U P D AT E
NEWS
FIELDS IN TRUST
UK’s best park named STANLEY PARK IN Blackpool, Lancashire has been named the UK’s Best Park 2019. The announcement was made on the Fields in Trust Blackpool’s Stanley Park
Facebook page after 16 weeks of voting. A record 364 parks, recreation grounds, playing fields, country parks and green spaces were nominated and 36,832 people helped to decide the winner. The parks to top the vote in each of the home nations were: Antrim Castle Gardens in County Antrim (Northern Ireland); Cyfarthfa Park in Merthyr Tydfil (Wales); and Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline (Scotland).
IN MEMORY
WILLIE MORTON 21 APRIL 1961 – 19 JULY 2019 EVERYONE WHO HAS been involved in the Watsonian community over the past threeand-a-bit-decades had the pleasure of coming into contact with Willie Morton. From the day he joined George Watson’s College in Edinburgh in 1986 until the day he died in July, aged 58, Willie was a constant presence at the school grounds and, in particular, at Myreside. Many will remember Willie – who served Stirling County, Watsonians, Penicuik, Warwickshire and his country with distinction – as a top-quality cricketer. But for those involved with the Watsonian community he will be fondly remembered as the head groundsman who helped produce quality pitches at Myreside and kept the rest of the school grounds looking splendid.
Willie fell in love with cricket at Stirling County under the watchful eye of Raymond Bond. He moved south to Birmingham to follow his cricketing dream with professional outfit Warwickshire in 1984. A back injury put an end to his playing career but he returned to Scotland to play for Watsonians, Stirling County and Penicuik as well as coach at club and international level, particularly the Scotland under-19s. Former Scotland cricket captain George Salmond, who knew Willie for 31 years and worked with him at George Watson’s, said: “All too soon in his magnificent innings, one of life’s beauties has returned to the pavilion. It was an honour to be a teammate, opponent, work colleague and friend of Willie, a gem of a human being.”
“It was an honour to be a teammate, opponent, work colleague and friend of Willie, a gem of a human being”
12 THE GROUNDSMAN October 2019
PRIZE WINNERS
TOP GREENKEEPERS JASON NORWOOD, OF Rudding Park Golf Club in Harrogate, has been named the UK’s top student greenkeeper at the 31st Toro Student Greenkeeper of the Year Awards. Jason wins a seven-week scholarship at the University of Massachusetts, and a trip to the GCSAA’s Golf Industry Show in Orlando and to Toro’s headquarters and R&D centre. Tom Bromfield, of Trentham Golf Club, was named Toro Young Student Greenkeeper of the Year.
PL ASTIC PLEA
‘DITCH THE CUPS’ PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL CLUBS are being urged to eliminate single-use plastics from their stadia. The British Association for Sustainable Sport and Friends of the Earth are advocating football clubs taking up measures already in place across a number of other sports and venues, such as Lord’s and the Oval cricket grounds, and Twickenham rugby stadium. Fans can opt for reusable cups
PRODUCTION RUN
MOWER FIRST PRODUCTION OF ARIENS’ zeroturn mowers will commence at the company’s factory in Great Haseley, Oxfordshire. It’s believed these will be the first zero-turns to be manufactured in Europe. AriensCo says there has been exceptional growth in demand for zero-turn mowers in the UK and Europe, following similar trends in the US, where sales have soared.