these Open Championship Clubs choose to relief grind - Pitchcare

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Pitchcare Classifieds SPORTS TURF CONTRACTORS • Supplies • Renovation • Drainage • Construction 01797 252299 www.bourneamenity.co.uk enquiries@bourneamenity.co.uk CH GROUNDS MAINTENANCE LTD DRAINAGE Piped Drainage, Sand Slitting, SandMaster CONSTRUCTION Sports Fields and Golf Courses RENOVATION Verti-draining, GroundBreaker, Over-seeding Top-dressing, Koro Field Topmaker Tel: 01494 758208 info@chgrounds.com www.chgrounds.com 138 PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2012 D W Clark DRAINAGE LTD Vertidraining, Hollow Coring, Overseeding, Draining, Gravel Banding, Field Top Maker, Deep Scarifying Mobile: 07860 259692 Tel: 01284 735105 Email: peter@buryturfcare.com www.buryturfcare.com Philip Dixon Contractors Ltd Established 1978 Sportsturf Drainage Specialist Drainage Construction Renovation Slitting Banding Maintenance Tel 01772 877289 (Preston, Lancs) Email: info@dixondrainage.co.uk www.dixondrainage.co.uk Sports Ground Contractors Ltd SPECIALIST SPORTSTURF CONSTRUCTION & DRAINAGE CONTRACTORS • Gravel Banding • Sand Slitting • Top Dressing • Renovation • Irrigation Unit 7, Brailes Industrial Estate, Winderton Lane, Lower Brailes Banbury, Oxfordshire OX15 5JW Tel: 01608 685800 Fax: 01608 685801 email: jim@dwclarkdrainageltd.co.uk Web: www.dwclarkdrainageltd.co.uk Drainage Hard times? Need drainage? Cut costs, don’t cut corners Established golf greens can be drained at a fraction of the cost of rebuilding them, and with none of the upheaval David Shelton suggests that choosing the right option to finance your drainage requirements, working when the weather is favourable, and selecting the correct machinery, can help cut costs When times are hard, one activity that often gets put aside is attention to land drainage - and this is unwise, for drainage problems rapidly compound themselves. So, if finance is tight, but drainage is essential, how can the two be reconciled? The answer is relatively simple - work in the most efficient and effective manner. How? One needs to use today’s high output sports turf drainage machines in optimum soil conditions. This entails planning ahead and stressing to the senior management that soil conditions, and not the calendar, must determine when work is undertaken. A trenching machine, for example, working in the late spring, summer or early autumn may have an output per day double or even treble that of the same machine working in wet soils in winter. And, seeing that there will be provision for supporting equipment, and of the order of five operators on site, savings are substantial. The subject of trenching leads on to pipe size - one tends to think that bigger must be better, but this is not so. In removing excess soil water, fine particles enter the pipe. There must be a good flow of water through the pipes to carry these ‘fines’ away. Too big a pipe and the flow of water is sluggish and ‘fines’ build up, in effect reducing the size of the pipe. For optimum results, the pipes should fit snugly in the trenches; for example an 80mm pipe would fit into a trench cut 97mm wide. The latent force in the soil reduces the trench width almost immediately it has been excavated. In turn, this degree of precision leads to savings in the backfilling aggregates. Placing gravels and sands in narrow trenches, without contaminating the surface, has been one of the slowest parts of the drainage activity. But now, there are machines, such as the Fast-Flow range of backfilling hoppers, that enables placement of these materials at speeds of 5-6 mph. Minimum disruption to the playing surface must be a high priority, for it is costly to undertake repairs, re-turfing and collecting spilled soil. This entails using modern, dedicated sportsturf drainage machinery, rather than something cheap and cheerful, or even doing it by hand. Secondary drainage schemes are usually superimposed over the primary piped system to enhance the speed of drainage. For years, sand slitting was the only option. 50mm wide trenches were dug 250-300mm deep, then backfilled with gravel and topped with sand or rootzone. These slits worked well, but
Gravel banding is a secondary drainage technique, undertaken when soils are moist and surface disturbance is negligible had drawbacks. Often, in dry weather, they opened-up due to soil shrinkage, and the aggregates in the trench needed topping-up. Sometimes, this could occur more than once, prolonging the scarring of the surface and adding additional costs. Hence, gravel band drainage has become a popular secondary system. It is a trenchless technique, meaning that soil is not excavated; the aggregate is vibrated into 25mm wide slots made by a stainless steel channel opener. Using a 3-tonne capacity gravel banding machine, operated by a skilled operator, outputs of up to 10,000 linear metres per day are usual. In the case of gravel banding, it needs to be undertaken when soil moisture levels are high, as they may be in winter time. The flotation tyres on the machines rarely mark the sward. Another recently launched secondary system is the Lightening Drain TM . 25mm diameter land drainage pipe is fed into 35mm wide trenches and simultaneously backfilled with Lytag, a manufactured product derived from pulverised fuel ash from coal fired power stations. At pipe spacings of 400-500mm it provides rapid drainage and is finding favour for drainage of established golf greens. At somewhat wider spacings, it may be used to drain football and hockey pitches. Along with considering what drainage techniques are appropriate, one has to consider by whom they are to be undertaken. Is it best to use a contractor? Would it be appropriate to purchase the equipment? Could equipment be hired-in and used by our own staff? Or, is it feasible to hire-in the equipment together with a skilled operator? The answer will probably depend on availability of staff, and the skills of those staff. Sometimes, there is a choice of a hybrid approach - for example, hire with the option to purchase. Another approach is to engage a contractor to install the more complex primary drainage system and carry out the secondary drainage with one’s own staff. It’s time well spent to make cost comparisons of the alternative approaches, for this is where substantial sums of money can be saved. Take advice. You may find you can afford that drainage work after all. David Shelton is Managing Partner of Shelton Sportsturf Drainage Solutions LLP. www.sheltonsdranage.com Trenching machines perform best when soils are not saturated SPORTS TURF CONTRACTORS D CRANE SPORTS TURF Construction Golf Courses, Natural/ Artificial Pitches, MUGAs Renovation Koro Field Top Maker, Fibre Sand Installation, Laser Grading, Seeding