Tag Archive for: Watford

Kubota or nothing for Watford Football Club

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Kubota or nothing for Watford Football Club: When it comes to tractors, it’s Kubota or nothing for Scott Tingley, Grounds Manager at Watford Football Club.

The club’s Kubota STW40 is proof that compact doesn’t have to mean compromise when it comes to providing the reliable power for maintenance operations at Vicarage Road, while a Kubota L2-622 delivers impressive versatility at the training ground.

Kubota or nothing for Watford Football Club

Kubota or nothing for Watford Football Club

Performance

The dependable performance of the pair is matched by a fleet of four Kubota RTV’s used across both sites.

Scott is into his 9th season at the club and oversees the home of The Hornets with a team of three, and the 27 pitches at Watford’s training ground. “On the Vicarage Road stadium pitch, it’s all about weight – we need something small and compact, with enough horsepower to lift all the various implements we use” he explains. The solution, for the last seven years, has been a Kubota STW40.

“We look after the tractor well and, in return, it looks after us. It’s small, lightweight and at 40hp can operate our seeder or aerator for example without leaving much of a footprint.” Scott continues, “All of our Kubota equipment is incredibly reliable, we’ve had no issues with this tractor at all.”

At the training ground, the delivery of an L2-622 from dealers George Browns Ltd in October 2022 is delivering even more versatility “We’re yet to find anything we can’t do with this tractor! Together with powering implements, the forks and bucket are invaluable for moving pallets around, managing deliveries or loading topdressing into our spreader. It makes every task quicker and easier.”

“The cruise control feature on the Kubota L2-622 is especially important when we’re aerating at the training ground as, by setting the speed, we get consistency across all the surfaces” he adds. “It’s also incredibly user-friendly to operate which is important to aid the training and efficiency of some of our newer and younger team members.”

RTV’s

Complementing the pair of compact tractors across the two sites are four RTV’s, including two RTV520’s installed by George Browns at the training ground in July 2023. “Here, especially, the RTV’s are the workhorses of our maintenance operation.

Whether its moving equipment from pitch to pitch or transporting clippings, they’re our go-to. At the stadium we have a Kubota RTV500 which, again, is a people and machinery mover. We also use this to tow our lighting rigs into place after a match which shaves an hour off the job.”

Scott concludes by praising the after-sales support from the Kubota dealer, “On the odd occasion we’ve needed help with our Kubota equipment, George Browns have always been brilliant. With high levels of usage and even higher expectations it’s reassuring to know we can always rely on Kubota to get the job done.”

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Success with Suståne at Watford

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Success with Suståne at Watford: Three formulations of Suståne Natural Fertilizer have been credited with their role in the ongoing success of the maintenance operation at Watford Football Club.

Forming the base of the nutritional programme at both the Vicarage Road stadium and the club’s London Colney training ground, a combination of Bolster Granular 4-4-4+3Fe, 1-1-1 Soil ReGen® and Suståne 4-6-4 have delivered consistent results to the satisfaction of the club and grounds team alike!

Success with Suståne at Watford

Success with Suståne at Watford

As one of the worlds most widely-researched organic ranges, Suståne’s tried and tested portfolio for winter sports plays an important role for grow-ins and renovations – providing long lasting soil builders and sources of plant nutrition that specifically encourage rapid root development, superior growth and ongoing plant protection. It’s here that Watford Grounds Manager Scott Tingley has cited the successes of Suståne, with both the Bolster Granular 4-4-4 + Iron and Soil ReGen® playing an important part in post-renovation recovery.

“We’ve been using Suståne products at both of our sites for the last seven seasons. Bolster Granular 4-4-4+3Fe is applied primarily at renovation time, due to the addition of Mycorrhizae.” Derived from biologically stable ingredients and containing both water soluble and slow-release sources of nitrogen, Bolster Granular provides a formulation of organic nutrients, beneficial microbiology, plant bio-stimulants and a powerful blend of mycorrhizae to promote greater root access to soil nutrients and water. The addition of 3% chelated iron enhances colour and rapid root development, while seaweed extract, humic acid and compost-based microorganisms deliver plant health and strength for all turf grass situations.

