Tag Archive for: England

Bowls England Supports GroundsFest

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Bowls England Supports GroundsFest: Bowls England, the national governing body for lawn bowls, is supporting GroundsFest and will be running a dedicated education programme at the event which will be held at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire on 20 – 21 September.

In a dedicated theatre on the event floor, the Bowls England education programme, sponsored by Dennis and SISIS, will run on both days of GroundsFest. The programme will combine insightful seminars and practical tips while Bowls England’s Expert Advisor Alan Lewis, will take to the stage to discuss a wide range of key topics.

Bowls England Supports GroundsFest

Bowls England Supports GroundsFest

Alan will be on hand to share his advice on end of season renovations to ensure that greens receive the required treatment. He will also be discussing best practice including tips on cutting, brushing, scarifying, spraying, verticutting, aerating and watering. Furthermore, there will be essential information about grant funding support, and choosing the correct grass seed.

A machinery workshop will give delegates an opportunity to see several turf maintenance techniques in action and will allow them to gain some hands-on experience with a variety of equipment.

Later in the day attendees will receive a tour of GroundsFest giving them the chance to speak to leading manufacturers and industry experts. The education programme will conclude with a ‘Turf Clinic’ question and answer session, where delegates will get the chance to ask some of their own questions to Alan.

Commenting on Bowls England’s decision to have a presence at GroundsFest, Jon Cockcroft, Chief Executive, said: “Bowling Greens truly are the beating heart of our sport.

“We are committed to helping clubs create the best possible environment for its participants to enjoy a superb bowling experience and are keen to work with industry specialists to educate clubs and provide them with the relevant information to achieve this.”

For more information, please visit www.groundsfest.com

You can also follow GroundsFest on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @GroundsFest for much more news, reviews and insightful views.

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England skipper wants fast pitches

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England skipper wants fast pitches: England captain Ben Stokes has warned Australia that he has asked for “fast, flat wickets” to take the attack to the Ashes holders later this year.

Read the full article from Barron’s here

England skipper wants fast pitches

England skipper wants fast pitches

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Dennis & SISIS partner with Bowls England

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Dennis & SISIS partner with Bowls England: Dennis & SISIS and Bowls England have announced a new five-year partnership which is aimed at improving playing surfaces, increasing participation and helping to safeguard the future of the sport.

Passionate about helping everyone get the most out of the sport, Bowls England recently unveiled a new strategy, ‘Fit For The Future’, which has been designed with the ultimate goal of getting more people playing and enjoying bowls.

However, to entice more people into the sport, there must be a focus on the playing conditions; and this is where Dennis and SISIS come in according to Bowls England’s Chief Executive Jon Cockcroft.

“What is absolutely critical for us is that the bowling greens up and down the country are in superb condition for people to play on,” he said. “Over recent years there has been more strain on our clubs, and the challenges of maintaining greens are becoming greater.

Consequently, this partnership with Dennis and SISIS will allow us to support our clubs, and our amazing volunteers, who work tirelessly to look after the greens.

“The partnership will add value to our members and ultimately improving the quality of the surfaces is going to make the playing experience better which will help grow our game and get more people playing bowls.”

Also committed to educating greenkeepers and raising the standards of bowling greens, Dennis and SISIS have long supported the sport of bowls. For over 20 years, they have been organising and hosting educational maintenance seminars throughout the country which are designed to ultimately help club greenkeepers and volunteers maintain their bowling greens.

The pandemic inevitably put a temporary halt to the seminars and as a result the two British manufacturers launched an innovative Virtual Bowling Green Maintenance Seminar Portal. The free online portal was an instant success bringing seminars to a much wider audience and also allowing members to benefit from a wealth of knowledge.

Roger Moore, Sales and Marketing Manager for Dennis and SISIS revealed his delight at the new partnership.

“The sport of bowls has played an important part in the history of Dennis and SISIS,” he said. “We want to be associated with Bowls England particularly at such an exciting time as they launch their five-year strategy.

“The plan is to continue next year with the live seminars and provide access to Bowls England members to the online seminar portal, which has monthly updates from experts, funding opportunities, and access to other partners. Whether you are an experienced greenkeeper or new to the industry the portal is an invaluable resource.

“The partnership will allow both parties to explore and develop other initiatives going forward and we hope we can play a part helping Bowls England’s achieve their goals It also allows us to give something back towards the future growth and sustainability of the bowls market.”

The partnership comes ahead of an exciting year for both Dennis and SISIS and Bowls England; 2022 marks the centenary year for the Dennis brand and it is also the year of the of the Commonwealth Games, in which the greens at Victoria Park in Leamington (also the home of Bowls England) will host the bowls tournament.

“There is a wonderful synergy to this partnership,” continued Jon. “Firstly – heritage; the heritage of our sport and the heritage of the Dennis and SISIS brands. Secondly, both have an appetite for quality. Thirdly, bowls as a sport and the Dennis and SISIS brands are quintessentially British; and last but certainly not least, both Bowls England and Dennis and SISIS have a desire to give back to communities. It is a perfect partnership.”

