THE PC TEAM DAVE SALTMAN
MD, Editor and harassed! With petrol at nearly £1 per litre his mileage is of constant concern to our accountant. Drives the second most recognised vehicle on the motorways, after Eddie Stobart lorries!
JOHN RICHARDS
Operations Director and general organiser of the team. Reckons he has a wise, old and calming influence. Runs a tight ship, unfortunately on similar lines to the Titanic!
LAURENCE GALE
Joint Editor and most active member of the team. Jogs, coaches and talks for England. Stand-in for the speaking clock when it has time off.
PETER BRITTON
Sales & Production Director, now happy to accept responsibility for the design of the magazine (see pages 4 and 5). Has also got beyond the ‘grass is green’ stage after proof reading the articles in this and the first issue
ELLIE TAIT
PR & Marketing Guru. Objected most strongly to John’s suggestion of Pitchcare tank tops for Saltex so blame her for the lemon yellow shirts the team will wear at the show.
ALASTAIR BATTRICK
Alastair was born and bred in Blackburn, Lancashire. Despite this, he is in Einstein’s supposed top 2% of the populace, correctly completing his Fish puzzle in under an hour. To see if you are with him, see
www.coudal.com/thefish.php
SHARON TAYLOR
Company Accountant and aggressive money chaser. Enjoys working in an office full of men, particularly now she has learned to live with their limitations!
Features and Editorial:
Pitchcare.com Limited, The Technology Centre, Wolverhampton Science Park, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV10 9RU Tel: 01902 824 392 Fax: 01902 824 393 Email:
mail@pitchcare.com
Advertising & Production: Pitchcare Magazine, 9 Imber Road, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8RX Tel: 01747 855 335 Fax: 01747 858 744 Email:
peter@pitchcare.com
No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. Editorial contributions are published entirely at the editor’s discretion and may be shortened if space is limited. Pitchcare make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the contents but accepts no liability for its consequences. Pitchcare - The Magazine is printed by the Gemini Press, Dolphin Way, Shoreham- by-Sea, West Sussex BN43 6NZ
WELCOME TO
WELCOME to the second hard copy issue of Pitchcare - The Magazine. The response to our first issue was
extremely encouraging. In the end nearly 7000 copies were distributed and we have been overwhelmed with the quantity of positive comments from all quarters. It achieved what we hoped for -
providing a mix of practical and informative articles encompassing the work of professionals and volunteers across the sports as well as technical features from the specialists and up to date news on what is happening in the industry. This month, we promise you another bumper issue.
The successful launch of the magazine coincided with another important milestone - our 15,000th website member. This figure was reached exactly a year (less 1 day) to the date we announced our 10,000th member on 24 July 2004. A 50% increase in less than a year! Usage on the site increases month by month and this year an average of nearly 13,000 members are using the site at least once a month.
One of our initial aims was to provide a forum designed to help everybody involved in turf care. The success of the interactive Pitchcare site is largely due to the willingness of members to share their knowledge and experiences with others. Coupled to this is the ability to pursue important issues that affect all of us. Pitchcare has lobbied the Football Association and the Premier and Football Leagues over
goalkeeper scratch marks and warm up periods. The possibility of being able to mark short lines on the six and eighteen yard boxes has now been passed on by the Referees Association to UEFA. Limited warm ups were trialed by the Premiership last season and this year there is the welcoming news that the Football League have introduced similar guidelines. All of which helps Groundsmen to retain a top quality surface. When Wembley advertised the Head
Groundsman position, the salary offered caused uproar and Pitchcare led from the front to tell Wembley how their published salary would have a detrimental effect on our industry. Wembley publicly stated that they would review the salary on offer and it would be negotiable for the right candidate.
I have also been active in gaining support for ‘The World Turfgrass Council’. The purpose of this global umbrella organisation will be to promote natural grass and provide funding for research and development into playing surface improvements. It will also lobby sporting bodies and governments about the importance of natural grass, as well as provide a central body to negotiate on behalf of the industry on issues such as chemical use and alternatives. So far, more than 80 of the industry’s major companies and organisations have pledged their support to the WTC. If you have an issue please let us know, we will do our utmost to bring it to the fore.
There isn’t nearly sufficient space here to tell you more about what is offered by our website, suffice to say that all of the site is free to use. The site includes exclusive articles and latest news, monthly diaries and tips, available jobs (as well as jobs required), used machinery, free postcode weather service, useful information as well as the (at times) ‘lively’ message board forums.
My thanks to the many people who help us to achieve so many common aims.
Best wishes, DAVE SALTMAN Managing Director
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