Blog Elements - Turf Matters

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

1.4m more children could play sports weekly

May 13, 2020/in Industry News, News, Press Release/by External Source

1.4m more children could play sports weekly: A new report by the Grounds Management Association (GMA) today reveals that junior participation levels in rugby and football could increase by almost 1.4 million (1,376,252) children every week, and in cricket, by almost half a million (489,859) per season. With the right investment, guidance and care, a massive 4 million more children’s football […]

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley

May 13, 2020/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by CharmianRobson

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley: Starnes Engineering has experienced the benefits of an automatic relief grind using the Foley Company 633 Accu-Pro. The East Sussex company has been continually growing since it was started four years ago by ground care and agricultural engineer, Jamie Starnes, with grinding counting as a key service over that […]

1.4m more children could play sports weekly

May 13, 2020/in Industry News, News, Press Release/by External Source

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley

May 13, 2020/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by CharmianRobson

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

1.4m more children could play sports weekly

May 13, 2020/in Industry News, News, Press Release/by External Source

1.4m more children could play sports weekly: A new report by the Grounds Management Association (GMA) today reveals that junior participation levels in rugby and football could increase by almost 1.4 million (1,376,252) children every week, and in cricket, by almost half a million (489,859) per season. With the right investment, guidance and care, a massive 4 million more children’s football matches could be played on existing pitches every year.

The data, gathered through national Playing Pitch Strategies, the Grounds and Natural Turf Investment Programme (GaNTIP)* data, and a national survey of over 4,000 people, shows the huge opportunity for change.

1.4m more children could play sports weekly

With the nation desperate for sport to resume, and many individuals being more active than ever before, the leading not-for-profit membership organisation for the grounds sector is calling for volunteers, investment, and more resources to improve access to community-level sport.

Limiting play

The report also highlights the impact if nothing is done. Over the next decade, one in five football and rugby players, and half of cricket players will be left unable to play weekly or seasonally. This equates to over half a million players a week, and 170,000 players during a cricket season.

Geoff Webb, CEO at GMA, said:

“Across the world, playing and watching sport has been sorely missed. We’ve realised how much it means to us. After a season of no sport, now is the time to ensure pitches are playable when games resume. We know that if we act now, we can turn the tide and even improve access to local grass pitches. But, without immediate long-term investment and care, the huge benefits of sport for mental and physical health, community cohesion and the economy, will be lost to millions every year.”

Jason Booth, Director of Technical and Learning, said:

“We have around 56,891 rugby union and league, football, and cricket pitches in England today. That’s one pitch for every 984 people. While pitch improvement programmes such as GaNTIP* are making huge strides, more needs to be done to support grassroots sports and increase playability. With the right approach we can reduce cancellations, increase year round participation, engage new participants and promote active lifestyles.”

Priority players

The report also found that the pitch crisis has already had a detrimental effect on women and children’s sports. GMA’s research found that despite the growing popularity of women and girls’ sports teams, and junior play priority is often given to adult male teams.

55% of girls aged 7-18, and over a quarter of adult women, would play more team sports if they could, but there often isn’t the chance to due to slot availability or allocation. 58% of adults and 73% of children see more boys and men play local team sports than women and girls.

Get involved

The research found that pitches play an important role in our communities, for both children and adults. 57% of adults think playing local team sports is a fundamental national pastime, and over half (54%) think having teams play sport locally has a positive impact on their area.

A quarter of British children aged 7-18 think playing team sports locally is good for their communities and 64% want more grass pitches in their area. GMA is therefore calling for people to enter the profession, either as volunteers or professionals, to increase participation levels in our local communities.

Despite the enthusiasm for local grounds, many young people aren’t entering the grounds management profession, and one in five grounds managers will be leaving the profession in the next 10 years, leading to a perfect storm when it comes to pitch care. Only 19% of children are currently considering a job in grounds management. This means the UK does not have the workforce to stop the crisis.

