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Drainage cure for Buckingham West End

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Drainage cure for Buckingham West End: Buckingham West End Bowls Club was founded in 1910 and enjoys a strong and loyal membership. Situated in Buckingham itself, the club aims to promote the game of Flat Green Bowls and provide facilities for the social needs and well-being of its members.

As a mixed club, they play men’s, ladies and mixed matches with other clubs in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. Greenkeeper Ian Jones joined the club in 2013 at which time, he says, the green drained well but in 2018 they started getting problems with drainage. On Christmas Eve 2020, the nearby river flooded the green to a depth of about 2ft. Although most of the water drained away within 24 hours, because of the drainage problem, part of the green remained underwater so long the roots of the grass began to rot.

Drainage cure for Buckingham West End

Drainage cure for Buckingham West End

“We use contractors Avonmore Associates to do spraying, aeration in autumn and top dressing and we worked with Avonmore’s Brian Buttler to take some core samples. While the topsoil was good, we found there was no drainage layer,” says Ian. Brian’s view was the constant walking on the green over the many years had caused severe compaction. They coupled this with another reason. The green sits on yellow clay, being near Bedford, which is famous for brick making using the clay over the past hundred years. Ian had seen an article on a South Wales bowling club that had a similar drainage problem and they had called in Terrain Aeration, whom Brian also knew of. Whereas normal aeration is an accepted part of a good greenkeeping regime, it only reaches a depth of inches.

Terrain Aeration’s system treats the ground down to a depth of one metre. At this depth, the ground is usually so compacted it requires fracturing to open up fissures and allow drainage. Their Terralift machine hammers a hollow probe through the soil using a JCB road breaker gun, and compressed air is released up to 20Bar (280psi). At the end of the air blast, they inject dried seaweed, which sticks to the fissure walls. This expands and contracts with the moisture in the soil to keep the area breathing. Ian and club member volunteers who help maintain the green backfilled the 1.5-inch probe holes with Lytag aggregate and covered with topsoil. The green was playable almost immediately.

Drainage cure for Buckingham West End

Drainage cure for Buckingham West End

“Had we put in field drains it would have been very disruptive and using Terrain Aeration’s system meant we could do the work in the season,” says Ian. “Then we had no rain for some weeks so we had no idea if it had worked until the heaven’s opened in June. After severe downpours, we found the green drained far better than in years and the club is overjoyed with the result.”

Terrain Aeration 01449 673783 www.terrainaeration.co.uk

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New drainage at Cleator Moor

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New drainage at Cleator Moor: Cleator Moor Celtic Football Club has employed Duncan Ross Ltd to complete the first of two stages of drainage work as the club aims to increase the usage of their stadium pitch.

The North West Counties Football League (NWCFL) Division One North side gained promotion to the league in the 2017/18 season and took the additional funding opportunities available to a Step 6 football team to improve their pitch.

New drainage at Cleator Moor

New drainage at Cleator Moor

In the past five seasons the club – like other teams in the area – struggled with postponements during the winter, limiting the opportunities for 14 teams outside their first team to play on the stadium pitch.

Promotion meant the money available to them from the Football Stadium Improvement Fund increased from £20k to £100k. This was combined with grants from the Copeland Enabling Fund, Copeland Community Fund, United Utilities Legacy Funding and money raised by the club, all of which has already begun to make a difference.

“Drainage has been a big issue for us because we’re in one of the wettest parts of the country you could be in,” Cleator Moor Celtic FC committee member, David Graham explained. “The pitch was predominately clay, so the drainage was really, really poor. Going back five years or so before we got involved with the pitch improvement programme, we could go weeks on end without playing games, particularly in the worst parts of the winter, so we could go three or four weeks at a time without playing a home game.

“Being able to get more of our teams playing on the main pitch is what we wanted. We’re also hoping to prevent fixture congestion like we’ve had in previous seasons where our first team would get to April and play Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and again on Saturday.

New drainage at Cleator Moor

New drainage at Cleator Moor

“We’ve wanted to improve the pitch for some time, and we’ve been working towards it for five years. Initially we sought advice from Craig Lewis at the Cumberland FA who put us in touch with Ian Mather-Brewster from the IOG, and he’s been a massive part of this project since getting us started on the Football Association’s Pitch Improvement Programme five seasons ago.

“He, along with Dale Firth from Professional Sportsturf Design and Duncan Ross, have been instrumental in putting the two-stage drainage plan together and we’re hoping to see a big improvement during this season after having the pitch levelled and the primary piped drainage installed. We’re 100% happy with the drainage and construction work Duncan and his team have done, and we’re looking forward to completing the project in the summer.”

Stage one was completed 10th July 2019 after 320 ton of sand, and 200 ton of soil were used to level the field in preparation for the primary piped drainage to be installed. A soakaway was also constructed by the Duncan Ross team as part of this stage before stage two commences in May 2020.

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Drainage Key For Golf Protection

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Drainage Key For Golf Protection: With the UK’s increasingly erratic weather having a detrimental impact on golf, Aggregates Industries’ has stated that effective drainage is now more important than ever before when it comes to the successful design and management of golf courses.

