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Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar

February 21, 2020/in Events, News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar: The aptly named Storm Dennis certainly didn’t prevent the annual Dennis and SISIS groundcare seminar from going ahead, and by all accounts it once again inspired, educated and offered real solutions. Hosted at the Durham County Cricket Club’s Emirates Riverside Stadium on 18th February, over 150 volunteers and professionals representing […]

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

February 21, 2020/in Awards, News, Press Release/by Rosie Duckworth

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award: It’s a nurturing hand that sees Nurture Landscapes win its fourth Grounds Maintenance Limited Public Access award at the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) National Landscape Awards. The award, which is sponsored by Toro and Reesink Turfcare, the exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland for Toro groundscare machinery, […]

Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar

February 21, 2020/in Events, News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

February 21, 2020/in Awards, News, Press Release/by Rosie Duckworth

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Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar

February 21, 2020/in Events, News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar: The aptly named Storm Dennis certainly didn’t prevent the annual Dennis and SISIS groundcare seminar from going ahead, and by all accounts it once again inspired, educated and offered real solutions.

Hosted at the Durham County Cricket Club’s Emirates Riverside Stadium on 18th February, over 150 volunteers and professionals representing schools, sports clubs, local authorities and contractors from all over the UK experienced a truly memorable day.

Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar

Marcus North, Durham Director of Cricket and former Australian batsman, kick-started the event much to the delight of the attendees. The left-handed batsman, who played 21 Tests for his country and played for five counties in England, proceeded to offer a unique insight into all the various pitches he has played on throughout the world. Not only did his talk offer a glimpse into an international cricket player’s perspective but it also offered an interesting insight into a club’s relationship with the groundstaff.

Iain James from TGMS Ltd followed with a plethora of advice on the construction and maintenance of a cricket pitch. No stone was left unturned as Iain went through every stage of a construction process offering some valuable tips to those who carry out the work in-house but also presented the questions one should be asking of a contractor. Lots of notes were taken as Iain covered the six key stages of construction – planning, design, build, grow-in, preparation and play.

Seminar delegates were then pleased to hear from the Institute of Groundsmanship’s Ian Powell who provided a number of helpful tips in his presentation entitled ‘Principles of decision making for pre-season preparations’. Ian discussed the utmost important aspects of pre-season preparations including seeding, rolling, scarification and nutrition.

Rounding off the morning in style, delegates had a rare opportunity to listen to and question an incredible line-up of some of the industry’s finest groundsmen. Hosted by Vic Demain (Durham CCC), this new feature entitled Groundsmans Corner, saw a panel of experts including Keith Kent (Head Pitch Advisor for Rugby Groundsmen Connected), Jim Dawson (Head Groundsman at BT Murrayfield), Karl McDermott (Head Groundsman at MCC Lord’s), Sean Williams (Head Groundsman at Gloucestershire CCC) and Gordon Gill (Former Head Groundsman at Bath CC). An interesting range of topics were explored and, in particular, the use of social media in the industry sparked an informative debate.

A complimentary lunch signalled the halfway point, and attendees got the chance to network with one another and gain even more groundcare advice from event sponsors – Limagrain UK, Boughton Loam, Thomas Sherriff, Stuart Canvas, Fleet Line Markers, Cricket World, SIS Pitches, Poweroll, Facility and Sports Club Development and Headland Amenity.

Upon settling down after lunch, Barry Glynn hilariously reflected on his career in ‘Frustrations of a Groundsman: Part 2’ before the legendary Keith Kent proceeded with a presentation entitled ‘Winter Sports Pitches to Cricket Outfields – what do we need to do?’ Delegates were thrilled when Keith drew on his wealth of experience as a groundsman to explore the transformation of winter sports pitches into cricket outfields.

Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar

In his presentation, Keith described the groundcare industry as a brotherhood; a family in which everyone should be supporting their colleagues and the general consensus in the room at the end of the day was that this event was an exemplary demonstration of camaraderie – no matter what your title or position.

One delegate, Derek Traill of Cricket Scotland, said: “The key message coming out of today’s event is that it is all about communication and to strive to learn off one another – we learn from one another’s experiences, failures and successes and from these we can build on them and improve as one.”

