I would like to begin by mentioning our thoughts are with the Queen and her family this week after the death of her beloved husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who devoted his life to serving as the Queen’s consort for over 70 years. As most of the televised broadcasts have shown, he was a man full of life and wise opinions. While celebrating my own 65th birthday last weekend it hard to imagine that the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme has being also going 65 years, changing the lives of over 4,000,000 people. 

I find it amazing that a single person could achieve so much in a lifetime, while at the same time influencing many others along the way. Of course, our own sports turf industry has its own set of influencers both at national, local and grass roots levels, without whom we would not have the fabric of our community life and the wonderful sports facilities we now have on offer. 

Wrekin GC 

As editor of TurfPro and in my other roles as a Green Flag judge and pitch advisor for the RFU, I am enabled the opportunity to meet many of these influencers who dedicate their lives to producing, maintaining and managing our excellent sports pitches.

Hopefully over the next few months, once lockdown restrictions are lifted, I will be able to regularly get out and about and meet many of these dedicated professionals and volunteers once again, who maintain our plethora of sports facilities in the UK .

Wrekin Golf Club

Easter Bank Holiday was exceptionally busy, with many golf clubs full to capacity with people wanting to play golf again after the lockdown. I recently visited the Wrekin Golf Club in Shropshire, which enabled me to catch up with their course manager Harry Jones, who said, “On the first day of reopening the club welcomed back over 250 members and players. And in the first week over 1000 players managed to enjoy the course”.

Harry and his team are starting to see the rewards of their hard work during this year’s long lockdown. Making the most of not having golfers out on the course meant that plenty of work has been achieved. This includes getting the playing surfaces up to speed, completing a  major winter pathway project, some bunker restorations and woodland work.   

The reason for my visit was due to the club taking delivery of a new piece of equipment, a Wessex ProLine STC-180, which will be an integral part of their new semi and permeant rough management regimes.  Harry, under the watchful eye of local biodiversity consultant John Handley, is keen to improve the quality of grasses and fauna within these areas of the course, which will not only speed up play, but will increase the biodiversity of the course. 

Harry had a demo of the machine last year, kindly supplied by Charlies Groundcare & Machinery, Welshpool and was impressed with its performance. The machine can be mounted on a tractor of 25hp upwards. The Wessex offers a generous working width of 1.8m and a hopper capacity of 2.25m. The machine has the capabilities to sweep, scarify and flail mow. However, Harry’s primary objective of the machine is to thin out areas of semi and permanent rough grass areas to increase biodiversity and improve the aesthetics of the course.

Harry Jones, Laurence Hoggins, Matt Lewis 

On hand to deliver the machine was Matt Lewis, areas sales representative for Charlies, and Laurence Hoggins, Midlands area sales manager for Wessex International. 

It was then a case of unloading the machine, setting it up for scarifying and away we went. It certainly coped well with the undulating ground conditions and fetched a lot of material out during one pass. I am sure this machine will become a regular sight out on the course in the coming years. 

This machine comes in two different sizes 1.2 m (STC 120) and 1.8m (STC 180) working widths. I personally see the STC 120 becoming a popular machine for use on local sports clubs, helping them scarify outfields as well as rugby and football pitches. It also has the ability to clear up leaves. 

I was certainly impressed with its performance and enjoyed the opportunity to see it working locally. No doubt Harry and his team of staff will be kept extremely busy this year now restrictions have been lifted and golf is back on the menu. 

I will also be popping back to the Wrekin GC sometime soon to compile a full report on the maintenance of the golf course and obviously keep an eye on how this machine has performed in its first season.

As for myself, I am keen to start visiting golf clubs again and already have a few in mind to see what they are up to and how they have coped through the pandemic.

Belper RFC

Belper RFC 

While on the subject of visits, last week I had the pleasure as part of my role of pitch advisor for the RFU, to meet up with Keith Kent, former HG at Twickenham, on an inspection of the pitches at Belper RFC. We met up with the club’s chairman Jakie Dyer, Simon Jones, groundsman, and treasurer, Paul Gascoyne, to discuss the condition of the pitches. Keith had already been to the club a few months earlier to advise them on how to improve the pitches in terms of maintenance and perhaps taking up the mantel of looking after the pitches themselves with the investment of new machinery, in terms of buying a new mower, line marker and outfield spiker.

Flooded Belper RFC pitches 

However, their biggest issue is the threat of flooding from the nearby river. The pitches are situated on a flood plain and are susceptible to flooding when the river rises. During a bad year will see flood water egressing onto the pitches several times during the winter months, thus preventing the club from using the pitches until the flood water recedes and the pitches are able to dry out.

However, the club have been proactive on this front and have sought quotes for a drainage scheme to help overcome this problem. As with any full pitch drainage system they come at cost and the club are looking to raise the necessary funds and find a window of opportunity to undertake this work. The club’s focus is getting players back training and playing in the next few months.

As with most, there is a desperate need to start generating some much-needed income over the bar and from holding social events.

Parks

On the parks front, I have recently seen a communication from APSE (Association of Parks Service Excellence ) saying it has been 20 years now since the first public parks assessment and almost 7 since the first State of UK Parks report. We have just come through a tough year for local authority parks services and it is time to take stock and plan for the future.

APSE and CFP are keen to build on both the previous State of UK Parks research and also APSE’s own state of the market research to create a comprehensive picture of the current state of our parks and greenspaces. To that end they have designed a new research project and they hope that turf professionals will be able to take part.

Cannon Hill Park 

The link to the survey is here. The closing date is 30 April 2021, with APSE aiming to publish the results in late May.

Also this year’s Green Flag Awards are starting soon with over 500  Green Flag judges looking forward to getting out and about and judging in excess of 2000 applications both home and abroad. Also, I note the organisation is saddened to hear of the death of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. The Duke was a champion of environmental causes including becoming President of Fields in Trust, formerly the National Playing Fields Association (NPFA) in 1948 until 2013. During that period the number of green spaces protected grew to over 2,000.

Early in his royal life, The Duke was said to be appalled to see children playing in the street instead of on green spaces and it became his desire to improve this situation for young people in urban areas. This led to him taking the Presidency of the NPFA, succeeding his uncle, Rear Admiral the Rt. Hon. Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

Green Flag Award Manager Paul Todd said; “Our thoughts today are with Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family. He leaves a lasting legacy in the thousands of parks and green spaces that are now protected and will be enjoyed by future generations.”

The Green Flag Award scheme works with Fields in Trust to ensure that as many parks and green spaces are protected for future generations and managed to a quality standard set by the Award.