Tag Archive for: Win

ICL celebrates win at BALI Awards

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ICL celebrates win at BALI Awards: ICL has been announced as a BALI National Landscape Awards 2021 winner in the Supplier Exceptional Service category.

The prestigious British Association of Landscape Industries’ (BALI) Awards is the largest in Europe, and is designed to reward and showcase the finest examples of landscaping excellence in the UK and overseas.

ICL celebrates win at BALI Awards

ICL celebrates win at BALI Awards

ICL has long been serving the landscaping sector and boasts a wide range of market-leading products that help contractors, gardeners and landscapers to meet the demands of modern-day landscape management.

Therefore, the company was delighted to be recognised in the Supplier Exceptional Service category, in which winners must match criteria such as exceptional technical support, outstanding customer support and guidance, exceeding customer expectation, as well as an excellent product range and development.

The principal category award winners will be announced at the spectacular BALI National Awards end of year ceremony at Grosvenor House, London in December.

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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Beccles Town win FA award

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Beccles Town win FA award: Beccles Town Football Club has won the Ransomes Jacobsen sponsored Suffolk FA Groundsman of the Year competition for the second consecutive season.

The competition, which is open to clubs who play in Step 7 and below in Suffolk, has been sponsored by Ransomes Jacobsen for many years and has played an important role in raising the quality of football pitches in the county.

Beccles Town win FA award

Beccles Town win FA award

After entering for the first time last year and being placed first, Beccles’ joint groundsmen Chris Brown and Shaun Soloman were again judged as this year’s winners. They just beat Adrian Waters of Halesworth Town, who entered for the first time, to this year’s title with Tony Adams of Claydon FC finishing third.

Beccles Town joint groundsman Shaun Soloman said: “This just makes it all worthwhile. We don’t do it to get recognition but for the town and the people of the town and especially the kids to be able to play on a decent pitch that we never had the chance to do as it used to be a mud bath.”

The judging panel was led by Ipswich Town Football Club head groundsman, Ben Connell, and he was accompanied by Suffolk FA football development manager Jodie Allard, Institute of Groundsmen pitch advisor east, Phil Jeggo, Tim Parker of Suffolk FA Pitch Improvement Programme sponsors Parkers Pitches and Steve Alabaster, regional sales manager for Ransomes Jacobsen.

This year’s competition was one of the hardest to judge with the quality of pitches rising in Suffolk, and lead judge, Ben Connell, has been pleased to see the initiatives from different parties having an impact.

“I’ve been taking part in the judging for seven years, and the standards are getting better and better. I’ve seen the pitches improve over that time and I’d put that down to the dedication of the groundsmen and the support and advice they get from the Suffolk FA and the IOG.

“This competition has been a great initiative, and along with the funding from the FA and IOG, it has really made a difference to grassroots football in Suffolk because the pitches are getting better. Without the sponsorship of the competition from Ransomes Jacobsen and the support from the FA and IOG, we wouldn’t have got to this point, and I’m looking forward to seeing further progress.”

Steve Alabaster from Ransomes Jacobsen added: “I’m quite taken aback and astounded by how much work the volunteers put in, especially when they have to finance a majority of the work themselves. Some of these guys have hardly got anything at all, and they’re producing fantastic surfaces for kids and adults to play on. I was really surprised that every pitch we saw wasn’t waterlogged because of the heavy rain we’ve had, and it is incredible that they’re doing that with such little resources – each pitch we’ve seen is a credit to the groundsmen who maintain them.

“It’s fantastic to be able to big up these guys because they don’t always get much recognition and it’s a wonderful opportunity for us to partner and support the Suffolk FA. It’s something we’ve been doing for a number of years that we’re very proud to be part of.”

In addition to being crowned as Groundsman of the Year, Beccles Town will receive £200 to be spent on groundscare equipment, with Halesworth Town receiving £100 and Claydon £50. All three clubs will be invited to attend the Suffolk FA Awards Ceremony later in the year to receive their prizes.

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Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

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Nurture Landscapes win BALI award: It’s a nurturing hand that sees Nurture Landscapes win its fourth Grounds Maintenance Limited Public Access award at the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) National Landscape Awards.

The award, which is sponsored by Toro and Reesink Turfcare, the exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland for Toro groundscare machinery, recognises all sorts of grounds maintenance, and the project that won is not only a vertical space in the form of one of Europe’s largest living walls but has the added challenge of being alongside the Metro viaduct wall next to Snow Hill Station in Birmingham making access somewhat tricky!

