work in sustainable approach

“The good thing about ICL is that you always feel that they are on your side. You talk and you walk; you tell them what you are thinking, and they help you out along the way. Rob Ainscough (ICL Technical Area Sales Manager) knows our story and what we are trying to do.

“The relationship with Rob is very good – he is an ex-greenkeeper, and he has my respect. He takes the time to ensure that all the members of staff know exactly what the products do and why they are applying them. In turn we then relay that knowledge to our members.”

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for fun, fresh and engaging content.

You can also find us on Facebook for more of your must-see news, features, videos and pictures from Turf Matters.

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Charity walk was something to SHOUT about

ICL trio work in sustainable approach

Charity walk was something to SHOUT about

ICL trio work in sustainable approach

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Charity walk was something to SHOUT about

ICL trio work in sustainable approach

ICL trio work in sustainable approach: The Course Manager at Hesketh Golf Club has revealed how three ICL products play a significant role in his sustainable approach to golf course management.

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