Tag Archive for: An

An Update From Scott MacCallum

/in , /by

An Update From Scott MacCallum: It’s now a month since many of us converged on Birmingham for Saltex, met with friends and colleagues and left promising to keep in more regular touch. A regular touch which in many cases will be repeated for the next time at the same time and place next year!

It is a truism that life gets in the way of an awful lot – friendships being among the more unfortunate casualties so while an annual meet up at Saltex may be a little too long a gap, at least it happens.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

Of course, business was the reason we were at the NEC and the number of follow-ups from the many leads taken at the Show will have already been completed thus proving the benefit of face to face encounters.

As we head into December I know that it is a particularly busy time for all groundsmen and greenkeepers. Winter programmes at golf club and cricket grounds will be well underway and while the fact that, with golf in particular, tree management work can be unseen by the members leading to jokes about overused dartboards, much of the success of the work carried out in the out of season periods is responsible for a less stressful time next spring and summer.

For those working in football and rugby the festive period is particularly action packed with many games played in weather that it particularly unsuited to recovery or remedial work. It’s not just the players who look at Christmas with a feeling of dread!

What I would say is that whatever you are working on at the moment – Good fortune!

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 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.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

/in , /by

An Update From Scott MacCallum: Most of the major sporting events for the year have concluded, the schools are back and the universities are preparing to welcome back their students.

So what to make of 2018? Well, from a sporting perspective it’s been pretty exciting. The World Cup was exciting, or being a Scot, I’m told it was exciting, with Gareth’s boys exceeding expectations. As it progressed through the knock-out stages, those expectations had shot up again and many thought the 52 years of hurt were going to end.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

Glasgow’s European Championships were a success while I don’t recall any of the regular sporting calendar highlights letting the side down in the football, rugby, tennis, golf, cricket, horse racing. That said, Andy Murray’s non appearance at Wimbledon did reduce excitement at SW19, but we are going to have to get used a life post-Andy going forward I’m afraid to say.

But the point I was going to make was that, as far as I can recall, there were no negative headlines from a turf management side of things.

No complaints from disgruntled losers, no injuries directly attributable to a surface, no Head Groundsman or Course Manager being named and shamed in public. That’s not to say that everything went perfectly in every instance.

Of course, things went wrong. You don’t need highly talented people in position if everything were to go swimmingly on every occasion. You guys are paid to resolve problems, but to do it, more often than not, quietly, efficiently, without fuss and without headlines.

Looking forward it’s hard to see how the quality bar can be raised much more but we can probably look to attain the same standards with fewer chemical applications – both for environmental reasons and the fact that it is likely that we will see costs rise as we stumble through Brexit.

On an artificial turf perspective the Rubber Crumb issue will continue to run. A six month consultation process on reducing acceptable levels of carcinogens has just started and I just hope that the safety of the end user – groundsman and sportsman – is placed before cost when a final decision is made.

So as greenkeepers start planning their winter programmes and groundsmen continue to turn out super surfaces in all conditions I wish you all well going forward.

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 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.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

/in /by

We have just come from a tumultuous six weeks of sport – with the World Cup, Wimbledon and The Open Championship at Carnoustie and you know what – the fact that the groundsmen and greenkeepers didn’t create one headline between them makes my heart sing.

When it comes to turf maintenance and the media – no news is good news.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

But to a large degree that’s sad. Why shouldn’t the great work carried on by turf professionals in Russia, West London and the east coast of Scotland be acclaimed? It’s only when something goes pear shaped that turf professionals are named and shamed.

Had Harry Kane slipped on a loose bit of turf and missed one of his penalties; or Novak Djokovic missed a potential Championship winning point because of a dodgy bounce; or Tiger Woods saw one of his better drives land in a divot and cost him that elusive 15th Major, we would have known the names of every Head Groundsman or Course Manager involved.

Like a good referee – although I do believe the arrival of the celebrity referee is changing this – it has all gone well if no-one has noticed you.

I do know that that situation suits many turf professionals. In a previous guise I wanted to run a campaign to encourage golf club members to get to know their Course Manager, but it didn’t fly. Greenkeepers, and assume most groundsmen, don’t like their heads above the parapet.

What I would say, however, is that no matter how strong your agronomy knowledge the ability to communicate is just as important.

I remember something a friend of mine, who was Chairman of Green at Muirfield Village, in Ohio, told me. He said that their course, which plays host to Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament every year and hosted the 1987 Ryder Cup, was always in perfect condition. He also told me that their Superintendent’s degree was in politics, not agronomy.

So, face up to your biggest critic. If you can’t talk round someone who is bound to have much less subject knowledge than you maybe your next training course should be in communications not soil science.

Rigby Taylor Has An Award-Winning Way To Mark Pitches

/in , /by

Rigby Taylor Has A Very Intelligent – And Award-Winning Way To Mark And Over-Mark Pitches: Intelligent One (iO), the world’s first autonomous robot dedicated to the hands-free, initial marking and over-marking of sports pitches, running tracks and much more, has won the prestigious Innovation Award at the SALTEX 2017 exhibition.

Available from Rigby Taylor – the company at the forefront of supplying innovative products for the successful management and maintenance of turf surfaces – iO combines the very latest technology with the award winning, global-leading Impact ready-to-use paint and is ideally suited for multi-pitches and multi-facilities marking.

Rigby Taylor Has An Award-Winning Way To Mark Pitches

It was for these reasons that a panel of expert judges selected iO the winner over a host of other contenders for the award at SALTEX.

Featuring a sophisticated built-in GPS-RTK receiver that links with a portable base station for accurate and reliable global satellite referencing, the iO operating tablet can plot and store multi-use line marking templates.

Once manoeuvred into place by the operator from directions sent by the tablet, the iO will, for example, mark out a football pitch – all the perimeter and playing area straight lines, the ‘D’ areas, centre circle, corner angles and even the penalty spot without the operator having any physical contact with the machine. Even pitches with fixed post sockets can be marked.

The iO can be programmed to mark multiple pitches as, for instance, at a training ground and will move to an adjacent pitch to carry on marking. It can mark all day long because it comes with rechargeable lithium ion batteries and changer.

Impact paint provides the brightest, whitest line that lasts, and as it is a ready-to-use formulation, there is no mixing, no measuring no pouring and no added water. The operator has virtually no contact with the paint since a flow tube is simply inserted into the paint container then the iO can start marking.

The iO is capable of marking the following sports surfaces: football – any length/width and including fixed sockets; rugby (union and league); multi-lane athletic running tracks; tennis courts; and lacrosse, hockey and American football pitches. The iO marking of additional sports surfaces is currently under development.

For a leaflet, demonstration or more information contact your local Rigby Taylor area manager or Freephone 0800 424 919, email sales@rigbytaylor.com or visit rigbytaylor.com

For the latest industry news visit turfnews.co.uk

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter 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.