Tag Archive for: Perfect

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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Qualibra ‘Perfect’ for Royal Cinque

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Qualibra ‘Perfect’ for Royal Cinque: James Bledge, Course Manager at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club, based in Deal, Kent, says he has successfully treated Dry Patch with monthly applications of Qualibra wetting agent.

Formed in 1892, Royal Cinque Ports is a Championship Links course situated on the narrow stretch of coastline between Deal and Sandwich Bay in Kent. The 18 hole course offers a stiff challenge to golfers of all abilities and in particular the last seven holes are reputed to be amongst the toughest in golf.

Qualibra ‘Perfect’ for Royal Cinque

With the course being so close to the coast, one would think that James and his team would spend most of the time trying to get water off the course, but situated in the driest corner of England, and with the aid of an artificial sea wall, Royal Cinque Ports has no such problems.

However, the course has repeatedly suffered from Dry Patch even with previous wetting agent programmes and as a result, last year James trialled Syngenta’s Qualibra – which is distributed by ICL.

“I’ve used a number of wetting agents before but I’ve always had a problem with Dry Patch, we are situated on sand with only around 3” of topsoil so infiltration rates are pretty high. We also lose a lot of moisture – Sometimes up to 10% Volume water content in a day. Therefore, I decided to look at Qualibra and trialled it last year to see how it performed. I’m a big believer in doing a full year’s trial with products, especially a wetting agent, because I think you are wasting your time if you do anything less than that. You need to see it consistently throughout every month to see how it is performing and also just give it a chance. – not just apply it on a turf nursery in June and see how it performs in one month.

Qualibra ‘Perfect’ for Royal Cinque

“Because I haven’t had much luck with wetting agents in the past, I was thinking that if it didn’t work out then we would just try something else next year. However, at the end of the year I remember telling Darren Hatcher (ICL Technical Area Sales Manager for the South, London and the Channel Islands) that it was perfect.”

James applied Qualibra to his greens, tees, approaches and fairways at 20 L/ha in March and continued with monthly applications until October. His goal was to optimise the use of water resources and move surface water down to maintain, firm, fast conditions, as well as improving the playing surface quality for members.

“We wanted the greens to play firm and fast and Qualibra has been a big part of that,” he says. “I also wanted to avoid the unsightly burnt off crests and lush valleys on the fairways and if you irrigate them the water just runs off the top. However, Qualibra reduces the surface tension and goes in from the very top. In June they were the perfect colour, consistently that transition between green and brown.

“I’ve got a guy who has been working here for 40 years and every morning he comes in at 3.30am and hand waters all of the greens before the golfers come out. He absolutely loves Qualibra and he says that throughout his time here it is by far the best wetting agent we have ever used. I really value his opinion as he’s seen it all so we discuss at length what products would make his life easier when it comes to moisture control, on a links course it’s one of the most important factors to success and that’s why we don’t sacrifice on quality.

“We are also definitely using less water now and we didn’t have any Dry Patch last year – which was the first time in years. To me that was a huge success because it was one of the driest years on record.”

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

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SISIS Flexicomb Perfect For UKC

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SISIS Flexicomb Perfect For UKC: Lee Ballard, senior groundsperson at the University of Kent (UKC) in Canterbury, believes that his newly purchased SISIS Flexicomb is the perfect tool to help extend the life of one of the synthetic sports surfaces at the University.

Canterbury in Kent may well be known predominantly as the place of Thomas Becket’s murder at Canterbury Cathedral or for Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th-century literary classic The Canterbury Tales, but it also boasts an internationally recognised university.

SISIS Flexicomb Perfect For UKC

Ranked in the top 10 in the UK in a national student survey, with over 5,000 students from different nationalities, the University of Kent has a reputation for academic excellence. It also has outstanding sports facilities, which includes two grass football pitches, two grass rugby pitches and synthetic sports surfaces.

Overseeing the maintenance of the sports pitches is Lee Ballard, who admits that one of the synthetic surfaces requires extra special attention due to its age and heavy usage.

“We’ve had one of the pitches for nearly 12 years now and that houses full-size football games, four five-a-side pitches and lacrosse games. It gets a lot of usage and is used from 5pm until 10pm seven days a week. You have the students who use it as well as local sports clubs and Gillingham FC’s academy teams.

“The pitch has had years of not having the best machinery to get deep enough to give it a good clean and we are trying to extend the life of the surface as much as we can,” he said.

The common misconception is that synthetic surfaces are maintenance free. Just like natural turf surfaces, synthetic surfaces require maintenance as soon as they are constructed if they are to perform to the standard expected of them. Regular brushing along with periodic aggressive brushing and maintenance is required to ensure that the playing surfaces achieve their full life expectancy, and to help Lee with this task he chose to purchase the SISIS Flexicomb.

“When I first started in this role my aim was to improve the synthetic surfaces. Previously we were using a machine which just had tines on it and it never seemed to do a very professional job. So, we started looking around and I saw an online video of the Flexicomb being used at Tottenham Hotspur. It looked great so I took all the details down, passed it further up the chain to say this was the machine we needed, and luckily there was money in the budget to purchase it.

“We obviously had a demonstration before we bought it but if I’m honest I knew that it was the tool we wanted because when I saw the video it just ticked all of the boxes.”

Designed primarily for use on synthetic surfaces, the Flexicomb ensures even distribution of infill materials and lifts the pile. The adjustable setting ensures the effect of a rake, but with the softness of a brush, reducing the risk of damage to the fibres. The bristle sections are replaceable and the Flexicomb is designed for a long working life with minimal maintenance.

SISIS Flexicomb Perfect For UKC

Furthermore, it can be used with SISIS Singleplay, Twinplay or Quadraplay mounting frames, which can all be connected to any tractor with 3 point linkage and utility trucks with suitable frames.

“We tend to use the Flexicomb three times a week depending on the maintenance schedule and make sure we give the surface a good brush after every ten hours of usage,” says Lee. “Sometimes we will double brush it both ways if time allows.

“It has so many good features – I like how easy it is to set-up and how simple it is to use. It does such a good job and leaves you with a great finish which is important because presentation is key. I also like how you can be slightly more aggressive on the ground and get in and move some of the crumb about and get rid of some of that compaction.

“The pitch is our front window so we try to look after it as much as possible and the more you put into it the more rewards you reap. The SISIS Flexicomb plays an integral part in helping us to achieve this.”

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

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