Faces and Places

Abstract

• Rolawn Ltd have appointed Andy Church, latterly with Lawn Technology Ltd and formerly chief grounds manager with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, as their area manager for London. Andy will cover an area extending northwards to Milton Keynes. • I was sorry to learn that Dennis Archer, a valued friend and latterly a member of the board of management until ill-health dogged his mobility, had fallen foul of the surgeon's knife and is now slowly recuperating following the loss of a limb. Reportedly swinging his way around the surgical ward, in a wheelchair, just days after the operation, this lion-hearted man never did know the meaning of quitting he's a fighter and we applaud him. Come through safely, Dennis we're all pulling for you! • Brendan Duffy has been appointed supervisor of the new Golf Practice Centre at St Andrews, which opens this month. The centre boasts specialised areas for pitching, bunker play and putting practice, and is also equipped with video equipment to facilitate swing analysis. • Fore! Construction of golf playing facilities at Oaklands College, Hertfordshire, (contractors Brian D Pierson and Watermation Irrigation) is well underway. Finance for the project (£30,000) has been accumulated from golf club donations, a 'matched' funding arrangement through the local Training and Enterprise Council, a BIGGA training award of £500, and college funds. Oaklands is a GTC approved college. m • Only two colleges run HND courses in Golf Course Management at present, and it is appropriate that a golf match should have taken place between them. Using the home advantage, Reaseheath College used a fistful of t rump cards escaped bullocks on the fairways, hailstorms, rain, and a low flying hot-air balloon to scrape home winners from a hard-pressing Cannington College. • Following the acquisition of Lawn Technology in January, The Inturf Group has announced the appointment of Chris Bradshaw to its management team. Chris, who held a directorship with the company that invented the Big Roll turfing system, will be responsible for all technical and marketing aspects of turf sales and installation work throughout the south of England. • An internal promotion at Sleaford-based Sharpes International has resulted in Wilson Hendry being appointed assistant to Paul Billings, who is the company's amenity grass seed product manager. Prior to joining the amenity grass seed department, Wilson worked as a seed analyst at Sharpes licenced seed testing station the largest commercial station in the UK. • Four former Maxwell Hart staff, made redundant when Maxwell Hart was bought by rival T Parker recently, have joined forces to set up a new company Driving Force Leisure. The company will supply a comprehensive list of products for the greenkeeper, distributing from premises in Maidstone (Tel: 0734 266130) and Oxford. Also formed to operate in tandem with Driving Force Leisure is a sister company Easy Picker Europe an exclusive agency for the American 'Easy Picker' range of driving range equipment. • The first of the Hayter Challenge Tournament regional finals, held at Stirling, proved to be a double bonus for Kim Macfie, Hayters' sales and marketing director. First, he was mightily pleased to see all of Stirling's greens cut with a Hayter T93 triple, expressing the view that whilst overt commercialism is not what they would wish from the sponsorship it was gratifying to see some of Hayters' products in prominent positions. Second, he played a round with Murrayfield's Jimmy Neilson and managed to actually beat him as Kim put it, Jimmy was playing a diplomatic game! Declaring the day a great success, Kim now hopes to attend all five of the Hayter Challenge regional finals. He's pictured left, with Jimmy Neilson. • Alresford GC's Mark Webb took delivery recently of 20 tonnes of Boughton Loam's Sterilised Turf Dressing, won in the Boughton Loam prize draw organised at BTME. Declaring himself well pleased with the 'windfall', Mark found the dry material a pleasure to apply and was impressed by the speed in which it integrated into the sward. • After many years of mutual co-operation, Charterhouse Turf Machinery and Redexim BV of Holland have decided to forge closer links by merging. Redexim BV has extensive interests in hotels, leisure, management consultancy, real estate and turf machinery manufacture. Amongst other products they produce the Verti-Drain machines which Charterhouse Turf Machinery introduced into the UK market back in 1982. Throughout the '80s Charterhouse has developed a comprehensive range of its own equipment, mainly in the areas of top dressing, spiking and overseeding, and these products have a natural synergy with the original Verti-Drain and other Redexim products. The joint company will still function much the same as before with the addition of Mr Ruud Francissen (pictured) to the Charterhouse Turf Machinery Board of Directors. • Two grass machinery manufacturers, Hayters pic and Ransomes Sims and Jefferies, have announced their withdrawal from this year's IoG show. This follows examination of the benefits derived and is based on three major factors. Firstly, an analysis of last year's figures suggested that the quality and quantity of visitors who took an interest in goods on display did not measure up to the expenditure made. Secondly, marked changes over recent years, partly as a result of CCT and the proposed changes likely to be introduced with the arrival of the new Unitary Authorities, have led to an alteration in the expectations and requirements of customers. These, combined with the Peterborough location, have all made an impact. Hayters' sales and marketing director, Kim Macfie, said: "We believe the point has been reached where we can no longer derive sufficient benefit from our investment". Ransomes will introduce UK regional launches under the title Total Turf Plan, these taking place closer to customer locations and beginning this month. New and current models will be demonstrated, service support programmes more relevant to the changing market will be launched and a new 'Ransomes Bouncer' software package will be displayed. • Our heart iest congratulat ions a re ex tended to BIGGA ex-chairman ( 1 9 8 8 ) J a c k McMil lan, former course manager of Sunningdale Golf Club and now a director in the consultancy f i rm McMil lan-Shiel Associates, on his receipt of a Royal 'gong' in the 1 9 9 3 Honours List. His accolade, an MBE, is bel ieved to be the first a w a r d e d to a member employed in the f ine turf industry.