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Cheslett rolls out Relief Greenkeeper service

November 7, 2025/in News, Press Release/by Admin

Cheslett rolls out Relief Greenkeeper service: After proving the validity of his concept by using it to manage his own working life, Duncan Cheslett, for decades a successful self-employed cabinet market, who turned to greenkeeping in the immediate aftermath of Covid, is expanding his business to provide freelance greenkeeping support for clubs across the UK. […]

Gareth Phillips joins Tim O’Hare Associates

November 7, 2025/in News, People, Press Release/by Admin

Gareth Phillips joins Tim O’Hare Associates: Tim O’Hare Associates (TOHA), the industry’s leading independent environmental consultancy specialising in soil science, landscape engineering, and sports agronomy, has welcomed Gareth Phillips in the role of Senior Agronomist to its Wallingford-based team. Gareth brings over 35 years of experience to the practice, working across the full spectrum of […]

Cheslett rolls out Relief Greenkeeper service

November 7, 2025/in News, Press Release/by Admin

Gareth Phillips joins Tim O’Hare Associates

November 7, 2025/in News, People, Press Release/by Admin

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Cheslett rolls out Relief Greenkeeper service

November 7, 2025/in News, Press Release/by Admin

Cheslett rolls out Relief Greenkeeper service: After proving the validity of his concept by using it to manage his own working life, Duncan Cheslett, for decades a successful self-employed cabinet market, who turned to greenkeeping in the immediate aftermath of Covid, is expanding his business to provide freelance greenkeeping support for clubs across the UK.

After retiring from his furniture business of several decades, Cheslett, a keen golfer, turned to greenkeeping as a way of combining his love of golf, and in particular golf architecture, with earning a living. “I worked at several courses around the Manchester area, and I loved it, but when you have worked for yourself all your life, your mind is always turning over business ideas,” he explains. He conceived The Relief Greenkeeper concept initially as a way of being able to work part-time while expanding his horizons and working on a variety of courses that interested him.

Cheslett rolls out Relief Greenkeeper service

Cheslett set up The Relief Greenkeeper as an umbrella under which he could market his services, on a freelance basis, to courses that might need an extra pair of hands for a few days from time to time, perhaps to cover sick leave, or to provide more labour at peak times. And he found that hard-pressed course managers loved the idea.

“Because I was self-employed, I could go and work for a club for a few days, and they would not have to incur any of the many costs that arise when you have people on staff,” Cheslett says. “No National Insurance, pension contributions or the like. I could charge an hourly rate that was good for me, but was much cheaper for the club than paying a member of staff. And from my own point of view, working on a variety of courses was a great way to keep work interesting, and helped me make friends and contacts across the golf industry in the North-West.” He has worked on over 20 courses and events, including Wallasey for the English Amateur, St Anne’s Old Links, and Hesketh in Southport. He also worked at Royal Portrush for the Open.

Cheslett realised that the Relief Greenkeeper concept had the potential to do much more than manage his own working life. “At every course, people would ask me about what I was doing, and express interest in doing the same – and nervousness about leaving a staff job and having to find work,” he says. “And everywhere I went, course managers told me that they would use a service like this. It was clear to me that some sort of agency that could connect greenkeepers and clubs would be a good thing for both parties.” So he took his first additional freelance greenkeepers onto his books, and began placing them with golf clubs requiring extra short-term staff.

“I’ve been able to supply my greenkeepers with steady work, saving them the time and stress of continually having to find and negotiate their own contracts, and generally earning them a higher rate of pay than they would have received working at their former course,” he says.

Naturally, to date operations have focused on Cheslett’s home region, but now he has decided to roll the service out nationwide. “I know that the idea is sound, and there’s no reason that greenkeepers and clubs in all parts of the UK won’t find it as useful as those in the North-West do,” he says. This expansion has already started, with Relief Greenkeepers at work in Lincolnshire, the West Coast of Ireland, Aberdeenshire, and the Central Belt of Scotland. And Cheslett says that he is ready to take on more. “I constantly have clubs calling me, saying they’ve heard about my service, and can I provide them with someone,” he says. “If I had more greenkeepers on my books, obviously I could and would. So if any experienced greenkeepers fancy going freelance, they should email me at duncan@thereliefgreenkeeper.co.uk, via our website www.thereliefgreenkeeper.co.uk, or call me on 07720 285376. Any clubs who would like to have reliable, experienced freelance greenkeeping resource for between £23 and £30 an hour should do the same.”

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Gareth Phillips joins Tim O’Hare Associates

November 7, 2025/in News, People, Press Release/by Admin

Gareth Phillips joins Tim O’Hare Associates: Tim O’Hare Associates (TOHA), the industry’s leading independent environmental consultancy specialising in soil science, landscape engineering, and sports agronomy, has welcomed Gareth Phillips in the role of Senior Agronomist to its Wallingford-based team.

Gareth brings over 35 years of experience to the practice, working across the full spectrum of sports turf management and agronomy. He joins TOHA from Ecosol Turf Care, where he provided agronomic and project management support. Prior to that he held significant roles within a leading sports turf design and agronomy consultancy, contributing to various sports turf projects, from racecourses to bowling greens. Gareth also has extensive lecturing experience, teaching at the Welsh College of Horticulture and Reaseheath College, where he delivered courses on sports turf and amenity horticulture.

Gareth Phillips joins Tim O’Hare Associates

His expertise has been invaluable to a range of high-profile clients, including racecourses; premier, championship, and football league clubs; international stadia; and prestigious organisations such as the Rugby Football Union and Sport England.

Tim O’Hare, Principal Consultant at TOHA, which he set up in 2006, said:

“We are delighted that Gareth has joined us and brought with him his wealth of knowledge and experience in sports and amenity agronomy. Sports pitch design and agronomy is an increasingly important part of our business, where our clients are often from high stakes environments that depend on receiving quality consultancy on their sports surfaces; I am pleased to say that they are already benefitting from Gareth’s expertise.”

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.

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Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Cheslett rolls out Relief Greenkeeper service

Gareth Phillips joins Tim O’Hare Associates

Cheslett rolls out Relief Greenkeeper service

Gareth Phillips joins Tim O’Hare Associates

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Cheslett rolls out Relief Greenkeeper service

Gareth Phillips joins Tim O’Hare Associates

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