Alongside Bolster Granular 4-4-4+3Fe, Scott applies Suståne’s Soil ReGen following full or partial renovations – a soil conditioner that reduces compaction, increases water and air infiltration rates while also improving the nutrient and water holding capacity. “This helps us to incorporate lots of valuable nutrients such as Zeolite, Biochar, Mycorrhizae and Humates at a critical time, when the plant is wanting to root and develop.”

“Throughout the playing season, we switch to Suståne 4-6-4 organic slow release, to replenish our sand dominant constructions with a rich supply of humus and other essential nutrients. We’ve found this to contribute to increased rooting and a strong, healthy plant more resilient to disease and turf pathogens.”

The results at both sites speak for themselves – seeing the Watford team regularly recognised for outstanding pitch quality. Scott concludes, “We put a large part of our success as a grounds team down to the benefit of using Suståne products.”

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Ecoline+ The Choice For Watford

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Ecoline+ The Choice For Watford: Pitchmark’s Ecoline+ has become the line marking paint of choice for FA Premier League club Watford FC.

The demand for using a premium paint at the Vicarage Road stadium led to trials last season, since when Pitchmark have been further developing Ecoline+. Watford FC became the first to use the improved formula at the opening game of the season against Brighton and Hove Albion in August this year.

Ecoline+The Choice For Watford

In 2018 Scott Tingley, Head Groundsman at Watford FC, set out on what was originally a cost exercise and to see if they could establish the use of one paint for all marking.

“We were using top end paint for the stadium and bottom end for the other pitches,” he says, “we wanted to make it one paint but of course the cost had to be taken into account. We looked at Pitchmark and what we found different was their specialisation solely in line marking products.”

The club had been using Pitchmark’s Direct at the Watford FC training ground and academy, located at the University College London Union Shenley Sports grounds in St Albans. Home to five full-size and two goalkeeping/warmup natural grass training pitches as well as a full-size artificial turf training pitch and fourteen college/academy natural grass pitches, there’s a sizeable amount of line marking required. In the stadium only premium quality is acceptable. Ecoline+ offered the ideal all-round solution.  Ecoline+ is one of the most advanced, low volume, ready-to-use line marking paints available, especially when used in combination with Pitchmark’s Eco and Hybrid markers and special nozzles.

Scott says: “we trialled Ecoline+ and we had no issues, only benefits. We use a Pitchmark Hybrid marker which gives us the quality of a spray marker, without compromising the precision and quality of a transfer marker. Fixture dependent, we can mark up to three times a week and with the traditional wheel to wheel and four-wheel spray markers you lose ground cover and it’s too easy to transfer paint.”

The Pitchmark Hybrid overcomes these problems with a three-wheeled spray design, which is easily manoeuvred over wet lines. The cone nozzles give perfect deep leaf coverage, so you only need one pass.

“It’s easy to use, it feels like a normal wheel marker and you get premium quality.” Scott adds, “it’s quite complex though and needs looking after but if we have any issues Olly Boys, the Turfix rep, gives us second to none service and back-up.” (Turfix is Pitchmark’s recently formed sole UK distribution arm). Using advanced Ecoline+ Watford FC join the many examples of Ecoline+ premium line marking seen every week on TV from the best leagues in the world, including the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League.

Pitchmark is a British company based in Bristol +44 (0)1454 776666 www.pitchmark.com

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Watford Pitch Wins Award

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Watford Pitch Wins Award: The Premier League Grounds Team of the Season award for the 2017/18 campaign has gone to Watford.

The club’s head groundsman, Scott Tingley, and his team won the award for the pitch at Vicarage Road after assessment from the Premier League’s Playing Surfaces Committee and the independent assessor Dr Stephen Baker from the Sports Turf Research Institute.

The award is based on a number of factors including marks from referees and match delegates, usage of the pitch and the environmental conditions, an end-of-season pitch quality assessment and the resources and resource management at each club.

“The award is testament to the pitch’s current condition, the result of much hard work and dedication from the club’s grounds team,” Scott Duxbury, the club chairman, said.

Tingley and his team will receive the award on 5 May, at Watford’s match with Newcastle United.

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