King William's College is a leading world independent school for ages 3 to 18, situated near Castletown on the Isle of Man.

 

Michael Atherton, Head Groundsman, King Williams College and the Buchan School, Isle of Man

 

"We have used the Imants Rotoknife intensively as part of our winter pitch renovations, and as part of our on-going programme of frequent surface aeration, and deep slicing, I can only speak highly of the machine." Said Mike "Several benefits have already been noted, with thatch levels decreasing rapidly, thickening of the sward, increased root depth, and improved surface smoothness are all factors which have been evidenced to date, and surpassed my expectations. With these benefits being evident over such a brief period of working with the machine, I look forward to the results following another growing season."

 

"Ease of use and maintenance are other factors which attracted me to the machine. The lack of any mechanical parts also aided in my decision to purchase, as the ever increasing general service and running costs involved in grounds maintenance in general, reliability is something that is high on my list of priorities."

 

Mike also praised the sales and after sales service from Campey Turf Care Systems "It has also been first class, and I would highly recommend that the Imants Rotoknife be a consideration for anyone looking to improve their maintenance regimen." 

Designed in 1936 Rungsted Golf Club is one of Denmark's oldest and important courses and over time has developed into one of the very best in Europe, hosting many national and international competitions. It is situated to the north of Copenhagen in parkland with mature trees flanking every fairway. The course is slightly hilly with streams cutting across fairways short of the green.

Ian C Tomlinson Course Manager, says on behalf of Rungsted Golf club - "Thank you once again for having the foresight to bring yet another machine to the turf sector which will no doubt be the market leader in the coming years".

Rungsted Golf Club have recently placed an order for one of the first Coremaster Xtremes.

Manchester United Football Club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester , was founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878; the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.

Today Manchester United is the most successful club in English football , having won a record 19 league titles , a record 11  FA Cups and four League Cups . The club has also won three European Cups and has twice been club world champions, in 1999 and 2008 .

 

 

Joe Pemberton – Head Groundsman at Carrington Manchester United.

"In the past year we've acquired three New Holland tractors and the Koro which enabled us to carry out a proportion of the renovations ourselves. Having seen the results, we'll be looking to invest in several other pieces of specialist machinery over the coming months. Being a local company, Campeys provide us with on-demand technical assistance and rapid access to parts and service with all our machinery, which is invaluable."

Derek Crane, Professional Landscape and Amenity Contractor operating in the Lancashire area.

 

Derek Crane recently purchased a new Omarv TE190 following a demonstration and it has repaid the investment within six weeks.  "The Omarv TE190 is an immensely strong and incredibly versatile machine.  "We undertake a vast number of tasks to maintain a variety of open spaces," he explained.  "One of our major contracts involves the maintenance of a number of small football pitches on a tight budget. 

The Omarv has proved an invaluable tool to clean off the surface of these pitches, particularly those covered with small stones.  It has given us an economic alternative method of fraise mowing requiring only one man for the job.  Our season is short but intense and the Omarv TE190 provided the means to complete the work in the time allowed without employing other more expensive, labour intensive methods."

Romiley Golf Club was founded on 29th July 1897 and was originally known as Woodley and Romiley Golf Club. Course architect, Tom Renouf, used the natural contours of the land to plan and design. The golf course measures 6412 yards and has a par of 70 with every hole tree-lined making an idyllic yet challenging course.

Martin Thompson, Course Manager at Romiley Golf Club.
"The 10th green was poorly formed from day one and suffers particularly from excess thatch. Despite there being a main drainage system in place, it is invariably the wettest on the course.  We used the Sandcat and a vast improvement was noticeable within a day.  Being tractor mounted the whole process only took two hours and the green was immediately useable afterwards.   Even the members commented on the instant recovery.  It is now our driest green."

Portmarnock Golf Club was established in 1894 and was one of the earliest courses in Ireland stretching along the dunes and using the undulations of the natural terrain.   Bernhard Langer incorporated part of the original layout in his design of the  The Links Portmarnock , a championship links which opened for play in 1995   and has hosted many top class amateur and professional events including the 2008 & 2009 Ladies Irish Open.

 

Gary Johnston, Course Manager at Portmarnock Golf Club

"Links courses have their own unique environment and conditions and they react differently to maintenance techniques used by inland golf courses," Gary explained.  "The Triplex Brush converts a two man, two pass operation into a one pass action, saving us time and money.  It also undoubtedly gives a better cut, lifting the grass up to cut cleanly, producing a much tighter surface that is normally found on a links course.  This in turn speeds up the surfaces.  Even during the wet summer when, depending on growth, we have brushed twice a month compared to once every two months in the dry times, we can still achieve a good speed on the green, much to our members delight!"

Merchant Taylors' is an independent day school of more than 800 students. Set in 250 acres of lakes and countryside where Middlesex, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire meet, with over 55 acres devoted to sport.

 

The school has 11 cricket square, 15 winter pitches of varying sizes including 8 full sized A new winter based hockey pitch is under construction. Pitches are used for the Middlesex County junior matches for under 17 & 19's. It is the Academy Centre for cricket and hosts the Middlesex Ladies training matches. The facilities are also leased to a number of local football clubs.

