Tag Archive for: Club

Cricket club counting cost of Ciara

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Cricket club counting cost of Ciara: Bridgeholme Cricket Club is counting the cost of being flooded again, but this time it is worse than ever, according to groundsman Keith Hudson.

The club’s Eastwood ground has been flooded several times in recent years, but it has been left in a horrendous state by Storm Ciara over the weekend.

Keith said: “It’s the biggest flood in the club’s history.

“The walls have gone, there’s sand, silt and sludge everywhere, rubbish all over the field, bricks and boulders.

“It’s seriously bad. The hardest thing is what do we do now? How do we put this back together again?

“We’re reputed as one of the most beautiful cricket grounds in Yorkshire, we’ve won awards for how beautiful it is. There’s not many cricket clubs that win a Yorkshire in Bloom award.

“It was bad in 2015, but we put in place all these things to prevent it, like a river wall.

“But this has just flattened it. The wall’s still intact but it’s completely flattened it.

“It’s unbelievable. I live right next to the ground so I could see it happening thinking ‘that’s going to go’ and ‘that’s going to go’.

“I’ve been groundsman for 35 years, and I’ve lived here since 1963, and I’ve never seen anything like it.

“The back of our street was awash with mud and the retaining wall at the bottom of the street was completely flattened.

“Pictures don’t do it justice.

Keith says the club, on Halifax Road in Todmorden, is used by all sorts of people in the community for dog walking, playing sports and children riding bicycles.

“Last time (in 2015) I was there every day for two months. There’s no easy way out of it,” Keith added.

“God knows how much it’s going to cost. Last time it cost £20,000 but you could maybe multiply that by five this time.

“We’ve been told we’ll get some funding from Sport England, the ECB and the YCB but I don’t think there’s enough money out there.

“It’s a mess.”

If you would like to donate to the club’s fundraising appeal, visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/sharon-mitchell-5?utm_term=4y3jv6XGV.

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Club Company’s fourth Ventrac 4500

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Club Company’s fourth Ventrac 4500: The Club Company, which owns and operates 14 Country Clubs across the UK, has taken delivery of a further Ventrac 4500 compact tractor with Contour mowing deck and blower attachments. This latest combination has been delivered to Woodbury Park Hotel, Golf and Leisure near Exeter and brings the total of Ventrac machines within the group to four.

Chris Brook is the Group Courses Manager, with responsibility for all greenkeeping activities across the company. He is also the Course Manager at the company’s flagship property, Castle Royle Golf and Country Club near Reading.

Club Company's fourth Ventrac 4500

“We already have three Ventracs across the group and they have performed exceptionally well,” he said. “They are brilliant in wet conditions as they only generate 6 psi and can get out onto the course when other equipment would seriously damage the surfaces. This Ventrac at Woodbury Park is our fourth within the group, the other three being at Nizels Golf and Country Club in Kent, The Club at Meyrick Park in Bournemouth and The Tytherington near Macclesfield.

“I was quite sceptical when the machine arrived for a demonstration at Castle Royle back in 2017, but was pleasantly surprised, and delighted, at the machine’s capabilities. Considering it is under 25 hp it is remarkably powerful and can go anywhere.”

The third machine in the group was delivered to The Tytherington in 2018, where the golf course was constructed using clay spoil from the building of the housing estate back in the 1960s. The underlying clay profile can be quite wet during the winter months and difficult to maintain.

Course Manager Gareth Tucker is in his second spell with the group. He was Deputy Course Manager in 2015 before taking up the post of Course Manager at Glossop; two years later he returned in his current role.

“This is an exceptional machine combination,” he said. “Unlike some parts of the country, we had a very wet summer and it has continued into the autumn. This has created some challenges for the greenkeeping team, but the Ventrac has got us out of jail on many occasions. With its minimal ground pressure it can go out in all weather. The Contour deck is used on the semi-rough and the quality of finish for Captain’s Day this year was exceptional; we can lift the height of cut and also use it on the rough.

“The Turbine Blower attachment is very good; some years we get a gradual leaf fall in autumn, but this year we’ve had a heavy fall in a short space of time.  Add to this the wet conditions and the Ventrac has been brilliant. We can get onto the green surrounds, very close to the green edges, blow away the leaves without marking and keeping our members happy.”

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Club receives donations after vandalism

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Club receives donations after vandalism: A thriving Suffolk football club has received two kind-hearted gestures after vandals damaged two pitches and forced youth games to be postponed.

Volunteers at Stowupland Falcons FC were dismayed after quad bike vandals left tyre tracks on the field overnight on Saturday, November 2, causing the cancellation of Sunday youth fixtures.

Club receives donations after vandalism

But after hearing of the club’s plight in this newspaper, Malcolm Birt, from Ipswich, came forward to donate a roller to the club to help with repairs as well as a cheque for £50.

The club also received a £100 donation towards pitch repairs from neighbouring club Mendlesham FC.

In an email, Mendlesham chairman Tim Mack said he was “appalled” by the vandalism.

He said: “It is difficult enough keeping a football club funded and volunteer rich without having to deal with such mindless vandalism.”

Pete Mayhew, Stowupland Falcons chairman, said: “It was a really nice thing for Malcolm to do.

“It came out of the blue and he phoned up and said he wanted to help.

“He said he’d been involved with local football in his younger days and that the roller was more use to us than it was to him.

