It was an exciting time for cricket fans last week, with the release of the schedule for next year's Cricket World Cup which is taking place in England and Wales between 30 May and 14 July.

Amongst the headlines such as the opener being England taking on South Africa at the Oval and defending champions Australia starting their defence against qualifiers Afghanistan in a day-nighter in Bristol - it was something which was omitted from the announcement which was also quite significant.

For a long time it had been mooted that the London Stadium, home to West Ham United, would be utilised as a venue during the tournament, via the use of drop-in pitches. You can see why the idea appealed to the organisers. In theory being able to play in front of record numbers of cricket fans, in one of the country's prestige stadiums would be a real coup for the tournament. However, as many cricket ground specialists could very well have predicted, it didn't turn out to be quite as simple as that.

The main reason given by the organisers is that costs for converting the London Stadium to cricket were discovered to be prohibitively expensive. Speaking at Lord's last week the tournament's managing director Steve Elworthy was quoted by media outlets as saying, "It was probably more than 18 months ago that we commissioned drop-in portable pitches to be grown and potentially sent to the London Stadium.

"But after we understood the unique elements of what cricket would require in that stadium we found ourselves at the point where the infrastructure costs were probably going to be way too much.

"It was disappointing because we spent so much time on it, but I think it was the right decision for the tournament."

Tellingly, England's one-day captain, Eoin Morgan, who probably isn’t as concerned with the costs to the organisers as he is how his team would fare playing in unusual conditions, told the BBC that the omission of the stadium was "not terribly disappointing".

He went on to say, "The spectacle of playing in front of 60,000 would have been exciting, but we haven't played there before so an element of unpredictability might have crept in with no previous record at the ground."

It does seem that this could well have been a bullet dodged for fans and players alike. Followers of the game have suffered before, watching long, drawn out wars of attrition played on drop-in pitches. A recent high-profile example was of course at the MCG during the last Ashes series - with that surface facing a barrage of criticism for its lifelessness. Of course the World Cup is a different format of the game, but concerns would persist as to how these pitches would perform.

Turf professionals who specialise in the sport understand just how unique playing surfaces for the game of cricket truly are. However much a temporary venue might appeal in terms of ticket sales, it's more than likely to suffer in comparison to an established ground's lovingly grown-in and maintained wicket.

In a superb article from the Indpendent a few days ago, their chief sports writer Jonathan Liew, catalogued the timeline which the Cricket World Cup and the London Stadium have gone through to reach the conclusion that the two parties aren't suitable for each other.

He sums up the unique magic of the 22 yards between the two sets of stumps perfectly, writing that a cricket pitch is, " . . an organism borne of nature but which could never exist naturally, [and is] subject to any one of a million kaleidoscopic variables that will fundamentally alter how a cricket ball behaves on contact with it."

Jonathan's assessment is true advocacy of the role of professional cricket's groundstaff. It is their expertise and dedication which gives a platform for players to thrill and delight cricket fans worldwide.

Thankfully, for the good of next year's tournament, this professionalism will be given a chance to shine as a vital element of the game's appeal. Fans of the sport should be delighted that this has not been overlooked in favour of potentially filling a few more seats.

The award for the Premier League Grounds Team of the Season for 2017/18 has gone to Watford.

Vicarage Road

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.

The EFL has announced the winners of the Grounds Team of the Season award for 2017/18 in each of the three divisions.

Middlesborough won the award in the Championship

The awards recognise the importance of the quality of pitches for professional football and acknowledge the clubs and their ground staff who consistently produce the best playing surfaces in the EFL.

In the Sky Bet Championship, the EFL said that Middlesbrough won the award for producing "a perfect pitch" at the Riverside this season. Fulham and Nottingham Forest were both highly commended.

In Sky Bet League One, Rotherham United's ground staff take top honours for the "excellent surface" at the New York Stadium. Blackburn Rovers and Milton Keynes Dons were highly commended.

