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ICL Schools Seminar A Success

August 6, 2018/in Events, News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

ICL Schools Seminar A Success: ICL’s sixth successive annual Independent Schools Seminar recently took place at Birmingham’s Edgbaston Stadium. The event brought together turf professionals and provided an opportunity to network and enhance education and understanding on a range of different turf management topics. Following an introduction from event organiser Emma Kilby, ICL Area Sales Manager for […]

Toro “The Best” At Huntercombe

August 6, 2018/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Rosie Duckworth

Toro “The Best” At Huntercombe: Huntercombe Golf Club, celebrating the recent success of being named the number one course in Oxfordshire by the Top 100 Golf Courses, has switched to Toro for its irrigation system because according to course manager Grant Stewart “it’s the best on the market” for covering compact tees and vast greens. The historic golf […]

ICL Schools Seminar A Success

August 6, 2018/in Events, News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Toro “The Best” At Huntercombe

August 6, 2018/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Rosie Duckworth

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ICL Schools Seminar A Success

August 6, 2018/in Events, News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Following an introduction from event organiser Emma Kilby, ICL Area Sales Manager for the Midlands and West, Gary Barwell, Head Groundsman at Edgbaston Stadium, kick-started proceedings by offering an insight into pitch preparations at the stadium as well as disclosing some of his team’s techniques.

In the midst of a particularly difficult summer, delegates welcomed the opening presentation by Dr Andy Owen, ICL International Technical Manager. Entitled ‘Growing resilient turf’, Andy focused on growing deeper rooted plants, which explored a number of strategies that groundsmen can apply in order to encourage rooting; explaining the importance of an integrated approach and that nothing should be undertaken in isolation. Furthermore, Andy went on to provide a plethora of hints and tips from research trials which included advice on best practice in utilizing nutrition, dealing with parasitic nematodes and ideal water management to get the best out of the grass plant.

Grass seed is an important aspect of ICL’s product portfolio and an essential part of the company’s integrated turf management solutions, and the next presentation ‘Seed for all Seasons’, provided delegates with a fascinating insight into this aspect of the business.

Simon Taylor, ICL Product & Business Development Manager, has more than 20 years’ experience in the grass seed sector and he revealed the opportunities for potential genetic improvements in finding new traits in varieties that could benefit the turf manager. He explained the motives behind looking at the best of what US and European breeding programmes offer and how the finest of those characteristics can be applied into various new blends.

A complimentary lunch signalled the halfway point before Alex Vickers, Turf Consultant, spoke in detail about his experience of helping to build a cricket pitch in Rwanda. In this humorous and thought-provoking presentation entitled ‘Making the most of what you have got – a lesson from Rwanda’, Alex explained how the team achieved fantastic results when faced with a near-on impossible task.

The presentation seemed to strike a chord with the delegates. “I really enjoyed Alex’s presentation and I think there is a great lesson to be learnt,” said Tom Brotherhood, First Team Cricket Groundsman at Loughborough Grammar School. “Just seeing how they managed to achieve what they did in Rwanda with basically half of the equipment compared to what we have was amazing. We are always wanting more of the best equipment and perhaps we take what we already have for granted. I think it showed how to think outside of the box when you find yourself in a difficult situation.”

Andy Richards, Grounds Manager at Shrewsbury School, was the next speaker to take to the stage. In this insightful presentation Andy revealed how he uses data recorded from his weather station and moisture metres to speak to the school’s sports department bursar about playing conditions and to identify what equipment he needs in order to continue to make improvements. Andy encouraged the delegates to follow suit claiming that just that little extra bit of information can be used to their advantage.

It was the third ICL Independent School Seminar Andy has attended and he believes that events such as these are integral to raising the standards of groundsmanship.

“Independent schools groundsmanship is a completely different form of groundsmanship to say football, cricket or other sports grounds, because your usage is incredibly high over such a condensed period of time. This is the only event of its kind designed to specifically help independent school groundsmen and it’s great to meet like-minded people where we can bounce ideas off one another. It’s the only way we can continue to improve.”