“He also donated £50 towards repairs which was really kind.”

Mr Mayhew added that the donation from Mendlesham FC showed that grass roots football “had come together”.

“There can be a little bit of rivalry between clubs,” he said. “But it’s nice to know that when it comes to the crunch, they wanted to help out a fellow football club.

“Ultimately, we are all trying to do the same thing and bring football to the people.

“Everyone talks about money in football, but let me tell you, there isn’t much at the grass roots level.

“£100 is a lot of money to Mendlesham and it’s such a kind thing for them to do.

“I think it shows that people do come together.”

Mr Mayhew said that due to the extensive rain in the past week, the club has so far been unable to work on the pitches.

“The games were called off due to the weather this weekend and so we haven’t been able to roll it yet.

“We are hoping to get on there at some stage on Sunday and get them ready for next weekend,” he added.

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Club Car extend PGA partnership

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Club Car extend PGA partnership: Club Car, a global leader in small-wheel, zero-emissions electric vehicles, today announced a four-year extension to its long-standing partnership with The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA).

Adding to a partnership that has already been a huge success for over 20 years, Club Car and The PGA will continue to collaborate on a wide range of important initiatives that will deliver significant value to PGA Members and the wider game of golf.

Club Car extend PGA partnership

Marco Natale, Vice President EMEA at Club Car, commented: “We continue to enjoy a richly-rewarding relationship with The PGA, and strongly value our status as a long-standing PGA Partner. Club Car’s objectives follow a similar path to those of The PGA in that we also put the development and enjoyment of the game at the heart of our business.

“Its 8,000 members are a vital component to the success of the golf industry, supporting the games of millions of golfers in 80 countries, and we look forward to playing our part in assisting The PGA’s great work through this exclusive partnership.”

The PGA’s vision for the future is built on the foundations of the past and focuses on the firm belief that the PGA Professional will always be central to the growth and success of the global game of golf.

Robert Maxfield, Chief Executive of The Professional Golfers’ Association, added: “The longevity of our relationship alone is testament to how successfully our two organisations continue to collaborate together. This new agreement will forge even closer ties, and we look forward to working with the whole of the Club Car family, delivering insights, initiative and projects at the heart of the game.”

This partnership extension will also open up the opportunity for Club Car to further develop relationships with other PGA Partners and PGA Branded Properties through annual networking and business events.

For more information about The PGA, visit: https://www.pga.info

For more information about Club Car, visit: https://www.clubcar.com

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Relationships renewed at Glasgow Golf Club

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Relationships renewed at Glasgow Golf Club: Founded as a members club in 1787, Glasgow Golf Club is proud of its heritage as the ninth oldest golf club in the world. The club jointly operates its heritage parkland course at Killermont on the outskirts of the city and its championship Gailes Links Course on the Firth of Clyde at Irvine in Ayrshire.

Between them, course managers Brian Dickson at Glasgow Gailes and Stuart Taylor at Killermont have nearly 70 years of experience leading their respective greenkeeping teams. They have recently re-established their working relationship with local John Deere dealer Nairn Brown Ltd of Busby by investing in a John Deere Financial deal for new course maintenance equipment worth more than £1 million in total, spread over five years.

Relationships renewed at Glasgow Golf Club

The finance package, a mix of mostly contract hire plus some finance lease, includes John Deere’s PowerGard Maintenance and Protection Plus service and repair plans, which provide comprehensive, budgeted cover for the full five-year period.

A total of 19 John Deere machines plus a Tru-Turf greens roller were initially delivered this summer, with the greater number going into Glasgow Gailes. These include E-Cut hybrid electric triplex greens mowers plus PrecisionCut walk-behind greens mowers and fairway mowers, tees & surrounds and TerrainCut rotary rough mowers, two ProGator utility vehicles equipped with amenity turf sprayers (one featuring a Rogers covered spray boom), XUV Gators and 4R Series compact tractors.

“We’re constantly arranging demonstrations of various manufacturers’ machines to see what’s available on the market and keep up with the latest technology,” says Stuart Taylor. “John Deere has made a lot of changes and adaptations in recent years to make jobs more efficient, such as the A Model mowers’ TechControl display, rear roller power brushes on the reels and different size cutting heads to suit ground conditions and undulations better.

“The 2653B utility triplex mower, which we use with 30in heads for cutting round bunker edges in particular, has had some big changes to make it easier to operate, including the SpeedLink quick adjust cutting units for really fast height of cut changes. The quality of cut is very consistent and the mowers hold their cut without needing to make lots of adjustments.

“Greasing the mowers with groomers fitted used to be quite awkward, but John Deere has made the machines easier to service now. The sprayer is also easier to attach and detach as well as to operate, using the automatic rate controller.

Relationships renewed at Glasgow Golf Club

“As the customer we need to look at the bottom line very closely, and we found the John Deere Financial package very straightforward as well as competitive. It provided an excellent paper trail, and everything was laid out clearly with nothing hidden away – this made a big difference. John Deere may not make everything we need, but we’ve been able to mix and match and get the best deal for the club.

“We already knew Nairn Brown is first class at providing prompt service and repairs when necessary, and John Deere’s overnight parts delivery is second to none. When you’re dealing with a big contract like this one, it’s also important to build the right relationship – you need to be flexible, accommodating and to work together. Build in the right machines and backup service, and the whole package just looked to be the best and most attractive option.”

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