Drainage Piped Drainage, Sandmaster, Whiz Wheel, Gravel Banding Tel:01254 878047 Email:info@dcranesportsturf.com Website:www.dcranesportsturf.com CONSTRUCTION Sports Fields and Golf Courses DRAINAGE Sand Slitting, Gravel Banding RENOVATION Verti Draining, Hollow Coring, Scarifying, Koro Field Topmaker, Topdressing, Overseeding, Sand Spreading Mobile: 07768 122577 Tel: 01772 780545 danvicturfcare@btconnect.com Natural & Synthetic Sports Pitch Design - Construction Renovation - Drainage - Maintenance Tel: 01256 880488 Email: info@kestrelcontractors.co.uk www.kestrelcontractors.co.uk Pitchcare Classifieds Specialists in Sportsfield Construction, Fencing, Drainage and Landscaping Get in touch on: 01773 872362 www.pugh-lewis.co.uk Sports Surfaces for Quality & Excellence CONSTRUCTION • DRAINAGE IRRIGATION • MAINTENANCE SOFT LANDSCAPING & PLANTING Scotland: Tel 01236 453030 Cheshire: Tel 01565 889220 Email: info@souterssports.co.uk www.souterssports.co.uk Sportsfield Construction Drainage Schemes Renovations & Improvements Cricket Specialists Tel: 01529 455757 Fax: 01529 455775 e-mail: steve@stevenpask.co.uk www.stevenpask.co.uk SPEEDCUT CONTRACTORS LTD A professional service for all Sportsturf: • Drainage • Construction • Renovation Oxford 01865 331479 www.speedcutcontractors.co.uk Advertising in the classified section of Pitchcare costs as little as £200 a year Contact Peter Britton on 01952 898516 or email: peter@pitchcare.com DECEMBER/JANUARY 2012 PC 139
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SERVING THE TURFCARE INDUSTRY KEYNO
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WELCOME TO pitchcare 2012 - and all
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Andy Gray, Southampton FC Artificia
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Reverting to farmland! The Norfolk
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Amenity-specific NSK revamped More
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Launching Spring 2012 www.ransomesj
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getting the MBE, without doubt. It
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THE REAL STARS OF WEST HAM, WIMBLED
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time. He also was the man who donat
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eason we run the electric triplex a
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times. Cycle times are then modifie
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easonable £12,000. And so Parkston
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Controlled burning of scrub Fairway
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However, in collaboration with the
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after Kerry defeated Cork in last y
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involved various management strateg
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convincing the greens committee to
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As editor of Pitchcare, I am fortun
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Golf In October last year, Ian Robs
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Golf As the course has 100% floodli
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Golf turn, pays for the course. Our
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thought, at the time, the greens we
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Augusta National levels of crickete
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You don’t often hear a golfer say
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THE NEW LT3340. HEAVY-DUTY MOWING F
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natural pitches artificial pitches
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one area? Clubs are then likely to
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also of the RFU and a number of ins
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“Artificial rugby pitches must be
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Rootzone top-up The concept for a N
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Winter Sports With Southampton flyi
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Winter Sports Professional lights s
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Winter Sports “Our most worrying
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Winter Sports 68 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH
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Winter Sports ViewPoint Our anonymo
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Summer Sports - Bowls Expectations
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Summer Sports - Bowls Rainbird irri
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Summer Sports - Bowls When it comes
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Summer Sports - Bowls “Consistenc
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Summer Sports - Cricket “No, I’
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Summer Sports - Cricket trimming of
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Summer Sports - Cricket SMITH famil
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Schools & Colleges After thirty yea
Page 90 and 91: Schools & Colleges One of Chris Edw
Page 92 and 93: Schools & Colleges Ransomes 305 a g
Page 94 and 95: Schools & Colleges Neville Johnson
Page 96 and 97: Schools & Colleges Head Groundsman
Page 98 and 99: Schools & Colleges Joe Cooper’s l
Page 100 and 101: Schools & Colleges Look through any
Page 102 and 103: Equestrian Craig Williamson “This
Page 104 and 105: Equestrian The home straight from t
Page 106 and 107: Technical Seed germination is one o
Page 108 and 109: Technical Trees represent an import
Page 110 and 111: Technical Giant Polypore heaviness
Page 112 and 113: Technical Normally carried out unde
Page 114 and 115: Technical Choosing the right sand c
Page 116 and 117: Technical which is determined by th
Page 118 and 119: Technical In this final article in
Page 120 and 121: Technical “In order to tie the go
Page 122 and 123: Technical “The words ‘gas oil
Page 124 and 125: Technical MONTHLY Diaries I STILL s
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Page 129 and 130: 2. The “threat” scenario If the
Page 131 and 132: Alongside our General Sports Turf M
Page 133 and 134: one I had not predicted, but I stil
Page 135 and 136: “There are many different covers
Page 137 and 138: come of it. They’d look at it and
Page 139: since day one. Barry is, essentiall
Page 143 and 144: Ideal for use around tree bases Jap
Page 145 and 146: present a key challenge. “Typical
Page 147 and 148: Quote me happy “... they are comi
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