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Towards a new normal

March 22, 2021/in Turf Spotlight/by Admin

Towards a new normal: The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Scott MacCallum finds out what’s next as a Coronavirus-ravaged world starts to get back on its feet. Twelve months ago we didn’t know what was ahead of us. What we did know was that we were heading into territory none […]

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval

March 22, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval: Scott Brooks, Grounds Manager at OGC Nice in France, believes that when it comes to battery-powered cylinder mowers, there is nothing that compares to the new Dennis ES-860. After an illustrious start to his career in the UK, which included positions at Tottenham Hotspur FC, Arsenal FC […]

Towards a new normal

March 22, 2021/in Turf Spotlight/by Admin

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval

March 22, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

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Towards a new normal

March 22, 2021/in Turf Spotlight/by Admin

Towards a new normal: The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Scott MacCallum finds out what’s next as a Coronavirus-ravaged world starts to get back on its feet.

Twelve months ago we didn’t know what was ahead of us. What we did know was that we were heading into territory none of us had ever visited previously.

Towards a new normal

Back then, I don’t think we could have envisaged the extent to which Covid 19 would impact on our lives, and we’d never even heard the word “furlough” never mind knowing what it meant.

Here on Turf Matters we have tried to be supportive, knowing that job security should be renamed job insecurity, and that many of us, or our nearest and dearest, have been touched by the virus and that there are now many, many broken families as a result of it.

But there is now a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, variants are complicating matters but there are now vaccines and the more people who receive one of the several vaccines out there the closer we will get to some sort of new normality. Grasping at this positivity Geoff Webb and Jim Croxton, the Heads of the GMA and BIGGA respectively both took time to talk with Turf Matters, giving their thoughts on the impact Covid has had on various sports, in Geoff’s case, and golf in Jim’s.

Geoff Webb

Going back to the first lockdown it was the summer sports, cricket and bowls, which took the initial impact of the pandemic and suffered that bit more.

As it continued, the winter sports were hit too and this has been compounded by the weather over the last two months. I’m down in the south, but the cold and wet have been at record levels. It certainly was the wettest January that I can remember.

On those summer sports, the saving grace for cricket, and our sector indeed, is that it has meant that pitch preparation has come to the forefront. People are far more concerned with the quality of the playing surface than ever before, and it has meant that the role of grounds management has gone through the roof in terms of public perception. It is all gaining traction which is good news.

As we speak, we’ve just had the first round of Six Nations matches and the guys have done a fantastic job across rugby in tough conditions but if you go down the pyramid it’s tough when you don’t have the resources of the bigger facilities.

That said those working at smaller venues are doing fabulous work. For example, in football, the Women’s Super League only had one match postponed this weekend when there was freezing conditions. These are at grounds where they have fewer resources, but certainly equal passion and dedication. They are doing a brilliant job in maintaining the surfaces.

Then there is the situation at Leeds United where Elland Road’s drainage system was dated and in need of renovation, but weren’t in a position to do it because of the pandemic. The solution they came up with was to take a pitch which was being grown for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and transport it up to Yorkshire to see them through to the end of the season.

What a great example of the industry pulling together with good contractors, in this case Hewitt’s, and a remarkable job of engineering, logistics and of two different grounds teams communicating.

Also, I’d like to say it’s been a remarkable job done by Leeds United, who came out actively and backed their groundsman. If more boardrooms worked in the manner of Leeds United, you’d have many more successful outcomes.

Towards a new normal

We are also starting to see some parallels in terms of data collection which shows some correlation over professional level and lower tier success in the pitch investment programmes. We now have data collected over a series of visits which demonstrates what the issues really are.

We actually found in some occasions that Premier League level drainage had been installed into grass roots projects. It should never have been put in in because of the work required to maintain it. What was really needed in these cases was good basic fundamentals, to enable the pitch to be kept alive though the season. This would come in at a much lower investment level. It’s got to be appropriate use for appropriate schemes.

