Tag Archive for: FA

Agrovista Amenity Partners with Worcestershire FA

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Agrovista Amenity Partners with Worcestershire FA: Agrovista Amenity is proud to announce a new 12-month partnership with Worcestershire Football Association (FA) aimed at supporting the grassroots football community by providing comprehensive grass pitch care solutions.

As a recommended provider for all Worcestershire FA clubs and organisations, Agrovista Amenity will deliver a range of services designed to improve grass pitch care and maintenance. This includes detailed soil agronomy work, which involves testing soil content in Agrovista’s state-of-the-art laboratory. Based on these insights, tailored pitch care packages will be recommended to optimise turf health and pitch presentation.

Agrovista Amenity Partners with Worcestershire FA

Agrovista Amenity Partners with Worcestershire FA

Agrovista Amenity offers a wide array of expertise and products, including fertilisers, grass seed, and soil agronomy services. These resources are designed to address the unique needs of each pitch, ensuring that every club benefits from superior playing surfaces.

Jack Handsaker, the Lead Football Development Officer for Facilities and Partnerships at Worcestershire FA, expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership: “I am delighted to work with Agrovista to further enhance our offering to improve Worcestershire’s grass pitches. Our clubs and organisations will benefit from the great products and services offered this season.”

Dan Hughes, Head of Commercial for Agrovista Amenity, highlighted the significance of this collaboration: “Partnering with Worcestershire FA perfectly complements our #ForOurSports campaign, reflecting our dedication to supporting our customers at every stage. This collaboration is focused on improving football pitch standards throughout the county, ensuring clubs have access to top-quality agronomic advice and products for their players and communities.”

Worcestershire FA’s Chief Operating Officer, Ollie Williams, emphasised the strategic importance of partnering with local companies: “We want to work with Worcestershire companies to support Worcestershire football. This is a key part of our new 4-year strategy for 2024-28, and we would love to hear from organisations who can contribute to the growth and development of local football.”

Through this partnership, Agrovista Amenity and Worcestershire FA are committed to driving the growth of grassroots football by ensuring that clubs have the resources and support they need to maintain outstanding playing surfaces.

For more information about Agrovista UK, visit www.agrovista.co.uk/amenity

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SISIS signals results for Worcestershire FA

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SISIS signals results for Worcestershire FA: Two SISIS machines have led to impressive pitch improvements at Worcestershire FA’s headquarters at Claines Lane, Worcester.

Worcestershire FA’s new state-of-the-art headquarters has been designed to provide a positive football hub for the community for years to come. The impressive facilities includes both a full-size natural pitch and a 3G pitch, as well as floodlights, a covered seating area, modern changing rooms, community areas, office areas, and training facilities.

SISIS signals results for Worcestershire FA

SISIS signals results for Worcestershire FA

Paul Loader, Site Co-ordinator for Worcestershire FA, is the man responsible for maintaining the site and it’s not a job he takes lightly. “This pitch is my life – it’s my little baby,” he said. “My main role is to make sure that the 3G pitch is maintained correctly and that the grass pitch is in the best condition it possibly can be for games.”

Paul’s job was made that little easier after Worcestershire FA received funding which enabled them to invest in some new turf maintenance equipment. Included within the new fleet of machinery was a tractor, a SISIS Quadraplay and SISIS Multitiner.

The multi-functional SISIS Quadraplay single pass maintenance system is perfect for busy groundspersons as it incorporates a mounted frame for up to four implements such as grooming rakes, spikers, slitters, rollers and brushes. The implements can be fitted to the mainframe in any order and can be independently adjusted to achieve the desired effect.

Compact, robust, versatile and with the ability to carry out up to four operations simultaneously – the Quadraplay makes life a lot easier for many groundspersons.

For further aeration requirements Paul relies on the SISIS Multitiner 1.8m – a tractor mounted drum-type aerator. It has three drums with independent rotation and its interchangeable tines with a maximum depth of 100mm ensure excellent turf care when the time comes to aerate.

“Since we’ve invested in new kit, the pitch has improved massively,” said Paul. The SISIS Multitiner and the Quadraplay work brilliantly together.

“On the Quadraplay I mainly use the slitter and the brush which is great for matchday presentation. The brush leaves a lovely stripe and is particularly helpful if I haven’t been able to cut the pitch for a few days. I’ll also be using the rake to bring some of the debris out of the pitch.

“At least once or twice a month between cuts I will use the Multitiner to get some holes on to the surface of the pitch – it is excellent at getting air in to the ground.