For further information please contact Dennis and SISIS on 01332 824 777

Further information about the range of maintenance products available can be found by visiting www.dennisuk.com / www.sisis.com

For more news, reviews and insightful views, you can follow Dennis on Twitter and Instagram @DennisMowers and SISIS @SISISMachinery You can like the Facebook page – www.facebook.com/DennisMowersUK and www.facebook.com/SISISMachinery

You can also view the latest Dennis and SISIS videos by visiting www.youtube.com/DennisMowers and www.youtube.com/SISISMachinery

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England groundsmen face uncertain times

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England groundsmen face uncertain times: While most counties have furloughed staff and players in a bid to save money as they wait to see what, if any, cricket will be played this summer, a hardy bunch of groundsmen remain in situ, trying their best to keep on top of the country’s 18 first-class grounds.

Without pitches to prepare though, their job is very different to what it would normally be at this time of year. “I know everyone thinks we are just grass cutters but that’s pretty much what we are at the moment,” jokes Stu Kerrison, Essex’s head groundsman.

England groundsmen face uncertain times

England groundsmen face uncertain times

He has been with Essex since 1984 and is the only one of the club’s ground staff to have been kept on full-time with the rest placed on furlough. It is a situation which has been mirrored across ground staffs up and down the country. But even though there is no cricket, there is still plenty to be done and the remaining groundsmen have had to pick up the slack. Understandably, they have had to prioritise the most crucial tasks.

For Kerrison, that means the odd jobs around the ground, like trimming the hedges, are being left for now so he can focus on the square and outfield. Gary Barwell, the head groundsman at Edgbaston, has only been cutting the outfield one way rather than the two ways he would usually do, which gives it that polished finish you see on the TV. “You are just coping with it,” Barwell tells Cricbuzz. “You knock a few things off that aren’t important.”

One of the biggest focus areas has been keeping enough water on the grounds in the unseasonably warm weather. Barwell has computer irrigation at Edgbaston so he can turn it on from home but the watering at Chelmsford is done via a good old fashioned tap and sprinkler system. “That’s been a battle because it takes three and a half days to water the outfield with our sprinkler,” says Kerrison.

The other major challenge has been perhaps the only certainty facing the groundsmen at present: the grass will not stop growing. And given the warm weather throughout April, followed by a bout of rain this week, it is growing fast. Barwell took 28 boxes of grass off the Edgbaston outfield on Friday. “Every day the outfield at the main ground needs to be cut whenever you’re there,” he says. Kerrison has sprayed the Chelmsford outfield with a growth regulator to slow things down.

For Neil Godrich, Derbyshire’s head groundsman, the enforced break has been an opportunity to recover the square from the winter’s rainfall. “We had quite a lot of bare ends on the main square because the rain washed all the seed around in October and November time,” he tells Cricbuzz.

Click here to read the original article

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Football’s “Made in England” Pitches

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Football’s “Made in England” Pitches: Sunday’s World Football Cup Final, the first-ever to be staged on a revolutionary hi-tech playing surface, is set to deliver a multi-million pound boost to SIS Pitches, the English firm behind the groundbreaking technology.

Cumbria-based SIS Pitches installed its hybrid surfaces using patented fibre injection technology with undersoil aeration system in six of the 12 tournament venues, including Moscow’s 81,000-capacity Luzhniki Stadium, which will host Sunday’s decider between France and Croatia.

Football’s “Made in England” Pitches

Luzhniki’s pitch uses SISGrass, – 95% natural grass reinforced with 5% synthetic fibres – and SISAir, a unique aeration system capable of removing a deluge of rain from the surface in just five seconds, whilst optimising root moisture via a network of undersoil pipes.

George Mullan, CEO of SIS Pitches, said: “With around one billion people expected to watch the final, there’s clearly pressure to get the pitch in top condition, despite it being used for over 60 hours – the equivalent of a full Premier League season – in the past five weeks. That would have been impossible on a traditional all-grass pitch.

“Everyone has been raving about the quality of football at this tournament and our pitches have certainly given Modric, Lukaku, Mbappe and Kane a brilliant platform to perform on. The feedback we’ve had from everyone involved has been hugely positive. It’s the first worldwide showcase for these technologies to be combined at a World Football Cup final and it’s performed perfectly.”

The six World Football Cup stadia using SISGrass are Luzhniki, Spartak, Samara, Kaliningrad, Saransk and Rostov.

Football’s “Made in England” Pitches

Having installed over 80 hybrid surfaces worldwide, including English Premier League sides Chelsea, Newcastle United, Fulham and Bournemouth, as well as Scottish champions Celtic and the English FA’s St George’s Park complex, with Barcelona to follow, SIS Pitches predicts annual revenues will grow from £55m to £65m in 2019.

Mullan said: “We’re seeing huge interest from professional sports teams in the US and Japan, as well as the enormous American university sector and we’re installing eight SISGrass pitches in France this summer alone.”

Founded in 2001, SIS Pitches employs over 340 staff worldwide, with manufacturing headquarters in Maryport, Cumbria.

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