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

Matt Monckton, regional manager at Nurture Landscapes, says: “This site is incredibly challenging with the green wall running just a few metres adjacent to the Metro line. Our planned overhaul visits can only be carried out in the small hours when the live lines are powered down which happens on just two weekends a year and we have to bring in free-standing artificial lights, which in itself is a major task.”

At 220m long and 7m high with 604m2 of plants, it’s an eye-catching feature. As well as plants, the living wall incorporates decorative perforated aluminium panels designed to capture artificial and natural daylight. Programmable uplighters bring the wall to life at night and create constantly changing patterns and the illusion of depth and movement.

Matt continues: “The whole feature has moisture sensors built into the green wall which are internet connected and alert us quickly to any irrigation issues across the face of the whole wall. In the evening a cutting-edge LED lighting system operates to create waves of coloured lights across the wall which, when combined with the interspersed, undulating perforated steel panels really does make for a unique flowing green space.”

So what does Matt attribute the company’s continuing success to in the awards which in 2019 had record entries, record first-time entries and record international entries and makes receiving one even more of an achievement? “Where we can we try and partner with our clients and this site is a case in point,” he says. “We have built up a wonderful working relationship with the building management team who take a genuine interest in making this location a vibrant local landmark.”

It’s for all these reasons and the fact that Nurture Landscapes achieves great and beautiful results, that makes it a worthy winner of the award, says Reesink’s Alastair Rowell, who presented the award to the company in front of an audience of over 1000 BALI members and guests at the 43rd annual awards: “It’s a fantastic feat of grounds maintenance skill that Nurture Landscapes not only win this award, but win it for the fourth time. It’s grounds maintenance that creates a work of art and provides pleasure to so many commuters as well as being progressive and cutting-edge in its execution too.”

Paul Bean, sales director at Nurture Landscapes, says: “To be recognised again is testament to the enthusiasm, passion and skill of our teams. We invest in training our people well and creating strong business-to-business relationships. This award reinforces we’re doing the right thing and we’re generating the kind of success we’d always hoped for.”

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Win at winter maintenance

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Win at winter maintenance: With the winter season upon us, it’s important to keep golf course machinery up to scratch and capable of dealing with the challenges colder weather brings.

With Royal Norwich Golf Club’s new course in its first winter, estates manager Peter Todd, with 30 years of experience in the industry, explains why winter maintenance is so important.

Win at winter maintenance

“Golf is now very much a sport which is played 365 days a year,” he says. “It used to be that winter would signal a break in the level of activity, but more and more golfers want to enjoy golfing throughout the year and make the most of their membership. And their expectations of the course don’t change just because the weather has.

“In order to keep standards high, you have to keep your machinery in top notch condition and paying attention to parts maintenance is your first point of call in order to do that.”

It’s well known that the winter season provides many challenges for greenkeepers. For one, cutting turf in wet conditions makes it more difficult to get a perfect finish. So, sharpening cutting unit blades in winter is essential, says Peter.

“With wet grass and the increase in earthworm castings in the autumn and winter, it becomes more difficult to keep blades sharp,” he says. “Although you need to make sure your blades are sharp throughout the year to keep quality consistent, the winter season brings that more into focus. Plus, not cutting cleanly will increase the risk and spread of disease in your turf – so that’s an added reason to ensure the proper maintenance of your machinery parts in the winter.”

With a blade for all seasons, choosing Toro guarantees not only a perfect fit but one carefully crafted to suit specific turf needs. For example, the ‘Atomic’ blades are what’s best later in winter, perfect for mulching up leaves or for use with a recycling deck to mulch the grass.

The cold weather can also have an effect on machinery starting systems, says Peter. “Engines will take longer to start up in the cold and checking batteries and electrics, changing the oil and cleaning blocked air filters will save you time in the long run. Switching to new tyres to ensure you have improved grip in the face of unforgiving ground conditions as well as keeping a stock of replacement parts will ensure productivity remains high.”

However, just as preparing the turf for winter is a year-round endeavour similarly so is machinery maintenance says Peter. “There is a tendency to push the majority of machinery maintenance into the off season when there are fewer jobs to do around the course and cutting frequency has decreased, and while it does provide the time to do the machine’s ‘MOT’ if you like and a full service and deep clean, you’ll never regret paying attention to your machinery and parts maintenance throughout the year.”

