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Greenkeeper Death An Accident

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Greenkeeper Death An Accident: A 35-year-old greenkeeper died last January after a poplar tree he was cutting fell on his head and fractured his skull, an inquest has heard.

His girlfriend and her father later found his body.

Father-of-one Martin Davenport, probably died instantly when the tree hit him in Christleton, Cheshire.

A jury inquest at Warrington Coroner’s Court has been told that Davenport suffered a fractured skull and brain haemorrhage.

A jury inquest is required by law if a death occurs following an accident at work.

Davenport worked as a greenkeeper at Eaton Golf Club but was acting as a self-employed contractor when he was hired to cut down poplar trees.

Health and Safety Executive inspector Simon Bland said the tree involved was leaning, causing it to act like a ‘spring’ with compression on one side and tension on the side nearest Davenport.

The trunk then split and kicked out.

Bland said: “Unfortunately Martin was in the vicinity of where that tree kicked out at the base so he received a blow to the head.”

Bland said he was happy with the tree felling training Davenport had received through his golf club job and the equipment he was using.

Eaton Golf Club head greenkeeper Gavin Clarke described him as “a great worker” with “a really good skill set”.

The jury found Davenport suffered a fatal blow to the head because the tree fell and split in ‘an uncontrolled manner’.

With the direction of Cheshire area coroner Claire Welch, they concluded Davenport died from an accident.

Welch told the family: “I offer you my heartfelt condolences. It’s clear to me from the evidence that I heard during the course of the inquest today how loved and liked Martin was, seemingly by all those who knew him.”

Davenport is survived by his parents Kathy and Shane, sister Sian and his nine-year-old daughter Isabelle.

He had remained friends with her mother Laura, from whom he was separated.

Kathy Davenport, who gave evidence, said: “He was a busy, hard-working young man who adored his little girl and was always trying to support her as best he could.”

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An Update From Scott MacCallum

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An Update From Scott MacCallum: You catch me as I’m gazing out of the living room window and the weather is absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, calm, warm, there’s even a slight heat haze. Not what I expect from here, certainly while still in February. Last year – the opposite. Cold, ice, temperatures barely reaching zero.

Now to an extent, while we enjoy what we have now, it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. It shouldn’t be like this. Here in Scotland we’ve just broken a temperature record for Feb which has stood since the 1890s. It is a further example of how climate change is now a part of our every day lives.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

While like every rational human being I worry about it, it doesn’t impact my day to day living the way it does for you guys, the nation’s turf professionals. Traditional schedules for maintenance practices go out of the window and while you may have previously been still in the middle of winter maintenance work you are now having to cut grass.

Going forward, it is going to require a much more flexible approach to turf maintenance – not to mention your working attire during the winter months. Shorts in February! –  and those who adapt best will be rewarded with the best surfaces all year round.

I’m not suggesting that we should revel in our traditional winter weather but at least it was consistent.

Let’s enjoy this while it lasts but think about how it may shape things to come.

Scott MacCallum

An Update From Scott MacCallum

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An Update From Scott MacCallum: Well, that’s the main exhibition season over for the next 11 months. With Saltex and BTME coming so close together, particularly with the festive period slap bang in the middle, it is probably the most intense time of the year… for the likes of us that is who don’t have sports pitches and golf courses to look after.

It was great to see so many people at both shows taking advantage of what the two shows have to offer – new products, professional development and mingling with like minded people. From a personal perspective it was also lovely to see how well Turf Matters – both the magazine and the website – is being received by its readership. So many people stopped Sinead and I to compliment us on Turf Matters and it makes us both believe that we are moving in the right direction as a title.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

We do care about what you want from your trade media and try to ensure that whatever we do is relevant and of interest to you. We will continue to produce well written, well presented features for you, as well as acting as a conduit for all the news and views from throughout our wonderful industry.

As I write, and look out of the window, we are in the middle of the coldest snap of the year. At least I hope it’s the middle and not just the start of a prolonged period of sub zero temperatures and all that that brings.

It’s at times like these that we all yearn from those heady days when the shorts are out and our knees are sunburnt. Hang in there guys and gals. It’s only a few months until spring!

Scott MacCallum

An Update From Scott MacCallum

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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!

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An Update From Scott MacCallum

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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.

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