From the GMA’s perspective we’ve done some impactful work over the last 12 months. We had our Grounds for Sport campaign and followed that up with our White Paper on the Impact of Sport and what’s needed to be one to get it back to a high level. We also looked at gaps in terms of volunteer provision and we’ve worked to address that. We have increased our volunteer online training up to Level 3, We’d brought the Level 1 training in at the end of the first lockdown and we’ve had 1,000 people taking part in that already.

Interestingly, most of the volunteers came from football, when traditionally it would have been cricket. That said we will have cricket courses online through to July as well.

We’ve also picked up on the need to understand how artificial surfaces are maintained and are working on more new courses to help people understand what is required.

What is great is that much more priority is placed on the playing surface so I would hope that this will continue into the future.

As an industry we have always talked to each other and I’d say we’re sometimes like a disruptive family – sometimes we agree with each other and sometimes there seems to conflict.

But what we need to do as a turf care industry is recognise everyone’s strengths and not focus on the weaknesses. Working as one is important because we are all trying to do the same thing – raise the profile of the profession.

We are working to better the pay and conditions for all grounds teams anywhere, whether that be the independent school sector, universities, indeed, right across the board.

We have a professional industry which stands out uniquely on a global scale. We’ve just had the Superbowl, but that is looked at on a world scale in the same manner as the FA Cup final of the Champions League Final or Wimbledon.

The surfaces are maintained by really good people, with really good skill sets, but they have flown under the radar for too long.

We have a really resilient group of people but they are really stretched and should be recognised for their work.

It is changing and during our Grounds for Sport campaign we had one day when we hit four national newspapers, all with positive stories. We now have journalists who are interested in our sector and who do want to promote it in the same way as we all do.

With jobs not as secure as they have been, we have set up Covid pages on our website which offer practical advice and help. It means that our members can get on top of it and become so valuable to their employers that they make themselves unsackable. It has worked as we have seen limited redundancies.

But where we have seen redundancies they have been brought about because the employer has not thought things through. So, I believe, what redundancies there will be won’t be the fault or lack of skill or worth of the ground staff but the lack of foresight from the owners and where they have prioritised investment.

However, we are seeing a better understanding of grounds management and the principles attached to it.

I do hope that our shop window, Saltex, will be back in November, where we can showcase the innovation that our wonderful companies develop whether than be battery technology, seed technology. There is so much there.

All our planning for Saltex is surrounding ensuring that everyone who turns up is as safe as we can make them. That is our priority. It will be a different show to what we’ve seen before because we’ve got to work in a new environment. All fist and elbow bumps.

Jim Croxton

In general terms the last 12 months have been brilliant for golf and the upturn in people playing the game has been great – partly because it was the only thing that they were able to do. It’s probably the only thing that we can say has had a silver lining in what is a very unpleasant situation.

Also, I do believe that being in lockdown reminded everyone how much they enjoyed the great outdoors, and there is no better way of enjoying the great outdoors than being out on a golf course with friends, or even on your own.

So, there are couple of things which have gone on golf’s favour and there is no doubt that golfing numbers have been up enormously from the moment the lockdown opened up in May through to October.

The average course had an average 1,000 additional rounds a month for that six month period – that’s 30 extra people a day and if you think those extra wouldn’t have been at the weekend, it would be 40 people a day during the week. That equates to two hours of tee times, given that at certain times it would be two ball only.

So it has been a huge boost, backed up by numbers.

It has also benefitted memberships, because for periods of time clubs where open to members only, together with travel bans and restrictions which made it sensible to play your golf at one facility, so membership numbers have increased. It’s not the really the time for the nomad golfer.

Towards a new normal

However, it all puts much more pressure on the golf course itself. A single golfer is going to make 12,000 footprints during a round; he or she is going to take something between 15 and 20 divots – some of which won’t be repairable – and make 10 or 11 pitchmarks – even the good guys miss one or two. There is going to be an impact and clubs can’t go on thinking that it will be fine.

Some of the stats are extraordinary if you add the figures up. An extra 12 million footprints on a golf course each month. An extra 20,000 divots per month – that’s a lot of divoting, sanding and seeding. Pitchmarks are becoming a massive problem. Even if it is 10 per golfer per round, that’s an extra 10,000 pitchmarks per month.