The award for Grounds Team of the Season in Sky Bet League Two this year goes to Wycombe Wanderers, while the ground staff of Chesterfield and Swindon Town are highly commended.

Championship
Winner – Middlesbrough
Highly Commended – Fulham
Highly Commended - Nottingham Forest

League One
Winner – Rotherham United
Highly Commended – Blackburn Rovers
Highly Commended - Milton Keynes Dons

League Two
Winner – Wycombe Wanderers
Highly Commended – Chesterfield
Highly Commended - Swindon Town

The EFL's Grounds Team of the Season Awards are determined initially using marks from referees and away managers for each Sky Bet EFL game and are then followed by detailed pitch inspections and a review of management operations.

These visits were carried out by Dr Stephen Baker, Head of Sports Surface Technology at the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI).

Rigby Taylor has launched a Seeds For Change promotion with prizes of Ryder Cup weekends and POGO soil moisture measurement and management systems.

Each of the first three winning entries will win for the golf/sports club a POGO Pro moisture management system and free one-year Cloud subscription while the head greenkeeper/course manager/head groundsman will receive an-expenses paid weekend at the 2018 Ryder Cup.

Jason Eldridge, head greenkeeper at Upchurch River Valley Golf Club, with the POGO moisture management system

The prize includes return travel, two night’s hotel accommodation and full on-course, corporate hospitality at the 42nd Ryder Cup being held at Le Golf National (Albatros Course) in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a suburb south west of Paris.

POGO Pro measures all four of the most influential variable governing turf performance - moisture, salinity (EC), canopy temperature and salinity index. It connects remotely to any Apple or android device and its integrated GPS features include precise location, geospatial condition analysis, cup placements, sprinkler positioning and patterns, area measurement and custom mapping.

As part of the Seeds For Change promotion, the listed seed packages for greens, tees or fairways, as well as sports pitches, from Rigby Taylor’s R range include new perennial ryegrass cultivars (Estelle, Eurocordus and Gianna) as part of the already successful R9 ultra-fine dwarf rye, R14CR creeping and diploid, and R25CRT tetraploid creeping and diploid ranges, respectively, as well as the new R442 tetraploid and diploid perennial ryegrass blend mixture.

Customers are required to order (direct with a Rigby Taylor area representative) any of the listed packages for greens, tees or fairways, as well as sports pitches, and correctly answer a technical question to gain an entry into the national draw.

The grass seed order can also be combined with hectare applications of Exteris StressGuard for turf disease prevention and/or Activate-XL, a microbial biostimulant for improved early rooting development. As additional ‘packages’ are ordered then more entries can be made into the draw.

For more details, contact your Rigby Taylor area representative or Freephone 0800 424919.

Wessex International has become a partner in Rugby Groundsmen Connected.

The rugby club pitch maintenance equipment package, devised by the Rugby Football Union’s head groundsman, Keith Kent, is the RFU’s easy access, two-way communication network between the RFU and rugby union groundsmen. Working with trusted industry partners, Keith’s package is designed to meet the needs of rugby union clubs aiming to deliver a high quality pitch maintenance programme.

Part of this includes the Wessex ProLine CRX-180 combination mower, with castoring wheels at the front and a full width roller on the rear. The CRX is suited to compact tractors from 20hp such as the Iseki TM3265, which is also offered as part of the package.

“We’re delighted to be partners and have our CRX chosen to be part of the programme,” says Pete Farndell, Wessex International’s Marketing Manager. “Being part of Rugby Groundsmen Connected is a wonderful opportunity to get close to grass roots and the rugby groundsmen. The CRX has proved itself worthy at many RFU clubs across the UK. This is an excellent opportunity to let people know of its capabilities.”

The company describes the Wessex CRX as effectively three mowers in one: roller mower, finishing mower and combination mower. As a finishing mower, with its high blade tip speed it delivers cut quality, while maintaining increased manoeuvrability in awkward areas. In its role as a combination mower it is suited to front mounting on a compact tractor, with the castoring wheels reducing scuffing and the rear roller leaving the striped effect on the turf.

