Tag Archive for: Work

Work Underway At Ewood Park

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Work Underway At Ewood Park: Work is underway on the pitch at Ewood Park as Rovers prepare for life back in the Championship.

Head groundsman Trevor Wilkin admits preparations for the 2018/19 campaign are well underway and will step up over the next few weeks.

The Ewood groundstaff were highly commended by the EFL for the condition of the pitch during the course of the League One season.

And Wilkins, who has worked for the club for over 35 years, explained the process which will take place over the summer.

He said: “All that’s happening is what we do every season, which is stripping the old turf off, adding some fresh root zone, freshening everything up and reseeding.

“People get it in their head that it’s a brand new pitch, but it’s not. It’s more of a make do and mend job.

“Over the next few days, the old turf will be stripped off, then we’ll get the new root zone on, mix it all together and by the end of the week it should all be levelled and seeded.

“It will then be put to bed for two weeks, then hopefully it should be totally green and ready for me to start cutting again.

“Hopefully we get a decent summer and then we’ll be ready to go from mid to late July.”

Wilkin admits there has been investment from the owners on the pitches at the club’s Senior and Academy training centres at Brockhall with that work also underway.

And he hopes that will bear fruit for the players and coaching staff during the course of the 2018/19 season.

He told the club website: “There’s lots of work going on down at Brockhall as well.

“The owners have spent money on every single pitch this summer, which is great – a good investment.

“Every single pitch at the Senior Training Centre and the Academy is having some work done on it, and that’s the bread and butter for the players.

“We’ll be doing the best we can to produce training pitches as good as Ewood for Tony (Mowbray) and his staff.”

The club were two League One clubs to be highly commended by the EFL for the condition of the pitch, with the overall honours going to Rotherham United.

The rankings are based on marks from referees and away managers, as well as detailed pitch inspections and a review of management operations.

And Wilkin added: “This is a great achievement for everyone involved after what has been a difficult season fixture and weather-wise.

“We had a tough period from late January through to the middle of February, but the winter we had, as everyone knows, was horrendous, plus this season what really hit us was the amount of fixtures we’ve had.

“I think the last league game of the season against Oxford was our 40th fixture here at Ewood, which is an unbelievable number for this stadium, so overall we’re very pleased.”

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Taking Pride In Your Work

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Taking Pride In Your Work: “Taking pride in what you do.” This was the closing message in an address given to the UK Lawncare Network conference by Professor John Moverley, Independent Chairman of the Amenity Forum. He said ‘For too long the excellent work in our sector maintaining amenity surfaces has been under recognised. What is done every day keeps Britain moving, through weed control of our road and rail networks, our sports surfaces, our gardens and lawns and more. In many ways, Britain sets the standard and it is important that we shout about this a little more’. 

John was asked to give the opening address when he addressed the topic of ‘Policy change – promoting best practice, responding to the change and communicating the importance of what we do’

Taking Pride In Your Work

The Amenity Forum is once again running a series of free Updating Events at venues across the UK. This series of free Updating Events seeks to address topical issues of interest and relevance to all involved in the amenity sector and will comprise short presentations by speakers drawn from the Chemicals Regulation Division of HSE, BASIS Registration, the National Sprayer Testing Service, STRI, the various host organisations and from the Amenity Forum itself. They are timed to occupy half a day, normally mornings, and on dates between February and April 2018.

The series has been given the title of ‘Meeting the challenge’ and there will be adequate time for questions and discussion. Whilst the events are free, delegates are required to register in advance. There is sure to be a venue near you and so if you require further information, please email admin@amenityforum.net. These have proved extremely popular events in previous years and have been very well received.

Locations and dates confirmed are:

Belfast 8th February
Peterborough 15th February
Wales 20th February
Stoneleigh 6th March
Pontefract 1st March
London 14th March
Reading 21st March
Essex 22nd March
Edinburgh 10th April
Darlington 11th April
Devon 19th April

This year there will also be three events within the programme especially designed for grounds staff and greenkeepers and hosted by Forum members, IOG and BIGGA. Dates and venues are yet to be confirmed but will take place at locations in the North, Midlands and South. If you wish to register interest for these again contact admin@amenityforum.net

Professor John Moverley, Independent Chairman of the Forum, said ‘’We offer these events as a convenient way for those involved in, or with an interest in, amenity to keep updated on current issues. The locations are spread across the UK and we are especially grateful to member organisations for providing venues and our speakers and supporters which make it all possible’’

The Forum has also announced the date for its popular annual conference and exhibition. In 2018 it will be held once again at the Pirelli Stadium, Burton upon Trent, on Tuesday, October 11th. The conference will be entitled ‘Change, challenge and opportunity’

For more information, visit: www.amenityforum.co.uk

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Trilo S3 Makes Light Work Of Leaf Clearance

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A Trilo S3 Makes Light Work Of Leaf Clearance At Keele University: Any machinery that makes time-consuming tasks more manageable is desirable and in the area of leaf clearance, a Trilo S3 is just that. At 617 acres, Keele University’s single-site campus is the largest in Europe. With woodland, gardens, sports facilities, halls of residence and academic areas to maintain the in-house maintenance team of 12 have their work cut out – that’s where the Trilo S3 comes in.

Jane Barker has been Head of Grounds at Keele University for 3 years but her knowledge of Trilo kit pre-dates this. “I’ve worked in grounds for the last 20 years, including for the MoD at Catterick Garrison, which is where I first came across the Trilo brand. We worked with a contractor at the time who used Trilo equipment and I was immediately impressed.” Upon Jane joining Keele, leaf collection was a task that was still done by hand, meaning it was both very labour intensive and tedious for the staff involved. “With over 4,500 deciduous trees on our site, generating millions of leaves, the clearance of these would very often go right through the winter and into the spring.”

Trilo S3 Makes Light Work Of Leaf Clearance

“One of my first decisions here was to invest in a Trilo S3 vacuum sweeper. Though it was greeted with initial scepticism based on past experiences of similar machinery, very quickly indeed they were all converted and were singing its praises.” Since the purchase, leaves are now completely cleared before the Christmas break which allows staff to be put to better use elsewhere. “It’s made an absolutely massive improvement!”

Working at a convenient 1.5 metres wide, but with a large 3m3 capacity, Jane says the Trilo S3 is the perfect size unit for their campus. “We have lots of narrow, twisty roads and paths and attached to our tractor we can take the S3 nearly every area we need to and those few spaces it can’t reach, we can blow the leaves to somewhere that it can.” The team were so impressed with the S3 that when it came to their tri-annual machinery replacement process, the S3 was top of the list with their new unit being delivered in April. “We always look at possible alternatives but everyone has been so pleased that going for a new S3 was the preferred choice. Our new unit comes complete with a flail and scarifier attachment which has delivered great results in its initial scarification work on some of the sites sports pitches.”

Final word from Jane, “The service and support we’ve received from Jon Proffitt has been great and thanks to him suggesting the additional attachments, our new S3 will now play an even greater year-round role in the maintenance of our site.”

For more information go to www.trilo.com

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