 

The rugby pitches have recently been given over to multi-sports use to maximise the activity levels. This has resulted in increased numbers of football, rugby, hockey and cricket matches played.

  

Head Groundsman Richard Rayling, "We chose an Imants Shockwave rather than a Verti-drain for its consistent slitting.   It creates drainage lines that remain effective throughout the season.  Surface disturbance on rugby pitches is not an issue, so we can use the Shockwave throughout the seasons if necessary. Even in a dry summer it gives good penetration on our pitches."

Founded in 1893 Muswell Hill still has most of the original holes in place although it recently added two new tees and continues to improve its facilities with stat-of-the-art greenkeeping equipment and improved drainage.

 

Matt Plested, Course Manager - "Due to the clay based soil in this area we were experiencing some serious compaction problems on a number of the greens. A neighbouring course recommended the Imants Shockwave to us so we borrowed it to give it a try. The improvement was dramatic. We initially did double passes on the greens to maximise the effect and because of the lack of surface disruption, this wasn't a problem. There has since been a huge improvement to the quality of the drainage. In the past the course could be shut if we experienced just 1.5mm or rain. Now we are still open if an inch has fallen. The greens take less that 6 hours to dry out – you can see the water shedding through the surface. It's a great piece of kit and we purchased our own model through Peter Hopkinson at Browns of Chesham." 

The golf course was designed by Eddie Hackett who also designed such renowned courses as Enniscrone, Malahide and the links at Waterville & Killarney. Beech Park is an 18-hole parkland golf course measuring 5,774 metres from the championship tees.

Course Manager, Dave Callanan – "With a soil structure that is not suitable for Verti-Draining, compaction was a serious problem on my course. When I saw what the Imants Shockwave had to offer, I got our local contractor to demo it on one of my fairways. The results proved to be so successful that I had no objection from the clubs management when I looked for the additional expenditure in my budget to complete the process on the entire course. This will now be a part of my winter maintenance program to aid with compaction relief and water movement."

David Geraghty, Groundsman at Belvedere- "We used the Shockwave twice on all seven pitches; once in September and then again at the back end of October 2010." Said David "The difference was quite astonishing." It's not just about improving drainage, drying out the soil, reducing the compaction. What was most noticeable was the overall quality of the playing surface. It has obviously had a dramatic effect on the root zone, because the grass is strong and able to withstand the impact of continuous play. We still had as much as 70% grass coverage in March 2010 after a full season."

Stoke Park is over 100 years old and is set within 350 areas of Historic Parkland.   The 27hole course golf course renowned for its exceptionally high quality greens, which have been consistently maintained, throughout its history. In November 2005 Golf World chose the course within the "Top 100 Courses in the World".  Alex Miller  was appointed Course Manager at the prestigious Stoke Park 21 years ago. He manages 22 greens staff and is responsible for 27 holes of golf course, 15 acres of garden and 6 grass tennis courts.

 

Course Manager: Alex Miller -  "It is very easy to identify the benefits of using a Dakota Top Dresser compared with the belt driven drop spreader we had before. Speed, efficiency, controllability and consistency are good descriptions. It can be hitched to the tractor in less than 30 seconds and is ready for use.

The hopper carries enough material to dress 5 greens without a refill and we can now easily top dress 30 greens in 3.5 hours. Instead of having 8 passes using our previous spreader we are able to complete a green in just two passes and be off the turf within minutes. The time and labour savings are really quite dramatic and are enough in itself to justify our recent purchase.

On top of which the spread patterns are consistent and wide, with controllable calibrated applications. This means we can spread little and often resulting in far less waste and greater uniformity of uptake."

The 18 hole golf course was built in 1922 in the grounds of an ancient estate and the many majestic Beech and Oak trees, the Luytens designed cottage and the ha-ha by the 18th green are legacies of that era.

 

Course Manager, Lee Robinson - "We have had our Dakota 410 Top Dresser for some years now and it is superb. It instantly reduced the time we take to dress our greens from 5 hours with the old belt driven dresser to 3 hours maximum. Top dressing is now simpler to apply, with a wider spread pattern resulting in fewer passes.

The adjustable throw plates give us the flexibility to accurately regulate the amount of wet or dry material spread so we can have more frequent but lighter applications. We can now choose to make an application every week with only one pass needed per green."

Built in 1869, on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club, Hoylake is one of the oldest of all the English seaside courses and is regarded as still very much among the toughest and most demanding tests of golf. In recent years, under the guidance of renowned course architect, Donald Steel, the course has been lengthened and upgraded to take on twenty-first century technology and the increasingly athletic big hitters.

 

Course Manager, Craig Gilholm – "We purchased the Seeder in Summer 2010 and the machine has proved to be a great asset. The greens have been done three times and you can see the seed lines germinating.

 

The nature of the machine's ability to seed so close together has enhanced the fescue content and when overseeding greens this job can be done in seven hours and within two weeks can be redone.   This has been a great help in aiding recovery and limiting the disruption for the golfers.

 

As the machine is easy to use, it is convenient to get round the whole golf course in a relatively short time with minimal seed wastage."