Tag Archive for: Imants

Imants ShockWave The Solution

Imants ShockWave The Solution: Kyles Athletic Shinty Club has turned to the Imants ShockWave 100 from Campey Turf Care Systems to solve their drainage problems.

The club is based on the west coast of Scotland in Auchenlochan, with their facility at the edge of the Kyles of Bute – a narrow sea channel. They are often subjected to heavy rain, and when combined with a drainage issue on the field a number of games were called off with some having to be played at other clubs at a cost to the Kyles Athletic. Because of this, they decided to have drainage installed.

Imants ShockWave The Best Solution

Tom Whyte is the sole volunteer groundsman at the club. He explains that the field was in good condition before the drainage issues started to appear, and after unsuccessful attempts to resolve it, he thinks the ShockWave could be the solution.

“Two years ago, the committee decided to get a contractor in to install drains, but they weren’t a success, and it was put down to the stone being too close to the surface. Because of the compaction, they couldn’t go further down without causing a lot of hassle to the field. We spent a significant amount of money to have the work done, and it wasn’t a success, so we had to look at other ways of fixing the issue.

“The council tried to use a tine aerator, but after covering about a seventh of the pitch, they said it was too wet and never came back. I was recommended a ShockWave, and I spoke to Richard Heywood at Campey and he explained to me that when the ShockWave hits the rock, it rides it, it doesn’t try to break its way through, but it will go through the small stuff.

“For us, it was all down to money, I spoke to Richard Campey, and he did us a deal with the ShockWave, a New Holland Boomer 125 and a fertiliser spreader. That led to me approaching our district council and Clackmannanshire District Council. Both of them gave us money towards the machines, and that made it affordable for the club.”

The Imants ShockWave is the perfect solution for Kyles Athletic because it is designed to decompact heavy wear areas by relieving soil compaction using 12mm thick knives. This makes it the ideal aerator on fields that have stone near the surface because the blades won’t break and cause further damage to the machine.

While the main aim of purchasing the machines was to eliminate the drainage issue, Tom also wanted to be able to plan his maintenance. In the past, the club relied on borrowing equipment from others, but now they own their machines Tom feels able to raise the standards with plans already in place to hire the machinery out to provide income for the club.

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Borough Council Choose Imants ShockWave

Borough Council Choose Imants ShockWave: Ribble Valley Borough Council has invested in their own Imants ShockWave to help alleviate compaction and get games on.

Chris Shepard, Head Gardener at Ribble Council has 14 sports pitches and the fields at Clitheroe Castle, a medieval construction that has been in place for 800-years, to look after as well as other non-sports areas across the Ribble Valley.

Borough Council Choose Imants ShockWave

The council had a desire to improve the drainage on the pitches and prevent fixture cancellations while improving other areas that were less problematic. To achieve this the decision to purchase a ShockWave was made and it has had a busy start to life during its first three months in Lancashire with the difference already visible.

Chris said: “There were some pitches that had some standing water, but it had got to a point where we needed to do something regarding drainage for all of the pitches and the land to put money back into it and improve our facilities and we thought to get better use in the winter periods that the ShockWave was the way to go.

“There has been a difference in some of the pitches we’ve used it on. There was one area that would always hold water but that’s gone now. It’s still a bit softer underfoot than the rest of the field but you’re not squelching water like you would have been.

“Once we go on that area again, we’ll be able to go deeper and get down to 18 inches and that’ll definitely help.”

The ShockWave is specifically designed to revitalise heavy wear areas by relieving soil compaction and in turn improve aeration and remove surface water. When doing the linear aerator causes very little disturbance, to the point that play can continue virtually straight away.

Borough Council Choose Imants ShockWave

For Chris this is an important factor when deciding when to deploy the machine because it can used close to fixture to provide maximum benefit without any risk of causing injury to players.

He said: “People can use the pitches on the same day we’ve used the machine and that’s a massive benefit because we don’t have to shut a pitch down for a week. It allows us to make a solid plan with the machine and work on the pitches when we want to and if an area needs to be worked on close to a fixture then we know that’s fine.”

The ShockWave comes in five different models with the depth ranging from 120mm-380mm. Often it is best to start at a shallower depth to relieve compaction before setting the machine to go deeper on a second run and alleviate any remaining problem areas.

For more information, visit: www.campeyturfcare.com

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

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