For Ben Weatherall, a young Assistant Groundsman at Yorkshire County Cricket Club, the event was inspirational which will serve him well in his career path: “It was great to get the opportunity to listen to guys like Vic, Keith and Jim. Listening to their stories, their experiences and where they came from was hugely inspiring. In my up and coming career, events like this will help me get to where I want to be.”

One such groundsman who has found exactly where he wants to be is Karl McDermott and he was encouraged to see so many young people in attendance. “Sometimes you go to these kinds of events and it is mostly retired groundsmen that are helping out their local clubs – which is fantastic because they benefit a lot from the advice they receive. However, there has been a real good mix today and we need to look to the future and keep on trying to get the younger generation into this industry.

“Events like this Dennis and SISIS seminar will only help,” he continued. “This is a great chance to network and to chat to people and actually discover that no matter what level you are at, club or recreational to test match level – we all have the same problems.”

Robbie Thackray, Groundsman at the University of Leeds, certainly felt relieved to find out that he is not alone when it comes to certain issues: “I have found it extremely reassuring that everyone is in the same boat,” he said. “We all have the same struggles no matter where we work or what our job title is. Today has been brilliant and offered so many solutions.”

Further information about the range of maintenance products available can be found by visiting www.dennisuk.com / www.sisis.com.

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

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

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Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

February 21, 2020/in Awards, News, Press Release/by Rosie Duckworth

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award: It’s a nurturing hand that sees Nurture Landscapes win its fourth Grounds Maintenance Limited Public Access award at the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) National Landscape Awards.

The award, which is sponsored by Toro and Reesink Turfcare, the exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland for Toro groundscare machinery, recognises all sorts of grounds maintenance, and the project that won is not only a vertical space in the form of one of Europe’s largest living walls but has the added challenge of being alongside the Metro viaduct wall next to Snow Hill Station in Birmingham making access somewhat tricky!

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

Matt Monckton, regional manager at Nurture Landscapes, says: “This site is incredibly challenging with the green wall running just a few metres adjacent to the Metro line. Our planned overhaul visits can only be carried out in the small hours when the live lines are powered down which happens on just two weekends a year and we have to bring in free-standing artificial lights, which in itself is a major task.”

At 220m long and 7m high with 604m² of plants, it’s an eye-catching feature. As well as plants, the living wall incorporates decorative perforated aluminium panels designed to capture artificial and natural daylight. Programmable uplighters bring the wall to life at night and create constantly changing patterns and the illusion of depth and movement.

Matt continues: “The whole feature has moisture sensors built into the green wall which are internet connected and alert us quickly to any irrigation issues across the face of the whole wall. In the evening a cutting-edge LED lighting system operates to create waves of coloured lights across the wall which, when combined with the interspersed, undulating perforated steel panels really does make for a unique flowing green space.”

So what does Matt attribute the company’s continuing success to in the awards which in 2019 had record entries, record first-time entries and record international entries and makes receiving one even more of an achievement? “Where we can we try and partner with our clients and this site is a case in point,” he says. “We have built up a wonderful working relationship with the building management team who take a genuine interest in making this location a vibrant local landmark.”

It’s for all these reasons and the fact that Nurture Landscapes achieves great and beautiful results, that makes it a worthy winner of the award, says Reesink’s Alastair Rowell, who presented the award to the company in front of an audience of over 1000 BALI members and guests at the 43rd annual awards: “It’s a fantastic feat of grounds maintenance skill that Nurture Landscapes not only win this award, but win it for the fourth time. It’s grounds maintenance that creates a work of art and provides pleasure to so many commuters as well as being progressive and cutting-edge in its execution too.”

Paul Bean, sales director at Nurture Landscapes, says: “To be recognised again is testament to the enthusiasm, passion and skill of our teams. We invest in training our people well and creating strong business-to-business relationships. This award reinforces we’re doing the right thing and we’re generating the kind of success we’d always hoped for.”

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)

Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar

Inspirational Dennis & SISIS Seminar: The aptly named Storm Dennis certainly didn’t prevent the annual Dennis and SISIS groundcare seminar from going ahead, and by all accounts it once again inspired, educated and offered real solutions.

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award: It’s a nurturing hand that sees Nurture Landscapes win its fourth Grounds Maintenance Limited Public Access award at the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) National Landscape Awards.

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