DaysOFF! Or what the Pitchcare team get up to out of office hours
DAVE Saltman aka Mr Pitchcare - A landscape gardener in his former life Dave has spent the last 18 years working across many of the turf sports disciplines on day-to-day maintenance, renovation and construction. Reckons that running a business means that ‘days off ’ simply don’t happen - mobiles and the internet are 24/7 ... and he is also the current project manager at the Millennium Stadium and Wolverhampton Wanderers (where he was Head Groundsman for 8 years). Phew! Any time available outside of work is filled with the refurbishment of the house that he and partner Nicky bought last November and walking their two year old German Shepherd. In a worrying trend (for the rest of us) Dave says that as the business continues to grow and staffing levels increase he intends to learn the art of delegation!
TTS getting technical in Galway
LOOKING to develop technical awareness within their team and improve playing surface performance, Galway City Council have engaged the help of Total Turf Solutions Ltd (TTS).
Senior council members who understand the benefits of staff development have been holding specifically designed training days for sports surfaces throughout the past year.
The council maintain over
forty natural sports surfaces including, football, gaelic football and hurling pitches. An increase in play and performance expectations has put pressure on their existing limited maintenance programmes. Looking to the future Alan
Lewis of TTS has been employed to provide training and technical support. “After spending time in
Galway and discussing the councils needs we are going to start a City and Guilds based qualification in September. This will enable the candidates to start an educational structure which, in turn, may hopefully lead one or two
aspiring groundsman on to the National Diploma and the MSc. The courses will be designed to relate technical information to the working environment and make the students understand why we do things and the implications if they are not done.” said Alan Lewis, Technical Director of TTS. A practical training day was held in May. Supported by Irish Farm & Garden Machinery and Sisis Ltd, maintenance and renovation equipment was demonstrated. The day consisted of a full end of season renovation programme on one football pitch. Brian Bergin of Irish Farm & Garden Machinery said “Supporting a day like this has been very beneficial for the groundsman. Explaining working practises in the classroom is vital, however putting it in to practise is invaluable.”
Photo: Members of Galway Parks Department, Alan Lewis, Total Turf Solutions Ltd. Brian Bergin, Irish Farm and Garden Machinery Ltd and Owen Wilson of Sisis
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