Peter concludes: “Keeping on top of general maintenance ensures your machines are in the best possible condition. It can be tempting to cut corners when it comes to preventative service work, but breakdowns and downtime are more expensive and well-maintained kit tends to be trouble-free. In an ideal world maintenance should always be done as per the machinery manufacturer’s instructions in order to keep standards high.”

To stock up on Toro Parts or for winter machinery maintenance advice, customers can get in touch with their local genuine Toro parts dealer or service centre or contact Reesink via reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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A win for Dorset Soils & Aggregates

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A win for Dorset Soils & Aggregates: BALI Registered Affiliate, Dorset Soils and Aggregates, have been awarded the British Association of Landscape Industries’ (BALI) prestigious award for Exceptional Affiliate Service.

Much excitement and anticipation was felt amongst the team as it led to the day they’d receive this respected award from the BALI adjudicators.

A win for Dorset Soils & Aggregates

This significant award ceremony was the 43rd annual BALI National Landscape Awards, held on Friday 6th December at the iconic JW Marriott Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London.  Sponsored by BALI Registered Affiliate, Green-tech, it was this glamorous event that saw the celebratory awards ceremony for the skills, hard work, quality, commitment and successes of BALI Registered members. This is the largest landscape Awards in Europe, being an association which recognises excellence in landscape design, construction and maintenance both in the UK and overseas, as well as awarding Affiliate customer service and employer excellence.

Dorset Soils and Aggregates are a national supplier of soft and hard landscaping materials, ranging from specially blended soils, to their flagship Wessex® Coolfresh turf to a vast range of both porcelain and Indian sandstone paving. The business began in 1998 and has since expanded year on year to now consist of 3 different branches, a recycling yard/ distribution centre and head office. Their three branches are based in Ferndown, Dorchester and Bournemouth, all of which have inspirational display areas created by their landscaping customers and a friendly team of customer advisors with many years of training and experience behind them.

Dorset Soils and Aggregates stand for two things: unbeatable prices and the highest levels of customer service. This was consistently demonstrated to the BALI adjudicators and led to the success of winning this highly respected award. As the South’s leading supplier of landscaping materials, this company could give examples of regular, returning customers that gave outstanding testimonies to the business, highlighting their ability to source any required products from around in the world, along with their friendly and knowledgeable manner.

The staff members possess over 75 years of experience in the landscaping and building industry between them, ensuring Dorset Soils and Aggregates are able to give the best possible service from start to finish. Offering an inviting and friendly atmosphere for both the trade and DIY enthusiasts; their customer advisors are always on-hand to offer advice, source products at the best prices, arrange fast and efficient delivery and guarantee the customer received a good experience.

This was the second year the Awards were successfully delivered in-house by the team at BALI’s Landscape House. Events Project Manager Leah Brookes, who attended the 2018 Awards and project managed the 2019 event said, “It has been an immense pleasure managing the BALI Awards 2019. From attending the event last year, to meeting and working alongside the expert adjudicators, to managing the whole entry process and advising members on their submissions. To see the fruition of a year’s work come together on this special day and celebrate together with each and every member is fabulous. I send my heartfelt congratulations to all our winners and thanks to all our sponsors, adjudicators and stakeholders for their continued support of the prestigious National Landscape Awards.”

Sport and lifestyle presenter Mark Durden-Smith played host for the afternoon’s proceedings in front of over 1,000 BALI VIPs, members and guests, including Adam White MBALI, President and Fellow of the ‘Royal Chartered’ Landscape Institute and BALI Registered Designer; Chair of the Society of Garden Designers, Sarah Morgan; Rod Winrow, Chairman of the Association of Professional Landscapers; Sue Biggs CBE, Director General of the Royal Horticultural Society and Gerald Bonner, President of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture (CIOH).

This is a great accolade for Dorset Soils and Aggregates and gives them the recognition and credit that each member of staff has worked so hard to achieve. This year, BALI saw a record-breaking amount of first-time entries; receiving a total number of 145 entries to go through, making it even more impressive that Dorset Soils and Aggregates secured the Exceptional Service Award.

Paul Miller, Managing Director: ‘Well done to all our staff for helping achieve this prestigious National Award – twenty-one years in the making. We’ve come a long way since one man and a transit tipper!’

www.sandandgravel.uk.com

A full list of award-winners and a description of the winning schemes is available on the BALI Awards website here.

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