Tag Archive for: Rhinos

MM60 stands firm for the Rhinos

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MM60 stands firm for the Rhinos: MM60 grass seed has helped Ryan Golding, Head Groundsperson at Leeds Rhinos, to achieve a consistently good surface all year-round despite it being the busiest ever on record.

Ryan has been working at Headingley Stadium for nearly twenty years and has been the Head Groundsperson for nine of those. As one of the most highly used surfaces in professional sport, it is safe to say that he and his three members of staff have their work cut out: “This job is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is a 365-day operation,” he said.

MM60 stands firm for the Rhinos

MM60 stands firm for the Rhinos

The pitch at Headingley Stadium had over 100 usages last year which was particularly high due to several Rugby World Cup fixtures taking place. With such heavy and consistent use, a grass seed with a good wear tolerance is essential, and that is why Ryan did his research before choosing MM60.

“I originally went round to see a few venues which I knew used MM60 and the people who used it all gave good feedback,” he said. “After speaking to Matt Gresty (MM Sales and Marketing Manager) I quickly realised that it is a great company to deal with. It was refreshing that they really wanted to work with us and take the time to find out everything about our pitch and our goals. I know it sounds cliché, but Matt is always on the other end of the phone if I need them – even at weekends.

“We now use MM60 for everything including overseeding, renovating, for when we recover heavy wear areas or for hand seeding.”

MM60 grass seed is renowned for producing an excellent playing surface in a stadium environment. It is a 100% Ryegrass formula which is perfect for renovation and divot repair, has a high disease resistance, fantastic aesthetic qualities and offers extremely fast germination – which is boosted by the inclusion of Headstart® GOLD.  it is a natural revolutionary grass seed treatment that ensures rapid germination and is perfect for enhancing performance on grass seed coatings for sports fields, golf courses, lawns and amenity turf.

MM60 stands firm for the Rhinos

MM60 stands firm for the Rhinos

“Disease tolerance is one of MM60’s best features, as is the speed of root mass and density, which is highly important because we are a fibresand pitch,” continued Ryan. “With having rugby on it, these guys are a lot heavier than footballers, and they are moving forward and back all the time, so we need to have a consistently firm, stable surface. MM60 gives us that.

“Recently, we had a winter concert on January 7 and then had to recover around 2,000 sq.m of grass from scratch before a game on January 29. We would not have been able to do that without MM60.”

For further information, please contact MM Sports Seed on 01386 791102 or visit the company’s website www.mm-seeds.co.uk.

You can also follow the company on Twitter: @MM_Seed.

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ICL helps Rhinos through busiest year

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ICL helps Rhinos through busiest year: Ryan Golding, Head Groundsperson for Leeds Rhinos, claims that a range of ICL products has helped the club to successfully navigate the busiest year on record.

He may have been at the club for nearly two decades, but Ryan has just witnessed the busiest ever year, in terms of pitch usage, at Headingley Stadium. In addition to the multitude of standard games and events, Headingley was also the most used pitch at the Rugby League World Cup last year.

ICL helps Rhinos through busiest year

ICL helps Rhinos through busiest year

With such heavy usage, Ryan explained how he and his three members of staff quite often have to go against the agronomical rule book and push the boundaries.

“We are one of the most highly used surfaces in professional sport and so we have to do things a little differently at times,” he said. “For example, we may need to apply a conventional fertiliser just before the snow comes because we need cover. There will also be times when we need to apply products in what might normally be considered to be less than ideal conditions. Unfortunately, with the time scales involved, we have to complete tasks whenever we can.”

Ryan knows that using the correct products is key to success.

“The response, quality, longevity, and variety of ICL products has allowed us to push our usage and quality of surface, as well as allowing us flexibility in the types of events that we can host.”

Ryan loosely follows an ICL integrated turf management programme but due to the unique situation at Headingley, he takes a somewhat relative approach as to when he applies products.

He pin-pointed three ICL products which have made a significant impact in the past year.

“ProTurf 15-5-15 (a controlled release fertiliser) always provides us with a good base. The longevity we get from the feed, and the colour and the response are first-class. It also gives us the room to apply a conventional whenever we need it.

“That’s where the Sportsmaster NK 12.0.9+Fe (a phosphate free compound fertiliser) comes in. It’s an old-school product, which I like, and the response we get from it is rapid. The colour it provides is fantastic and it is an ideal product for match preparation or recovery. How often we apply it really depends on the pitch, but I like to think of it as giving an athlete who is very tired a can of Red Bull.

