Tag Archive for: Crucial

Data crucial for new Harlequins head groundsman

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Data crucial for new Harlequins head groundsman: Using data and the GrasPro system, Harlequins F.C Head Groundsman Adam Witchell has made a quick start to his first job in rugby.

With decades worth of experience in football, Adam brings extensive turf knowledge to the role, but knew there would be a learning curve with changing sports.

Data crucial for new Harlequins head groundsman

Data crucial for new Harlequins head groundsman

Working on behalf of Nurture Landscapes at The Stoop, Adam started in July 2022. With the grow-in complete and no performance data to reference, he started collating information.

“The first thing I wanted was a data recording platform, and GrasPro is always the one I will go straight to,” he said.

“I’ve always been quite data-driven. If I don’t have the numbers, I can’t just look at the pitch and work it out. Without the numbers, it’s just an opinion.

“I think it’s beneficial straight away. For example, when recording the moisture levels and water, I could look back and think it seemed to get a bit more growth at these times. Using the weather reports, you can see the difference in temperature between the highs and lows and find out the evening temperatures were slightly colder at that time. So, it’s nothing to do with the products you’ve used. You just didn’t have the residual temperature in the evening that will help the grass continue.

“Regardless if there was performance quality data or not, I’d still be doing the same because this was all new to me. Even if there was data, I’d still want to see mine, because what I’m doing in rugby might not have the same outcome as it previously has on a football pitch.

“So, I’ll know the products that have and haven’t worked during the grow-in. Next year, I can look at what I’ve done on the GrasPro system and alter and change. Even if it’s just the amount of product I put down or the regularity of applying it.”

 Building Trust

For Adam, an early part of the job is gaining the trust of his new employers, Nurture Landscapes and Harlequins, and a large part of that is his monthly reports, which he sees as vital.

“I write a report to Nurture and Harlequins every month, and it details all the information on what I’ve done, when I’ve done it and the products and maintenance.

“I take that directly from GrasPro because you can download graphs, works and charts and put them in the report. It makes my monthly report writing much easier and much more in-depth.

“I could write a load down and bore them with war and peace and detail. But if you can see graphs and see what’s been done, it makes it easier and quicker for them. I find they are more receptive to visual reports.

“What I have found with rugby is the budgets aren’t quite as big as I’ve had with football. So, I have to get the most out of what I use because there isn’t the option of an unlimited budget.

“There’s always pressure to get it right the first time because I’ve got Nurture Landscapes who have employed me and Harlequins who have taken me on. Their previous groundsman was here for 12 years, and now, this new guy is coming who might do things a bit differently, which people will keep an eye on.

“You’ve got to get results or explain what you’re doing just to get that trust with Nurture and Harlequins.”

Setting Rugby Specific KPIs

Even though he is only six months into the role, Adam is in the early stages of collaboration with the playing and medical staff.

Moisture was one of the most significant learning curves early on, with Adam aiming for the standard 20%-24% used in football. He quickly discovered this caused digging up during scrums and mauls, and by referring back to his data, he was able to see a higher moisture level was required.

Sharing the data to prepare the pitch can also benefit the coaching staff, and eventually, Adam is hoping to benchmark the pitch to reduce injuries.

He explains: “I can look back on what was a good and bad game, then I can start speaking to the coaches about how I’m preparing the pitch.

“I’ll test it before just to let the coaches know the moisture, this is what it was like at this game, and this is how it held together better.

“Then they will find out going forward the more I take the data that they can set their players up slightly differently, maybe. So they are starting to engage a little bit more on the playing side with the data that I’m recording to help them set up for a game.

“Hopefully, moving forward, it will help with player recovery and development. If we find that players are cramping up at a certain time during games, we can start looking at hardness, traction and moisture as well. And when we start putting them together, I think we’ll start seeing data and values. And then working with the medical department and making it a bit safer, and then hopefully working to have a surface which they can use that does cause less injuries.

“That’s far off, and I haven’t got there with them, but I am hoping using GrasPro and all the data I record, I can push that forward and work with the sports scientists a little bit more in how we can set the pitch, so there are fewer injuries.”

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Crucial year for parks and green spaces

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Crucial year for parks and green spaces: Green Space charity Fields in Trust has published a 2021 Impact Report detailing their work to champion, support and protect parks and green spaces across the UK.

