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Karl Standley (right) with Simon Rudkins (left) and Fin Farrell Bramley (centre)
FOOTBALL
A helping hand WEMBLEY’S GROUNDS MANAGER Karl Standley helped to save the day for a school in Hastings. When the St Leonard’s Academy sports department shared a photo on social media of the somewhat slipshod line marking of its football pitch, Karl was quick to offer his help. In particular, the centre circle was looking anything but central and after seeing the post himself, Karl responded from his own account to help them out, before arranging to travel to East Sussex. Ahead of his trip to the coast, Karl called on the help of Simon Rudkins who is head groundsperson at Hastings United and also part of Wembley’s event day grounds team. And after winning six grassroots pitch of the year awards in the Isthmian and Steps 3 and 4 leagues, he was certainly a help in fixing the issue.
“To help St Leonard’s out was a privilege. We wanted to help put it right”
There was also extra support from Fin Farrell Bramley, the 15-year-old assistant groundsperson at Hastings United, who was also able to pick Karl’s brains for some insider tips on pursuing a career in pitch care and maintenance. “To help St Leonard’s out was a privilege; we benchmark ourselves on our standards and when seeing that issue we wanted to help put it right,” said Karl. “To have an award-winning grassroots groundsperson in Simon and young future groundsperson in Fin made it a great team effort. “After some work on the centre circle it was looking as good as Wembley’s and was ready for the children of St Leonard’s to play on. After all, you never know, one day some of the children from St Leonard’s could be playing on the pitch at Wembley.”
Helping to make the centre circle central again!
4 GROUNDS MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2020
GreenMech rationalises dealer coverage GreenMech has announced a rationalisation of its dealer network in the South and South East, which will see an expansion in coverage area for existing dealer GA Groundcare, with effect from 1 January 2021. Operating from a purpose-built depot in Poulshot, Wiltshire, GA Groundcare will become exclusive to the GreenMech franchise, offering supply and support across the full pedestrian, road-tow and tracked chipper portfolio – together with stocking a comprehensive range of GreenMech replacement parts. Having originally been appointed in 2017 for the counties of Berkshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, the success of the partnership sees their territory extended to cover Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
Balmers GM joins INFINICUT network Balmers GM has been announced as the latest dealer in a growing network of outlets for the Infinicut and TMSystem ranges. With depots in Wakefield and Burnley, the company is well placed to deliver sales and support to a wide variety of professional customers across Yorkshire, Lancashire and Manchester. Established over 40 years ago, Balmers GM has grown to become one of the largest dedicated turf machinery dealers in the UK. With immediate effect, it will be stocking the full Infinicut range of floating-head, fixed-head and rotary mowers together with the complete range of TMSystem cassettes for grooming, cutting and other maintenance activities.
Irelands adds Kubota grounds care kit to tractors Irelands Lincolnshire GroundCare has added Kubota grounds care equipment to its existing Kubota tractor dealership business. This will extend the products offered to include a full range of compact tractors from 18-60hp, commercial and domestic ride-on mowers and RTV utility vehicles, putting the firm on a course for further expansion into new markets.