Everything the RFU does related to pitch maintenance now comes under the banner of Rugby Groundsmen Connected and Wessex International say they are proud to be a part of the RFU initiative to provide information and advice to groundsmen, with special offers and exclusive benefits to members.

South Staffordshire Council is aiming to save £100,000 in the first year of its grounds maintenance operations coming in-house, following many years of it being outsourced.

To carry out its grass cutting work, the Council has recently purchased four new John Deere 1570 outfront mowers equipped with 1.57m rotary decks from Midlands dealer Farol. This followed a proposal to Council Members and a successful visit to IOG SALTEX at the NEC in November 2017 to research the purchase options.

L-R: Chris Roe of Farol, Andrew Aston, Bob Taylor, operators Tony Boden and David Elsmore with the new John Deere mowers at South Staffordshire Council’s headquarters in Codsall near Wolverhampton

The road homologated mowers are equipped with special road lighting kits supplied by Howard Marshall Engineering and are backed by a full PowerGard maintenance package to help fix the costs of ownership. The Council also bought two John Deere front-mounted snow blades to extend the use of the machines through the winter.

South Staffordshire Council’s Street Scene team, part of Community Services, is responsible for cutting 1.1 million square metres of grass every two weeks across the district, which equates to 14 cuts a year from March until September/October.

“Geographically we cover a large rural area, 27 miles from Acton Trussell in the north to Kinver in the south,” says the Council’s Contract Monitoring Officer Andrew Aston. “We maintain open spaces and highway verges, including shrubs, trees and general landscaping as well as grass cutting, and we currently have one Green Flag site, Wom Brook Walk at Wombourne.

“Historically the Council had contracted out its grounds maintenance operations. However, in summer 2017 a number of proposals were presented to elected members regarding the future provision of grounds maintenance and based on all the options, the members opted to bring the service back in-house.

“The overall aim of doing this is to merge grounds maintenance with the Council’s current in-house street cleansing service - the rationale being to create a single, multi-functional Street Scene team that generates both efficiencies and an improved service to residents.

“By adopting this new approach, the Council is not proposing to reduce the frequency of our grass cutting operations,” adds Andrew. “We are able to do this by controlling costs and prioritising our workload, and we feel that taking this approach gives us the most cost-effective way of continuing to provide the best possible service to South Staffordshire residents.”

Street Scene team member Tony Boden operating one of South Staffordshire Council’s new John Deere 1570 front rotary mowers at the start of the grass cutting season in March

Following the decision, the team visited IOG SALTEX specifically to research the market and explore the available purchase options. “We looked around the show and talked to the different manufacturers so that the Council could make an informed decision on the equipment we planned to purchase,” says Street Scene Team Leader Bob Taylor. “Because we were going to the exhibition seriously looking to buy new equipment, it really made the whole experience that much more enjoyable and rewarding.

“We met Farol’s golf & turf area sales manager Chris Roe there and saw the 1570 mower on the John Deere stand. Several of our operators have had experience of using the company’s front rotaries, so while we did look at other makes we decided in the end to go with Deere and Farol. This decision was also based on a combination of other factors, not least the PowerGard maintenance package, which we felt was really the best available.”

South Staffordshire Council has utilised RouteSmart route optimisation software since 2012, primarily for its waste and recycling service, which led to the development and mobilisation of an award-winning resource generating major contract and service efficiencies. This system is now also being used for the Street Scene operations.

“RouteSmart gives you daily areas to cover based on the data inputted, such as roads and speed limits, mower speeds and capacities, and it provides the operators with the quickest work routes,” says Andrew Aston. “This new in-house approach and the adoption of new technology give us a great opportunity to improve and provide a more bespoke service.