Geoff Webb continues:

“While play isn’t currently happening, we’re urging people to get involved and contact local teams right now. The whole nation – government, sports bodies and members of the public who love sport – must help kick start sport as we are freed from restrictions. Sports turf volunteers and professionals are key to having surfaces ready for play, beyond this season of no sport. Through investing in local pitches, valuing the role ground staff play, encouraging more volunteering, or promoting careers in the profession, we can get more people playing sport than ever before.

“The skill of groundstaff, be they paid professionals or volunteers, and the crucial part they play in enabling sport to take place, must be recognised. Almost every professional sports player in the UK began by playing on a community pitch. And every community pitch across the UK, relies on volunteers or professional grounds staff to maintain it. Alongside all the benefits they bring to individuals, teams, and the local community – its crucial to invest time and money in our pitches right now so we can all get back to play.”

Whilst play is currently restricted, it’s possible to sign-up with local teams and take specialist online training, to start the volunteering journey right now. Find out more here: www.thegma.org.uk/learning

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.

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley

May 13, 2020/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by CharmianRobson

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley: Starnes Engineering has experienced the benefits of an automatic relief grind using the Foley Company 633 Accu-Pro.

The East Sussex company has been continually growing since it was started four years ago by ground care and agricultural engineer, Jamie Starnes, with grinding counting as a key service over that time.

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley

Jamie has gathered a vast amount of grinding experience within the industry, including working as tournament support at the 2015 Open Championship at St Andrews, Wentworth and The Oval. During this time, he has used an array of grinders from various companies, but the Foley 633 Accu-Pro has proven the best he’s used for relief grinding.

“It’s just so user-friendly compared to anything else that I’ve used, and I’ve used quite a few different makes for myself and companies at different sites,” Jamie explained. “I think it’s just superb, really. It’s easy to use and set-up, and it’s accurate with it. And the fact its automated means you can leave it to it, so you’re gaining productivity time, and you’re not disappointed with the results.

“Relief grinding makes such a difference to the quality of cut and the general ware of the machine, units and grass itself. It’s a vital thing to do for anybody, but it is time-consuming with other machines compared to this one even with the units themselves. With different makes, you have to remove a lot of stuff from the unit like rear roller brushes for example, but on the Foley, you don’t have to strip down units and take things off, you can pretty much clamp and hold down any unit with anything still on it, which is another massive time-saving aspect.

“I was looking for something that was fully automated that would speed up the whole process, and something that could be set up quickly and easily that you can walk away from when possible to do other things and make use of the time. When I’ve used other grinders to relief grind, I’ve had to stand there and manually push and pull the machine through each individual blade whereas once the Foley is set up, you can leave it.

“Once you’ve set it up and you know the formula from having done a unit, and you’ve got another five, ten or however many left to do you can more or less put them in and run through them. We’ve had a lot of use out of the grinder since we got it in January – at least 40 units or more. It’s been used to grind Jacobsen, Toro and John Deere, so we’ve had a bit of everything. It is very simple to go between each brand. The machine is superb for simplicity and swapping between units. And not only for the positioning of the bench and stuff but other things like moving the motor drive from left to right. On other models, it’s actually quite a paraphernalia to move it all around, but with the electric motor you pick it up and move it from one side to the other, so it’s a vast improvement for ease and speed and everything like that.”

Several features on the 633 Accu-Pro combine to make it a reliable and straightforward grinder. The Accu-Touch 3 Control system provides a step by step tutorial for new technicians, while more experienced operators can use the system to tell the machine what they’re working on and it’ll do the rest. Automatic placement features, the Accu-Reel Selector and Cylinder Height Stop, automatically locate the reel for a fast and easy spin and relief grind in one set-up and work with the pre-set relief angles to provide the hands-free relief grinding Jamie has found so beneficial.

To experience the difference of the Accu-Pro 633 or other Foley Company models, contact ProSport UK Ltd at prosportukltd@gmail.com.

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)

1.4m more children could play sports weekly

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley

1.4m more children could play sports weekly

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

1.4m more children could play sports weekly

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley

Ease, accuracy and time saving from Foley: Starnes Engineering has experienced the benefits of an automatic relief grind using the Foley Company 633 Accu-Pro.

RESOURCES

CONTACT

CONNECT