“We’ve also used H2Pro TriSmart wetting agent,” continued Ryan. “We’ve seen great results from it retaining the moisture and it has had a good effect on our root depth, especially in being able to manage movement of the moisture throughout the profile.”

In addition to the good results he has reported from using the ICL products, Ryan was also keen to emphasise the importance of receiving excellent customer service.

“I’m given extra confidence by the support ICL show to both me and the club. I’ve been using ICL products ever since I took over as the Head Groundsperson and the communication from them has always been fantastic. That is throughout the whole organisation – whether it is the man on the ground like Craig Lalley who comes in and sees me, through to Ed Carter, Andy Owen, or Henry Bechelet – it is all of them that go above and beyond.”

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

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

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MM60 Integral For Leeds Rhinos

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MM60 Integral For Leeds Rhinos: Ryan Golding, head groundsman at Leeds Rhino’s and Yorkshire Carnegie’s Emerald Headingley Stadium, believes that Limagrain’s MM60 grass seed has been integral to the success of the pitch.

Ryan has been working at the stadium for fifteen years and has occupied the position of head groundsman for the last four. With two deputy’s underneath him – Dan Connor and Leon Pearson – Ryan and his team tend to the stadium pitch, two first team pitches, four academy pitches, a 3G pitch and the Stanningley rugby league club – where the Rhino’s academy teams play.

MM60 Integral For Leeds Rhinos

“On average with both first teams and academy games we host around 50 – 60 games,” says Ryan. “In addition to that we also have under 19 games, community games, disabled rugby games, and also events. This year when in mid-season the pitch was transformed into a Bollywood film set as a 1930`s hockey pitch. It is a very intense work place and it never stops but it’s interesting, challenging and enjoyable.”

With such a heavy fixture list, renovations largely depend on available windows but Ryan tends to aim for June each year. However, where many groundsmen may have extended periods throughout pre-season, Ryan has as little as 26 days to get the pitch up and running again.

“Getting the right seed is key and that is why I use Limagrain’s MM60,” he says. “We had been with another seed supplier for a number of years but I felt we needed a change to keep on improving. I looked into it and spoke with other groundsmen who use Limagrain and received nothing but excellent feedback.

“As a groundsman I’m very open to what I use and I don’t mind taking a risk but I’ll do my research first. Before I did anything I got some samples of MM60. We trialled it in a tough area in the North East corner which is consistently in the shade and we saw great recovery rates.”

Limagrain’s MM60 grass seed is renowned for producing an excellent playing surface in a stadium environment. It is a 100% Ryegrass formula which is perfect for renovation and divot repair, has a high disease resistance, fantastic aesthetic qualities and offers extremely fast germination – which is boosted by the inclusion of Headstart® GOLD. Developed using the latest scientific findings and field experience, it is a natural revolutionary grass seed treatment that ensures rapid germination and is perfect for enhancing performance on grass seed coatings for sports fields, golf courses, lawns and amenity turf.

MM60 Integral For Leeds Rhinos

“The germination is incredibly fast and I’ve noticed a particular improvement in the centre spot,” says Ryan. “You would not believe the hammering that area gets. A lot of the time you find that kick off’s go straight out which means that there are scrums straight over the centre spot. It was always a problematic area in the past but MM60 has made a noticeable improvement especially when combined with sheets and lighting rigs.

“I’ve also noticed that it doesn’t fray the leaf edge when compared to our previous seed so we tend not to get as much disease – we hardly encounter any leaf spot as a result from stress and there is no yellowing of the leaf either.

“I think my priorities have changed as I’ve got older and wiser. It’s all very well wanting the pitch bright green throughout the year but you are stressing the pitch in doing so and is it really needed for a game that isn’t televised? I’m not so sure. For me, aesthetics isn’t my priority sometimes, it’s all about the recovery and germination and MM60 provides me with this.”

Furthermore, Ryan was quick to praise the customer service he receives from Limagrain.

“Suppliers have to understand the needs of the pitch and the Limagrain team know the standards here which certainly helps – the back-up is great. I can call them whenever I want and we will normally start with a general discussion about rugby before going into the technical side of things. Personally, I think that Limagrain treats each and every customer the same – and that is a fine art if you ask me.”

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

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