It was a significant year for Fields in Trust, a pioneering partnership with Liverpool City Council was announced in March 2021. The council are legally protecting all the city’s parks and green spaces, forever. Securing 100 parks, totalling over 1,000 hectares, Liverpool will become the first city in the UK where everyone lives no more than a ten-minute walk from a legally protected green space.  Partnerships with the City of Edinburgh Council and the County Borough of Wrexham have also secured multiple green-space portfolios for the communities in those cities.

Crucial year for parks and green spaces

Crucial year for parks and green spaces

Over the last two years we have relied on our local green spaces more than ever; a vital part of the local environment helping us rebalance and recover. Alongside their value for health and wellbeing, urban parks increasingly have a role to play in the mitigation of climate change, but parks and green spaces are not equally distributed across the UK. In May, Fields in Trust President, HRH The Duke of Cambridge launched the 2021 edition of the Green Space Index – Fields in Trust’s pioneering initiative to quantify and analyse inequality of access to local green space. The visit took place as part of the royal visit to Scotland in advance of the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow.

Fields in Trust Chief Executive Helen Griffiths said: “We have seen a major shift in the way people talk about, visit and value their local parks. Our parks have provided a lifeline throughout lockdown and now, coming out of the pandemic, we can all play our part to make sure local green spaces will remain a healthy part of the local environment contributing to our wellbeing, our community connections and mitigating the impact of climate change. We must make sure they will be protected and available for the whole community and for future generations”

The Fields in Trust Impact Report is presented as an online interactive resource including maps video and photographs and infographics.

Explore the Fields in Trust 2021 Impact Report www.fieldsintru.st/ir2021

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Invigorator Crucial At Kingsbarns

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Invigorator Crucial At Kingsbarns: ICL’s Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator 4-0-8+2MgO+4Fe is playing a crucial role in the fairway maintenance programme at Kingsbarns Golf Links, reports Course and Facilities Manager Innes Knight.

Golf has been enjoyed over the links land of Kingsbarns dating all the way back to 1793 when the Merchants and Lairds of Kingsbarns drafted articles to form the Kingsbarns Golfing Society. In 1850 the land was ploughed and transformed into farming due to farm land being more valuable than golf throughout that period. However, the society was re-established in 1922 and a nine-hole course was laid out on the links about Kingsbarns Bay. This course served the golfing needs of the locals and holidaymakers until the onset of the Second World War when the Links was mined in the national security defence effort.

Invigorator Crucial At Kingsbarns

Golf was resurrected on Kingsbarns Links at the dawning of the 21st Century and in 2001 it was named as one of the co-hosts of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Innes started in his role at Kingsbarns in the final stages of construction and admitted that it was somewhat of a baptism of fire with the course being selected to host a high-calibre professional tour event so soon after its opening.

“I came here on 17 March 1999 and saw the final stages of the construction. We opened in July 2000 and then was hit with ‘you’ve got a big tournament next year’ so the pressure was absolutely on at that point. The owners realised it was going to be a success and started investing more money. It was an immense effort by the whole team and the Dunhill was a huge success.”

The fact that Kingsbarns was selected to host the Dunhill so soon after its opening is testament to just how magnificent the course is. However, the standard was set and Innes has worked hard to keep the course at a consistently high level. Selecting the correct products is essential and Innes says that ICL’s Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator 4-0-8+2MgO+4Fe helps him to create that essential ‘links feel’ that Kingsbarns demands.

“On the fairways it is all about trying to create the links feel, so you want them firm, fast and able to withstand the wear. However, you do not want them to look too polished otherwise you can get criticised for that – it is all about finding the correct balance. We have two applications a season with Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator – one at the start of the season in the middle of March and one just after Dunhill in October which takes us through the winter period. The product is crucial for our fairways maintenance programme and we’ve seen great results.”

This low nitrogen, high potassium fertilizer contains iron to help harden turf in spring and autumn consists of fine granules for quick dispersal, and Innes believes that good spreading and fortunate weather is the ideal combination to get the best results.

Invigorator Crucial At Kingsbarns

“We are using a local farmer’s spreader now and it is working very well. The problem on a links course with low fertility is that you put something on and it shows up everything. This isn’t really the case on a parkland course when you are maybe using 300kg of nitrogen a year, but when you are only putting a miniscule amount out you have to get it right.

“If you put fertilizer out you really want it to rain the next day or a couple of days after and not be damp because of the iron content. We got such a good hit this year. It was dry when we applied it, there was no wind and then it rained the very next day.

“We saw a great response after just five days and every fairway was consistent. It gave them that hit they needed to pick them up at the start of the season. Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator is such a good product and if you get a bit of good weather at the same time as you apply it then the results are unbeatable.”

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

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