“We also find social media can be very helpful in this respect - we can update our residents quickly and easily on where and when we’ll be cutting, so it’s much better now that everything’s in our own hands.”

TYM Tractors has welcomed KJ Stoneman & Co Ltd in Devon to its dealer network, and in doing so continues its network expansion of 2017 into 2018.

The appointment extends TYM’s coverage in mid and north Devon and provides the family-run agricultural dealer’s customer base of landscape and amenity customers with a comprehensive compact tractor range.

Commenting on the latest dealer to join the TYM network, Scott Turner, southern regional sales manager at Reesink Turfcare, said, “KJ Stoneman was looking for a tractor range suitable for its customers’ needs and TYM fit the criteria. Not only does the partnership see our plans realised in continuing to grow the dealer network, but it also fulfils KJ Stoneham’s plan to offer the choice of a reliable tractor to its customers.”

Jason Heard, owner of KJ Stoneman, which boasts 71 years in the business, says, “A TYM tractor takes everything in its stride. Plus, its performance matches its appearance, both of which will be very appealing to our customers.”

Scott Turner concluded by saying, “Brand development has been progressive and the dealer network across the country is increasing. We are delighted to welcome K J Stoneman to the ever growing TYM dealer network and look forward to working with them.”

Sherriff Amenity has announced that it is now the exclusive UK distributor of Carbon Gold’s Enriched Biochar Turf Improver.

L-R: James MacPhail (Commercial Director - Carbon Gold) ; Neil Pullen (Regional Sales Manager Sherriff Amenity) ; Simon Manley (CEO - Carbon Gold)

Carbon Gold’s aim is to increase soil fertility and improve turf health through the use of biochar-based products and projects. Its blends are approved by the Soil Association for organic growing and are certified by the FSC. This alliance significantly widens Carbon Gold’s market reach and improves the availability of enriched biochar to the UK sports turf industry.

Biochar is a highly porous, high carbon form of charcoal used to improve soil nutrition, growing conditions and turf health. It is made from untreated waste woody biomass that has been charred at a low temperature with a restricted supply of oxygen, a process called pyrolysis.

The company says Biochar improves the physical nature of soils by increasing their water holding capacity and improving aeration, lessening the risk of drought and waterlogging. It also improves the cation exchange capacity of the soil, influencing its ability to hold onto essential nutrients.

Due to its microscopic honeycomb-like structure, biochar provides the perfect habitat for beneficial soil microorganisms - such as mycorrhizal fungi and actinomycetes bacteria - to flourish, encouraging increased root growth and plant vitality.

Carbon Gold’s Turf Improver enriches biochar with optimum levels of beneficial fungi, bacteria and trace minerals for optimum soil and sward health. Where prevention rather than cure is key, adding enriched biochar to soil provides the foundation on which to build resilient, attractive, playable turf, as recent sports turf trials have shown.

The growing popularity of enriched biochar in the professional and amenity turf sectors signifies a positive shift to a more biological approach, as part of a wider movement away from harmful chemical inputs and towards soil health.

Turf Improver is available immediately from Sherriff Amenity.

Nigel Rafferty Groundcare of Redruth, Cornwall were more than happy to loan one of their Iseki demonstration tractors at short notice to the Cornwall Air Ambulance for the launch of the Charity’s £2.5m New Heli Appeal on Tuesday 24 April.

The tractor was used to tow and position the next generation AW169 helicopter flown in especially for the launch between the helipad and the hanger.

Nigel Rafferty says, “We are very pleased to have been asked to help with the launch of this appeal - even in this small way. We were in no doubt that our Iseki TL3400 tractor would cope well with towing the new helicopter to and from the hanger to the helipad.”

Cornwall Air Ambulance are now embarking on a two-year fundraising campaign, the New Heli Appeal, to urgently raise £2.5m to bring this next generation air ambulance helicopter to Cornwall by April 2020, the date the lease runs out on its current aircraft.

To donate visit Cornwall Air Ambulance website.