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SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town

June 28, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town: A range of SISIS synthetic turf maintenance equipment is helping to keep the ‘Wembley of South Wales’ in excellent condition. Merthyr Town FC is a non-league team from South Wales. It is a 100% fan owned community club that play in the Southern League Premier Division at its historical […]

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

June 27, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood: Ashley Oakes, Course Manager at Wychwood Golf Club, has explained how an integrated turf management programme from ICL helped him to rebuild the course after an extreme summer drought. In the summer of 2018 golf clubs faced an unprecedented two-plus months of extremely hot and dry weather. Many courses […]

SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town

June 28, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

June 27, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

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SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town

June 28, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town: A range of SISIS synthetic turf maintenance equipment is helping to keep the ‘Wembley of South Wales’ in excellent condition.

Merthyr Town FC is a non-league team from South Wales. It is a 100% fan owned community club that play in the Southern League Premier Division at its historical home of The MET Coaches Stadium at Penydarren Park, right in the heart of the Merthyr Tydfil Community.

SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town

The club has had its ups and downs over the years, but the installation of a synthetic pitch has helped turn fortunes around, as Merthyr man Julian Axhorn explains.

“Part of the improvement plan was to have a new synthetic pitch,” he said. “Previously, in winter the grass would disappear, and we couldn’t use the pitch. Now we can use it all year round and it also creates a vital revenue stream. We wanted to make it a community asset, and now everyone uses it – they love it, and I love it. I call it the Wembley of South Wales.”

Julian is known as the Merthyr man for good reason – not only does he maintain the pitch, but he is on the board as the Treasurer, works on the turnstiles, and helps with numerous other tasks on a matchday. Therefore, when it comes to his own little slice of Wembley – he wants only the best.

“The pitch was replaced with a new surface a year ago and I thought the time was right to invest in new equipment,” he said. “We had a very old tractor with a little brush on the back and it was very slow and antiquated. We wanted an improvement and after doing some research we identified the SISIS Brush-Pro and the SISIS SSS1000 as the ideal equipment.”

Specially designed for synthetic surfaces, the Brush-Pro is a ride-on brushing system consisting of a pair of mid mounted oscillating brush units and three rear mounted brushes. The oscillating brushes are ideal for periodic aggressive brushing to keep infill mobile, prevent algae accumulation, surface compaction and loss of porosity.

Equally impressive is the SISIS SSS1000 – a tractor mounted sweeper that can be pulled by any machine. The rotary brush has been designed for use on synthetic surfaces to remove surface debris, lift the carpet pile and redistribute sand or rubber crumb infill giving the surface maximum performance and extended life.

Julian explained how the two SISIS machines play a part in his maintenance programme.

“After every twenty hours of use we carry out one hour of maintenance, and this pitch is always in use,” he said. “Typically, we try and stick to a cycle, so one week we will do the brushing; the following week we will use the oscillating brushes, and then the next week we will do the sweeping with the SSS1000.

SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town

“These two machines keep the pitch in great condition, they help to move the crumb around the surface and the sweeper picks up all the debris.

“I’m not very technically minded but the Brush-Pro is easy to operate, it is comfortable to sit on and easy to maintain, it is easy to set-up, and it does the job that it is there to do. I just can’t fault the equipment. They also fit nicely in the garage and save space which is an added benefit.”

Julian revealed that some funding issues initially delayed the purchase of the equipment, however he thanked the SISIS team for their understanding.

“The funding wasn’t quite in place, so SISIS kindly supplied us with a demonstration model to use until it was all sorted. I knew I had made the right decision because you can’t beat that for customer service.

“You really do get the full package from SISIS.”

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact SISIS on 01332 824 777 or visit www.synprobysisis.com

For more news, reviews and insightful views, you can follow SISIS on Twitter or Instagram @SISISMachinery and like the company’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/SISISMachinery. You can also view the latest SISIS videos by visiting www.youtube.com/SISISMachinery

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.

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

June 27, 2022/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood: Ashley Oakes, Course Manager at Wychwood Golf Club, has explained how an integrated turf management programme from ICL helped him to rebuild the course after an extreme summer drought.

In the summer of 2018 golf clubs faced an unprecedented two-plus months of extremely hot and dry weather. Many courses were left brown, damaged, and susceptible to disease – Wychwood Golf Course, in Weston, Crewe, was no exception.

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

“We had so many weeks without any rain, and it is safe to say we got fried,” said Ashley.

“We lost a substantial amount of grass, and it gave us a chance to reassess everything. It was time to hit the default button and restart.”

It was at this point that Ashley got in touch with ICL and he admitted to being instantly impressed by the company’s ‘work ethic and policies.’

Phil Collinson, Technical Area Sales Manager for ICL, visited Ashley shortly after the drought and it wasn’t long before a plan was devised.

“I listened to the challenges that Ashley faced and then put together a bespoke plan to solve those issues,” said Phil. “We identified the correct products and together we sat down to look at all the trial data behind them. When the stakes are so high, Course Managers haven’t got time to gamble. That was certainly the case at Wychwood.”

Ashley claims that it would be difficult to highlight every product in the integrated turf management programme but provided an overview on how some of them have made a difference.

As a wetting agent, he relies on ICL’s H2Pro TriSmart, which he aims to apply at a rate of 10 L/ha once a month from March onwards. It is formulated with three water management surfactant technologies to provide great water penetration, even water spread through the rootzone and to improve the water holding capacity of sandy rootzones.

“We’ve got USGA sand-based greens here and we needed something that would deal with that level of construction,” he said. “TriSmart gives us that consistency throughout the rootzone, it gets rid of that dry patch, and it gives us the required effect for what we want both visually and for the grass. It has also meant that we have irrigated less.

“With such big undulating greens, to get consistency across such large areas I think speaks volumes for the TriSmart technology.”

Once Ashley knew there was a wetting agent in place that would perform, his next focus was to ensure there was a product in the programme that would help to negate any stresses. For this reason, Phil recommended Vitalnova Links – a unique formulation consisting of Vitalnova Blade and Vitalnova SMX.

“We brought Vitalnova Links in to improve the heavily stressed situation on the greens and it helped them to recover,” said Ashley. “We needed the plant to be healthier but not receive the kick that a conventional fertiliser would do. Instead, it helps to reduce stress on the plant and get that health in a natural way. It has worked so well, and we even incorporate this product into our Primo Maxx II growth regulator programme on the greens.”

In terms of a granular fertiliser, Ashley knew exactly what he was looking for during the cooler months of the year.

“I wanted health, vitality, and presentation through the whole year including winter, and this is why we use Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator 4-0-8,” he said.

“Using this product has improved turf quality and performance through the challenging autumn months and helps to drive that recovery growth before we switch to liquids in the summer.

“One thing I have noticed is that in challenging conditions, ICL’s granular fertilisers still work whereas other brands will scorch and cause discolouration. You will never get that with an ICL product.

“Modern greenkeeping puts us in a position where we need to rely on quality products and that is why we continue to use ICL.”

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.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town

SISIS is marvellous for Merthyr Town: A range of SISIS synthetic turf maintenance equipment is helping to keep the ‘Wembley of South Wales’ in excellent condition.

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood: Ashley Oakes, Course Manager at Wychwood Golf Club, has explained how an integrated turf management programme from ICL helped him to rebuild the course after an extreme summer drought.

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