“The pitch used to be quite uneven, but these machines have helped to level it all off. We’ve noticed a big difference in this respect and when I go over the pitch, I can no longer feel any bumps.

“Both of these SISIS machines have been fantastic and I can easily understand why they are being recommended to FA counties across the whole of the UK.”

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact SISIS on 01332 824 777 or visit www.sisis.com

For more news, reviews and insightful views, you can follow SISIS on Twitter or Instagram @SISISMachinery and like the company’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/SISISMachinery. You can also view the latest SISIS videos by visiting www.youtube.com/SISISMachinery

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FA bolster ‘Power Up Your Grass Pitch’ campaign

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FA bolster ‘Power Up Your Grass Pitch’ campaign: Shropshire FA is ready to bolster the offering from the new ‘Power Up Your Grass Pitch’ campaign using the expertise and machinery of Campey Turf Care Systems.

The new initiative from the Premier League, The FA, and the Government’s Football Foundation aims to revolutionise the state of grass football pitches in England. The mission set out by the Football Foundation is to improve over 7,000 grass pitches by 2024 and 20,000 by 2030 to ensure the 12 million grassroots footballers have great places to play.

FA bolster ‘Power Up Your Grass Pitch’ campaign

FA bolster ‘Power Up Your Grass Pitch’ campaign

A significant part of this is reducing the 150,000 cancelled matches due to poor pitch quality last season, and at Shropshire FA, this role falls to Strategy, Facilities and Partnerships Lead Andy Weston.

With over 20-years of experience in football administration, Andy is no stranger to the impact pitches can have. After seeing Campey in action at an open day, he knew they were prime candidates to push their pitch improvement efforts for 180 clubs in Shropshire forward. Jason Moody, Product Specialist for Campeys, has worked closely with Andy to ensure that the right balance of equipment and back-up support was in place.

“Campey has a track record of working with a number of other County FAs, and we did a demo day with them at one of our clubs, and they gave a run-through of the machinery they offer, what it does and gave some hands-on tips. We had several clubs come along, and the feedback was great, so we decided to make something more formal to showcase what they do and how it can improve pitches in our county.

“High-quality pitches are vital to the game, and we are in a position now where the funding and opportunities are there to support the volunteers who work tirelessly week in and week out, and the expertise of Campey is really important to what we want to achieve.

“The game can’t run without volunteers and particularly at grassroots level. You’re reliant on them, and it’s imperative that organisations like Campey are on hand to work with us to provide that support and knowledge on the ground. In these last 18 months, we have all spent a lot of time on Zoom calls. Still, in this instance, I don’t think you can beat being on the ground and hands-on with the equipment because any little snippets of information they can share with those grounds people is invaluable. I think even the most experienced grounds people will benefit from having a conversation with Campey and listening to their experts.

“As well as Jason from Campeys, we are also working with Pitch Advisor Kevin Duffield, so with all those different bodies involved, it is really helpful to the grounds teams up and down our county.”

Teams in Shropshire range from AFC Telford United down the football pyramid to Sunday league outfits. The one thing they all have in common is the need for a good pitch, and through this initiative, Andy aims to make the whole of the county a better place to play football.

For more information on the funding opportunities available in Shropshire, contact Andy.Weston@shropshirefa.com or info@campeyturfcare.com.

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Waterhouses benefit from FA partnership

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Waterhouses benefit from FA partnership: Waterhouses Parish Council has become the latest organisation to benefit from the partnership between Staffordshire FA and Campey Turf Care Systems with funding providing a SISIS Quadraplay, New Holland tractor and Trimax Striker.

The Staffordshire based parish council has taken advantage of funding from the Football Foundation as part of the Pitch Improvement Programme and was awarded the remaining 25% of money as a grant from Staffordshire Moorland District Council as part of its Sports Village Programme.

Waterhouses benefit from FA partnership

Waterhouses benefit from FA partnership

Waterhouses Sports field is equivalent to three full-sized football pitches, and hosts Waterhouses FC amongst other senior and junior teams, and provides a grass area for other parish activities.

According to Waterhouses Parish Council Clerk Chris Hinton, the benefits will be two-fold with the trio of machines in place. First, he believes regular specified maintenance will increase the quality of the pitches, whilst doing the work themselves will save money on contracting costs.