According to a recent report, golf is facing an increase in unplayable holes, winter course closures and disruption to professional tournaments due to increased rainfall, all of which are a growing concern for the sport.

Drainage Key For Golf Protection

Extreme weather including wetter winters are also causing waterlogging and disease to grass and greens, the report added. As a result, the Greater Glasgow area alone has seen a 20% reduction in playing time on golf courses over the last decade.

Steve Curley, general manager for Lytag at Aggregate Industries, a leading supplier of building materials, comments: “The UK has seen six of the seven wettest years on record since 2000 and record-breaking wet winters in 2014 and 2015 – which is clearly having a damaging impact on golf and a growing concern for golf courses up and down the country.

“For golf clubs looking to – literally – weather the storm, having an effective drainage system in place is now considered paramount for protecting a green and ensuring playability in all weather conditions.”

According to Aggregate Industries, core to a superior drainage system is the use of secondary aggregates such as Sportag®, an innovative lightweight solution made from Lytag featuring a unique rounded shape and material properties that makes it ideal for land drainage applications.

Reducing the risk of flooding, Sportag is able to transmit water up to 10 times faster than gravel, which means it is particularly suited to golf courses, including slit trenches, gravel banding and Shelton Systems as well as fairways where firm dry surfaces are critical. What’s more, the incredibly sustainable solution’s 40% void ratio helps aid longevity, improving aeration and allowing roots to penetrate further.

Proving its credentials during recent works at Woburn Golf Club, Sportag was installed within trenches 25mm wide, spaced 2m apart and at a depth of 300mm. A quick and simple installation process, the course was immediately available for use, damage to the course was minimal, therefore keeping disruption to a minimum.

Steve Curley adds: “Due to its super absorbent properties, Sportag has been proven to aid with effective drainage and high moisture retention as demonstrated in the recent case of Woburn Golf Club. For golf clubs looking to provide first class playing surfaces year round, this revolutionary solutions will not disappoint.”

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Drain Today And Play Tomorrow!

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Install Primary and Secondary Drainage with a Shelton Supertrencher: Shelton’s award winning Supertrencher+ trenchers are designed to install primary and secondary drainage systems on any amenity grass with minimal ground disturbance making them ideal for the busy sportsturf market, as minimal recovery time is required before the turf is back in play. In fact it is even possible to drain today and play tomorrow!

The initial concept of the Supertrencher came about 8 years ago after the team received a number of enquiries from customers asking for a trenching machine with improved performance in wet conditions. After much discussion and design work, the Supertrencher +625 launched in 2009; a trencher which is capable of installing the majority of drainage systems and remains a bestseller today. It was shortly followed by the Supertrencher +760 the largest trencher in the range and then the 2 smaller machines the 560 and 450. O’Carroll Sportsturf Contractors in County Offaly in Ireland  are one of Sheltons longest standing customers and have been running Shelton Supertrencher 625’s for over 15 years.

Brian O’Carroll said: “We diversified our landscaping business into the sportsturf market over 15 years ago and we did a lot of research into finding a machine which would perform to our requirements. We have now had four Supertrencher 625’s in the fleet which we use  in conjunction with a Shelton 6 Tonne Fast Flow. I’ve operated other trenchers when I worked for a sportsturf drainage contractor in Australia and I think the finish you get with a Shelton machine is second to none. They are always trying to improve their machinery for the benefit of the operators and welcome feedback, even if it’s making little tweaks to improve such as the fact you can change the cutters through a removable section of hood which makes it much easier and quicker, as you are standing up. We have a policy of continuously investing in our machinery and using Shelton trenchers alongside flotation tyres means we get a really good clean finish with minimal disturbance and ultimately that’s what greenkeepers are looking for.”

There are 4 trenchers in the Supertrencher range; the 450, 560, 625 and the 760, each number relating to the maximum depth of the trench the machine can install, so the Supertrencher+760 will accurately dig trenches up to 760mm in depth and up to 155mm wide and the whole range can be fitted with laser guiding capability.

How the Supertrencher+ works

The Supertrencher+’s digging wheel, in line with the centre of the tractor, excavates soil from the trench which is thrown into a large aperture at the front of the machine, and then elevated via two conveyors into a trailer or dumper running alongside, leaving a clean trench which is ready for laying piping or any other service required. The Supertrencher+’s conveyor mounting point is hinged so that it can be turned through 90° to lay alongside the body of the machine for transport. Moving the conveyor to the transport position opens up a massive inspection port should the need arise to look inside the housing. Conveyor height and depth of trench are adjusted hydraulically.

The 2 speed gearbox driving the digging wheel enables the operator to better match the digging speed of the wheel to the soil conditions, slow for wet soils and fast for hard dry soils. The offset of this gearbox enables the machine to run down the centre of the tractor whilst still maintaining minimum PTO operating angles, so reducing the wear on the universal joints.

For more information on the Supertrencher call in to see Shelton Drainage on stand B11 will the BTME on 23-25 January.

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