Busier golf courses are great, but there is a flip side. It may also mean clubs introducing new shift patterns for their Green Staff. You might need eight greenkeepers from 6am to 10am and then not need anyone until 4pm, to ensure all the necessary maintenance work is carried out without problems of golfers and greenkeepers getting in each others’ way.

Right at the beginning there was not real role for golf unions as there was no golf being played but they were important in passing out our messages about what can be done on the golf courses. The PGA were brilliant. They recognised almost immediately that their members were in a difficult position, so they worked hard with us to put messages out.

They also used their staff who were not organising tournaments to contact every PGA member to offer support.

So, the game has come together, and delivered the message really well. However, my thought is that the future of the game is in the hands of 2,500 small businesses and we know they will deal with it in different ways.

Some clubs will be fantastic at it. They have already attracted new customers and they will look after them and keep them. I do think a lot of clubs will change their business model and their focus.

Propriatory clubs tend to do better because they look to be welcoming to visitors who bring revenue into the club. When the profit motive is strong usually customer service is strong and the proprietory sector has always been the best at that.

That said, members’ clubs are improving at this and have good people and good management in place but I do think that the furlough money has kept some golf clubs afloat.

Some clubs have said it has been catastrophic to be closed for the last couple of months, but in January weather can close many courses. The joke in January was that “if we were open we’d be shut!”

Yes, driving ranges which normally do well when the weather is bad are struggling, but most of them are solid businesses. But I do think that in 2021 and 2022 we will see some golf clubs go to the wall and I’ve already been hearing of Course Managers being made redundant.

These are financial decisions rather than performance led decisions.

I have to say that a lot of clubs have handled, what is a very difficult situation really well. They have had to reduce their work force, but it has been done in a civilised way with engagement with the staff. We can’t pretend that every job is sacrosanct, but the least we can expect is a proper process.

We have set up a new section on our website “Available for Work” where you can anonymously post your location, qualifications etc and we’ve had people find work that way. It’s a free service to members.

On the whole, I think golf has fared as well as anything as it has driven people back to golf courses and we now have an opportunity to look after them.

And it benefits us as an industry because the reason people have gone back to playing golf. It hasn’t been for the locker rooms, the bacon rolls or even the welcome in the clubhouse. It’s been to play golf on the golf course and the focus has gone back on the turf.

What golfers want is a golf course in good condition – they’ve managed without the clubhouse all year, with no catering, no bar, no changing rooms.

So hopefully people will now realise that without the golf course they don’t have a business so let’s make sure that it gets the resources that it needs.

I’ve been speaking to clubs who are now going to have maintenance weeks for the first time. Others are going to close more regularly in the winter because there is no point in destroying your golf course for a few rounds in January.

We at BIGGA didn’t quite have the staff to do what the PGA did, in contacting all their members by phone, but we have contacted many more of our members this year.

The focus between the first lockdown in March and now is that we have got back to our core which is supporting our members and we could devote time to that as we wouldn’t be running BTME. It reminded us that we are not an events business. We are a member organisation and legal assistance and mental health education is a big focus for us and that’s a good thing.

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval

March 22, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval: Scott Brooks, Grounds Manager at OGC Nice in France, believes that when it comes to battery-powered cylinder mowers, there is nothing that compares to the new Dennis ES-860.

After an illustrious start to his career in the UK, which included positions at Tottenham Hotspur FC, Arsenal FC and St George’s Park, Scott is now carrying out the upkeep and the development of OGC Nice’s training pitches in the South of France.

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval

He was specifically head hunted for the role after the French club visited the Football Association’s national training centre for a pre-season summer tour and were impressed with Scott’s unique philosophy on keeping players injury-free. That was over a year ago now and it is evident that he is making some vast improvements to the pitches in Nice.

Scott first started introducing battery-powered products into the operations at St George’s Park and claims that he was keen to continue embracing this technology in his new role. It was towards the end of his spell at St George’s Park that he first heard that Dennis was launching a range of environmentally friendly mowers called the E-Series.