“We are very genuine in our gratitude to the funders and to the Staffordshire FA who glued everything together. We are very keen to use the advice of John Campey at Campey Ltd and Andy Jackson from Stoke City,” Chris begins. “I think we’ve received great advice which we’ve followed and I’m really pleased for everybody that they are going to have much better facilities.

“In years gone by, the senior pitch was one of the best in the area. When it was first installed, it was funded by the local quarry, and they put in very good drainage, which made a massive difference. Over the years since then, the pitches haven’t received any real treatment, apart from basic mowing and rolling and a little annual dressing and seeding etc.

“The programme we have in place now started in the summer of 2019, when I became aware of the pitch improvement scheme and capital grants to help buy the equipment you need to tie it all together.

“When the grant became a reality, we were required to get quotations, and Campey were one of the first people we turned to because we were advised that they are experts in the field. After going through the process, we definitely wanted to make sure the equipment we got was fit for purpose, and with their advice, we fulfilled that brief.

“Before, the maintenance was on a contract with a local sub-contractor who did a good job, but it would be done at times when weather permitted and not necessarily when we asked for it or be exactly what we needed.

“Now we can mow the pitch more frequently, to a more specific level depending on the weather and the needs, and if we want to, we can put the Quadraplay on and slit, scarify or brush. It’s going to make a massive difference to the surfaces, and we’ll save money because we’ll either use our local Lengthsman or volunteers.”

Staffordshire FA Partnerships and Communications Officer Gareth Thomas added: “We’re delighted that Waterhouses Parish Council has embraced the support available to them. Campey’s ongoing support for our programme is ensuring that we can meet our objectives of improving as many natural turf pitches as possible across Staffordshire, and we look forward to supporting more grassroots clubs and organisations going forward.”

With maintenance under the parish’s control, the target is now to restore the ground’s reputation, which used to be renowned for its quality. Improvement works commenced in the 2021/22 preseason with ShockWaving to relieve compaction and a series of recommendations via the Pitch Improvement Programme, which should see a further improvement in quality from the start of next season and beyond.

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Staffordshire FA and Campey continue partnership

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Staffordshire FA and Campey continue partnership: Following on from a successful working relationship with Campey Turf Care over several years, including the development of a formal partnership in 2020, Staffordshire FA is delighted to extend our partnership with Campey Turf Care for the 2021/22 Season, as the Association’s recommended equipment supplier.

One of the key strands of the Staffordshire FA grass pitch improvement strategy, is to support our clubs and grounds persons to be able to invest in quality equipment to maintain their playing surfaces, and for several years now, Campey Turf Care have developed an excellent reputation and relationships with many clubs across Staffordshire.

Staffordshire FA and Campey continue partnership

Staffordshire FA and Campey continue partnership

As the Football Association and Football Foundation continue to invest in the ongoing improvement of grass pitches, there has never been a better time for grassroots clubs to embrace the support and resources which can enhance their playing surfaces, and subsequently improve the experience of their members.

Gareth Thomas, Partnerships & Communications Officer: “Staffordshire FA have been actively working to improve grass pitches across the county since 2012, and we continue to be very encouraged by the positive impact our programme is having. However, there is still plenty of work to do with over a thousand pitches across the county, and we can only achieve our objectives by working together with various key partners across the industry.”

“Campey Turf Care have played a key part in supporting Staffordshire FA and our member clubs during that period, not only with the supply of quality equipment, but also via valuable education and aftercare with our clubs and volunteers, and support with the educational workshops we deliver.

He continued: “Grassroots football clubs can access support via the Football Foundation ‘Pitch Power’ process, which in turn provides clubs with a detailed report and recommendations from our Regional Pitch Advisor at the Grounds Management Association. Included within each Pitch Power report is a section on recommended equipment, which clubs can then access 75% funding for, via a grant from the Football Foundation.”

“On receipt of their Pitch Power report, clubs across Staffordshire regularly ask us where they can access quality equipment to invest in; having a trusted partner like Campey Turf Care really assists the County FA and our clubs with that process, and we look forward to developing the partnership and supporting more of our clubs in 2021/22 and beyond.”

John Campey, Director at Campey Turf Care, commented: “We are delighted to extend our involvement with Staffordshire FA for the coming season. Working together we have provided a vital link between manufacturer/supplier and those in the field. Combining our innovation and expertise in product design with education and hands-on experience from grassroots clubs is a powerful step in achieving best practise at every level.”

For further information on the Staffordshire FA grass pitch improvement strategy and how your club can benefit from the programme, please contact: support@staffordshirefa.com

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