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MM The Solution In Hertfordshire

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MM The Solution In Hertfordshire: In order to satisfy the members needs at Hertfordshire Golf and Country Club, course manager James Bonfield is using a range of Limagrain UK’s MM grass seed mixtures in order to produce the best possible playing surfaces.

Designed by Jack Niklaus II, the 6,266 yard course winds through ancient parkland, blending beautiful contours with trees and water to present an enticing challenge to golfers of all abilities. The club is under the Crown Golf umbrella, which boasts 23 prestigious venues around the UK.

MM The Solution In Hertfordshire

James has been in his current role as course manager for eight years and claims that he has assembled the best team he has ever seen in all his years of greenkeeping. The team all play regularly on the stunning course in Hertfordshire, which James believes is essential as they need to understand the course from a player’s perspective: “As a team, we are all very passionate about this place and are always striving to make improvements where we can,” he says.

So, when James was not achieving his desired results from a previous grass seed he used, he decided to look for an alternative, as he explains.

“I had been using a different seed for a couple of years and it hadn’t really worked out, so I met Richard Sheppard (amenity seed specialist for Limagrain UK) at BTME in Harrogate and we arranged an appointment for him to come in and see me.

“We walked around the 18 holes and looked at what I needed from a seed on various parts of the course. In particular we focussed on the fairways because at that time they were suffering after a season of very little rain and a lot of play. Richard suggested MM22 and MM25 – which was dependant on the position of the fairway as well as other factors such as acidity levels.”

Limagrain’s MM25 is an ideal mixture for the construction and renovation of sports pitches, whereas MM22 is great for divotting, repairing, overseeding and construction of tees, fairways and outfield areas that are subjected to high levels of wear. The course in Hertfordshire is divided by a road, of which, one half is old farmland so the soil is very rich and the other side being parkland tends to grow more efficiently. With both MM22 and MM25 at his disposal, James had the flexibility to apply the two mixtures where he felt most appropriate.

“The results have been most dramatic on the fairways because normally they don’t do very well in the summer,” he said. “We have limited irrigation which doesn’t allow me to water fairways as often as I would like and we have an evaporation rate of about 30mm at the height of the summer – which has always been an issue. This year, however, the fescues came through incredibly fast on the 17th, the 3rd and the 5th which was amazing. It’s provided me with really good results and they just look much healthier. They are better to present and the members have noticed a massive difference – they are really pleased.”

MM The Solution In Hertfordshire

James also relies on MM22 for his tees and uses a slightly higher application rate due to the complexity of them.

“We are trying to get as much seed as possible on the tees so we go as high as we can possibly go, maybe 20g per square metre depending on the location. For example, on our par 3’s we have seed coming through to replenish what is going out. Our tees here are tiny (under a hectare of tees) and part of the Niklaus design is that they are all round, so you lose a bit of teeing space there as well. It can be a hindrance because you are up against it when you are trying to keep things looking as best they can. You don’t want to stand on the tee and see divots everywhere. Therefore, we go quite high when overseeding with the MM22 and, again, we have seen great results.”

Where it is difficult to maintain fescue in the sward or where levels of wear are greater, many greenkeepers and course managers choose MM9 – a three way browntop bent mixture, which James applies to his greens shortly after renovations in late September in order to get more bents into the surface.

Completing his range of MM products, he applies the all ryegrass mixture MM50 to his walk off areas “just to give them a bit of love towards the end of the season.”

In reflecting on his use of the Limagrain products, James said: “From the MM seed mixtures 9, 22, 25 and 50 I have had the results that I wanted from each one of them – which is all I want. As a course manager you want to know that what you use is going to work because you don’t want to waste money. I want to make sure that I get value for money and good results and with the MM range I feel that I am.”

For further information, please contact Limagrain UK on 01472 371471 or visit the company’s website www.lgseeds.co.uk/mm

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Rink Scores Perfect Ten In Russia

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Rink Scores Perfect Ten In Russia: With groundwork well underway for this years summer of football in Russia, over 80 pitches (including stadia and training facilities) are in the final stages of preparation. The 2018 tournament has seen a change to previous years in that each facility was made responsible for their own maintenance programmes.  This allowed the head groundsman at each facility, along with their sub-contractors, to choose what equipment they wanted to use to perfect their playing surfaces – when it came to Topdressers most turned to Redexim and their Rink 1010.

Head Groundsman Vitaly Belonenko at Kaliningrad Stadium has regularly been using the ultra-light and accurate Rink 1010.  The stadium, which was built specifically for the Russia 2018 World Cup, is based on the design and concept of the Allianz Arena in Munich and, amongst other matches, is due to stage a crucial group game between England and Belgium.