“I never got the opportunity to get one at St George’s Park,” said Scott. “I had every faith that it would be a good machine because I saw the prototype at SALTEX and I could see the benefits of it straight away.”

For many years, turf professionals have been choosing Dennis Mowers for their superb cut quality and reliability, and anticipation quickly started building when the company announced its new battery-powered range.

Leaving no stone unturned, Dennis Mowers spent three years working with carefully selected partners to develop a range of quality battery-powered equipment befitting of the Dennis badge. The aim was to provide a reliable and long-lasting solution with the ultimate performance that helps professionals meet sustainability and environmental initiatives, reduce carbon footprint, emissions, running costs and noise without any range anxiety.

Ever the perfectionist, Scott first insisted on putting the Dennis ES-860 to the test against other battery-powered cylinder mowers.

“I had other mowers on trial for a few weeks and this enabled me to assess them side-by-side,” said Scott. “For me, there was no comparison and there was only one winner – the Dennis ES-860 was the machine I wanted.”

Users of the Dennis G860 cylinder mower will no doubt see familiarities in the new ES-860.

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval

This 34” battery powered turf management system delivers maximum versatility and the range of 13 interchangeable cassette options provide a solution to many day-to-day maintenance tasks such as cutting, scarifying, brushing, slitting and verticutting. Furthermore, traditional G860 cassettes will also fit the ES-860, meaning that customers will not have to purchase additional cassettes.

A robust LCD keypad screen is an integral feature of the handlebar console providing the operator with a multitude of information options including speed, clip rate, service checks, lifetime running reports and battery information.

“The battery life on the Dennis ES-860 is excellent,” continued Scott. “We were able to cut two pitches on one single charge, whereas we were struggling to complete one pitch with others.

“The charging capacity on them is incredible. For example, if we have a big day ahead and everything is getting hand cut, then we know that we can bring the Dennis ES-860’s in at lunch-time and charge each of them for just twenty minutes. In this short amount time, we know that we will get enough recharge in them to go back out and finish the job.

“Aside from battery power, I felt the Dennis ES-860 was a robust and solid unit that was ideal for continuously using on the training ground – it is an excellent piece of engineering.”

“The Dennis ES-860 is also so much easier to operate and the interchangeable cassette system is so simple to change cassettes.”

After the side-by-side trial, Scott purchased four Dennis ES-860 mowers and uses them regularly throughout the week as part of his maintenance programme.

Typically, Scott relies on the brushing cassette to brush the debris off the pitches after every use; the verticutting cassette to remove any organic material and the 8-bladed cutting cassette to provide a quality cut before a match or a training session.

Scott and his team have been using the Dennis ES-860’s for a prolonged period of time now and he certainly has no regrets.

“There were quite a few reasons for going down the battery route,” he said. “Firstly because of the environmentally friendly benefits, but also from a noise pollution perspective. Prior to having the Dennis ES-860’s we kept getting asked to stop mowing because the noise was disrupting the training sessions. However, now with the ES-860 mowers we can be on the pitch next to the players while they are training, and they are so quiet that they do not stop us. It is a vast improvement in productivity.

“I also wanted the team to be more comfortable and with these mowers you do not have any fumes, there are less vibrations and also less noise.

“Battery-powered technology is developing and progressing all the time, but it is important to be an early adopter because if people don’t take it up then no one else will. It certainly seems to be the future.

“The club’s owners encourage the sourcing and implementation of more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices in the way we operate which this purchase obviously supports.”

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact Dennis 01332 824 777 or visit www.dennisuk.com

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

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Towards a new normal

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval

Towards a new normal

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Towards a new normal

Towards a new normal: The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Scott MacCallum finds out what’s next as a Coronavirus-ravaged world starts to get back on its feet.

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval

New Dennis ES-860 gets Nice seal of approval: Scott Brooks, Grounds Manager at OGC Nice in France, believes that when it comes to battery-powered cylinder mowers, there is nothing that compares to the new Dennis ES-860.

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