Attendees then received a glimpse into Syngenta’s new turf pigment technology when Glenn Kirby, Syngenta’s Technical Manager for UK Turf & Landscape, provided an overview on the new product – Ryder. This unique turf colourant delivers a consistent, natural green colour and gives turf managers an opportunity to colour up turf to their liking. Glenn explained Ryder’s strong longevity qualities and how the technology protects turf from harmful UV rays and excessive light.

Former English first-class cricketer, Ashley Giles MBE, is arguably best known for his heroics in England’s victorious 2005 Ashes series and he concluded the day’s presentations by explaining his current role as Director of Cricket at Edgbaston as well as relaying some very interesting and humorous stories about how the successful Ashes team celebrated their monumental victory over Australia.

After dinner the day was rounded off in style as all attendees stayed behind to watch the T20 game between Birmingham Bears and Leicestershire Foxes.

Reflecting on the event, Lee Marshallsay, Grounds Manager at Charterhouse School, said: “I’ve been coming to these events almost every year and they just keep getting better. There are plenty of speakers to learn from and there is a lot that us groundsmen can take back. I particularly like the networking side of it because you can find out that you’re not the only one who may have had a hard season. It’s also a good chance to bring other members of staff along because it means that some of the younger guys can learn things from other people rather than just listen to me all the time!”

That was certainly the case for Aaron Skyrme, Assistant Groundsman at King Henry VIII School in Coventry: “Today has been really beneficial,” he said. “I’m currently studying an NVQ Level 2 in Sports Turf Management and learning about the different technologies in seeds and various grasses today has really helped me. There are also so many aspects that I will take away with me and put into my practical work at the school.”

Please contact ICL on +44 (0)1473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie.

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Toro “The Best” At Huntercombe

August 6, 2018/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Rosie Duckworth

The historic golf course designer Willie Park Junior designed and owned Huntercombe, and to this day the course continues to be played to the original 1901 layout. With some greens on the 18-hole course near Henley-on-Thames over 1000m², finding the right sprinklers to guarantee thorough, even coverage was of the utmost importance says Grant:

“Huntercombe has large greens. Altogether they cover 1.7 hectares, with some up to 1000m²! We chose Flex 55 for the job because of the distance they can cover. We installed a ring main around the larger greens to control the pressure, which allowed us to feed the heads with water to cover two directions. The heads on my fourth green put out 16 litres of water a second, guaranteeing every inch of that big green is well watered.”

Applying equally efficient irrigation to the small tees are the Toro T5 sprinklers. Grant continues: “We have the opposite problem on the tees in that some of them are quite small, so we needed to find a sprinkler that would work well in a much smaller area.”

With an operating area of 6.5-12m, it’s easy to see why the T5s fit the bill. But something all the sprinklers have in common, including the FLEX 35 also used on the greens, is their maintenance and ease of use, as Grant explains: “The best feature of all the sprinklers we’ve chosen are the heads which allow us to change the arcs when they are running with no tools. I can move the heads to water any area and don’t have to be concerned that the gears will be damaged.”

The brains behind this irrigation brawn is the Lynx central control system chosen because trying it at another club showed Grant just how easy it was to use. But surpassing all these reasons for opting for Toro irrigation is the fact that Grant, who has been at the club for two years, with previous deputy roles at Sunningdale in Ascot and Fairmont St Andrews has the support of a greenkeeping team of eight, knows and trusts the brand:

“I looked to Toro irrigation to get the same quality of irrigation product as the machinery we use. I have always used Toro machinery and know it to be reliable, so when the time was right to invest in a new irrigation system there was no question I’d go with Toro, it was more a case of which items in the range would best suit our needs.”

Completing the order with Reesink Turfcare is a selection of Toro machinery including the Groundsmaster 3500-D, two Greensmaster TriFlex 3420 mowers, a Multi Pro 1750 and a Workman MDX-D, all of which will no doubt play some part in helping Grant and the team in their endeavours to reduce thatch in the greens. The aim being to improve the species of grass in the playing surfaces and aid regeneration work over the next couple of years, with Grant concluding: “We’re very proud to now be a ‘Total Solutions’ club.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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

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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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Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

ICL Schools Seminar A Success

Toro “The Best” At Huntercombe

ICL Schools Seminar A Success

Toro “The Best” At Huntercombe

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ICL Schools Seminar A Success

Toro “The Best” At Huntercombe

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