Rink Scores Perfect Ten In Russia

The Rink 1010 offers a spreading width of up to 1.5m, at a thickness of up to 10mm. the combination of its light weight build and floatation tyres mean ground pressure is minimised. Regular topdressings are taking place at the stadium to firm up the surface, including 10 tonnes spread the week before the inauguration of the stadium in April. It is being used in combination with a Redexim Verti-Drain 7215 aerator to work the sand down deeper into the soil profile.

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SIS Pitches Ready In Russia

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SIS Pitches Ready In Russia: Three new football stadiums in Russia – the Samara Arena, Kaliningrad Stadium and Saransk Stadium – are now set for their World Cup kick-offs, having gone through the installation of new high-tech hybrid pitches.

Global pitch specialists, SIS Pitches, the company behind six of the 12 World Cup pitches, was commissioned to design, construct and install the new surfaces at the football venues – which are set to host international football teams including England, Portugal and Belgium during this year’s tournament.

SIS Pitches Ready In Russia

This year’s international football event will be the most technologically advanced in history, with SIS Pitches leading the way with the industry’s most advanced playing surfaces. Its sophisticated reinforced natural turf system, SISGrass, combines 95% natural grass with 5% synthetic turf; installed with patented injection technology and laser guidance for accuracy; offering longer playing hours and faster recovery time after each game.

SIS Pitches has now formally handed over the pitches to each stadium’s management team, who will handle their maintenance from now on, following thorough inspections by independent agency the Sports Turf Research Institute.

George Mullan, CEO & Founder of SIS Pitches, said: “Anticipation and excitement for this year’s World Cup is growing as we get ever closer to the start of the tournament. Our team has been working hard over the last few months to ensure the surfaces we have been commissioned to work on are top class, and in the very best condition.

“Six of the World Cup stadiums, including Samara Arena, Kaliningrad Stadium and Saransk Staidum, now feature the most innovative and advanced sporting turfs in the industry, which will provide strong, durable and well-performing pitches across the whole tournament. It’s over to the stadium teams now to maintain that standard and quality until the final whistle.

“As football fans around the world count down to the start of the tournament, the pitch handovers are another step closer to the action, and we can’t wait for the matches to begin.”

The Samara Arena, formally known as the Cosmos Arena, has a capacity of 44,198 seats and is scheduled to host four first round group matches. This includes one round of 16 matches, and one quarter-final during the World Cup tournament, including Costa Rica v Serbia (Sunday 17 June), Denmark v Australia (Thursday 21 June), Uruguay v Russia (Monday 25 June), and Senegal v Columbia (Thursday 28 June). After the international tournament, it will become the new home ground of club Krylia Sovetov.

SIS Pitches Ready In Russia

The Kaliningrad Stadium, also known as the Arena Baltika, has a capacity of 35,212 and is the new home ground of Russian football club FC Baltika Kaliningrad. During the World Cup, it is scheduled to host four first round group matches: Croatia v Nigeria (Saturday 16 June); Serbia v Switzerland (Friday 22 June); Iran v Portugal (Monday 25 June); and, England v Belgium (Thursday 28 June).

Saransk Stadium, also known as the Mordovia Arena, will host 45,000 football fans for the World Cup and is set to hold tournament ties including: Peru v Denmark (Saturday 16 June); Colombia v Japan (Tuesday 19 June); Iran v Portugal (Monday 25 June); and, Panama v Tunisia (Thursday 28 June).

Dr. Andreevs, director of Kaliningrad Stadium administration, added: “SIS Pitches carried out the design and construction work of the football pitch at our stadium, and in April this year we successfully hosted our first football match. Before the match, the independent agency STRI conducted testing, which showed the high quality of the pitch. SIS Pitches are a highly qualified team of professionals that provide high quality services.”

The Samara Arena, Kaliningrad Stadium and Saransk Stadium are just three of 12 venues that will host the World Cup. Six of these have commissioned SIS Pitches expertise and feature SISGrass surfaces, including Luzhniki stadium, where the highly-anticipated World Cup Final will be played before a crowd of 80,000 and a worldwide TV audience of one billion. It will be the first time a World Cup Final has ever been played on anything but all-natural grass.

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Reesink Invests In Ireland

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Reesink Invests In Ireland: Reesink Turfcare has confirmed the amalgamation of the Nurney-based Professional Machinery Services (PMS) business into Reesink Turfcare IRE Ltd, as part of its investment plans for a business structure in Ireland.

Reesink reached an agreement with the directors of PMS, Michael and Michelle Fleming, which sees them both join the Reesink customer service team at Reesink’s Ireland premises, also in Nurney, Co Kildare.

Reesink Invests In Ireland

PMS was an independent authorised Toro service centre for 13 years, and Michael has been technically involved with the Toro brand for almost 20 years. He joins Reesink in the role of operations manager to oversee technical support services directly to customers in the South Leinster area, and to the broader network of existing authorised Toro service centres. Michelle provides a similar focus, taking up the role of service and parts administrator.

Michael comments: “Both Michelle and I are looking forward to combining dealership, technical and customer relations experience with the resource of Reesink to help further strengthen and grow the brand in Ireland.”

This is just the start of Reesink’s investment in the brand in Ireland as Reesink managing director in Ireland, Richard Harris, explains: “The addition of Michael and Michelle to the team is a great step forward for our plans to invest in experience and it won’t stop there. We expect to recruit additional technical roles, and also add a demonstrator to the team this year to enhance both our customer service and enquiry response times.

“Our investment plans for business growth has customer support at its foundation. Therefore, we are very pleased to have been able to recruit two experienced people with a strong reputation for customer service and extensive experience with the Toro brand built up over many years. Growing the team like this enhances our support for Toro fine turf and grounds customers in Ireland.”

Roon Hylkema, managing director of the Reesink Turfcare parent company in The Netherlands, concludes: “We see a long-term opportunity for Reesink and the Toro brand going hand-in-hand with an improving economic and investment outlook in Ireland. With parts and equipment on site and highly qualified service technicians, we will be in a position to maintain customer satisfaction levels on a par with all our European operations.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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AllGrass Put Trust In Campey

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AllGrass Put Trust In Campey: Scottish turf contractors AllGrass Turf Care, part of the Allstone Glasgow Group, wanted to invest in the latest technology when starting their business, so decided on multiple Campey Turf Care Systems machines.

This purchase included a new 5th generation Koro FIELDTOPMAKER (Koro FTM) fitted with a Terraplane rotor, Raycam Uni-Rake and Dakota spreader to name a few. The new 2.5m Koro FTM with Terraplane rotor provides total surface clean up and removes organic matter using carbide tipped blades and leaves a level surface to work on as part of a high-quality renovation.

AllGrass Put Trust in Campey

Although the machinery decisions were made based on decades worth of experience, AllGrass director John Rushforth also listened to the needs of groundsmen and sought advice from others in the industry, such as Premier Pitches owner Carl Pass and director Russell Latham.

For a new company, the importance of picking the correct machines for a first fleet is vital and it was the trust in Campey as well as John’s own experience and the advice from others in the industry that made it an easy decision.

“I’ve got a massive amount of confidence in Richard Heywood, Richard Campey and Campey as a company,” he said.

“Throughout my career, it’s always been Campey I’ve dealt with and I knew the Koro FTM  was a good machine. “The 5th generation Koro FTM 2.5 model is phenomenal. It’s a breath of fresh air when you take a machine on a park and it leaves it clean regardless if the conditions are dry or damp.

“We came from using the old one but the new one is easier to set, it’s a better-balanced machine because it has the weights on one side, so it reacts better to the tractor. I’ve got a smile on my face every time I see it work because the pitch is always spotless and then I know we’re onto a winner.

“The machines have all been exactly what we wanted, we’ve not been disappointed in one bit of kit, we’re actually looking to purchase another Dakota spreader and probably a ShockWave.”

A strong part of AllGrass’ ethos is to expand on existing maintenance practices and offer effective alternatives to customers who operate on a smaller budget. A machine that fits this aim perfectly is the Raycam UniRake, which offers high-intensity grooming that can be calibrated in its severity.

AllGrass Put Trust in Campey

“I’ve been especially impressed with the UniRake,” John said. “I think a lot of clubs will have one in the future. Not everyone can afford decent scarification or to take the pitches back to bare-bones, so we need to come up with different ways to renovate pitches.

“When we first started AllGrass we got a lot of support from Scottish groundsmen which we are very grateful for. I was fortunate to shadow a number of grounds teams on match days and I learnt more about how to maintain and renovate from ground staff because everything from training grounds to stadium builds are different. That’s why we have to constantly keep up with what’s on offer and make sure we’re using the best.”

The forward-thinking approach of AllGrass doesn’t stop there. The company are also conscious of the impact their work has on the environment and have taken steps to ensure that all the waste products from the pitches they work on is recycled rather being dumped at a landfill.

For more information, visit: www.campeyturfcare.com

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