WELCOME TO
Lights, camaraderie and actions ....
Despite the appallingly wet winter, the winter sports surfaces have recovered well and many of them look superb as the season draws to a close. The fairly recent introduction of portable lighting systems has proved its worth, the pitches at Newcastle, Tottenham and Arsenal, amongst others, looking superb all season.
Grow lamps are not new technology and have been used in Holland to grow flowers and salad vegetables, as well as more nefarious goods, for many years. At Augusta lights have been used on the 12th green for three decades. The cost may be prohibitive for everyone outside the top flight, but their proven
success will help to keep
natural turf at the forefront of grass sport.
Compared to last spring we have
enjoyed far
milder conditions. All the heavy rain that we endured in the early part of the year has given way to a long spell of dry and relatively calm weather. It was pleasing this year to start smelling that freshly cut spring grass as early as mid March.
Air temperatures are on the increase and as soil temperatures follow suit, so has the upsurge in growth and recovery.
Summer sports will now be up and running, the conditions have allowed the bowling greens, cricket squares and tennis courts to dry nicely.
Given the current annual weather patterns, it would be prudent to check all the irrigation and put in place some contingency for watering through this summer.
Throughout the last two months I’ve had the chance to get around the UK, meeting a lot of Greenkeepers and Groundsmen, it has been encouraging to find out how many use and read Pitchcare on a regular basis. The feedback has been excellent and it is warming to know that so many find the articles, information and
interaction useful in their everyday lives.
This April/May issue
completes the end of our
the PC team DAVE SALTMAN
Managing Director. Passed a personal milestone recently ... his life is just beginning! Doesn’t look a day over 45 either. At his request no presents were given, just petrol tokens to keep his beast of a 4x4 on the road. Still waiting for ‘that’ phonecall apparently!
JOHN RICHARDS
Operations Director. Eats, shoots and leaves, John is the king of punctuation. Woe betide anyone who puts a comma out of place or uses there their’s incorrectly. Seems to be on a mission to resurrect the use of the semi- colon; and quite right too!
LAURENCE (WRITING) GALE
Editor. Knows a good story when he sees one, just has problems committing them to paper in a sensible order! Once played rugby against (Sir) Clive Woodward which, apparently, makes him an international player! I wasn’t aware that Shrewsbury was a country!
PETER BRITTON
Sales & Production. Lives life to the full - a full pint of beer, a full wasteline and full waste paper basket -c
combining
all three on a daily basis! As the size of his stomach now requires him to work further away from his keyboard he now has arms the size of Arnie - sadly Palmer not Schwarzenegger!
ELLIE TAIT
PR and Marketing Executive. Has settled well into being a thirty something and, with the help of Alastair and Dans’ 1 and 2, manages to keep Pitchcare’s average age somewhere akin to respectable. Currently keeping an eye on the Div 2 promotion race - come on Forest!
ALASTAIR BATTRICK
Web Monkey. Forthright, stubborn and usually right, Al uses his computer screen as a barrier to all the childish banter that flies around the office. He’ll occasionally stick his head above the parapet to slap down the latest spate of nonsense, usually from Laurence!
second year of
bi-monthly hard copy magazines, and I’m sure that you’ll enjoy this one as much as the previous eleven issues.
The magazine continues to go from strength to strength, providing a great mix of technical and factual reading.
I would like to personally thank all the Pitchcare team who manage to find the additional time to put it together on top of their already busy schedules.
I must also thank everyone who has offered articles for inclusion; while we do our utmost to bring the editorial in ourselves, we are, in part, dependent on members putting finger to keyboard and sharing their experiences and knowledge with all the Pitchcare readers. Exchanging information is the key to improving the industry we all love.
Please feel free to email your article to us at
mail@pitchcare.com.
As you get to the back of the magazine you will notice that we have substantially changed the layout of the classifed section. We believe that this new format is a first for our industry and, hopefully, it will help you to source products and services more easily and also assist our advertisers whose support is vital to the success of Pitchcare.
DAVE SALTMAN Managing Director
DAN (1) HUGHES
Sales Manager. Can usually be heard moaning “It’s manic here” as he is currently run off his feet by the success of the On-lline Shop. Well, it’s his fault! Restocking shelves is time consuming. Lives in the shadows of Worcester Castle - Pitchcare’s Gollum if you will!
DAN (2) PARKES
Office Assistant - Junior has developed a dry sense of humour to compete with the wet sense of humour in the office. Has now grown in confidence and contributes verbally to our monthly meetings. Someone have a word with him please!
CHRIS JOHNSON
Training Coordinator. As her job title would suggest, currently coordinating the training schedule for 2007 and beyond. No easy task liaising with all the training providers. Quietly spoken, genial and sensible. How ever did we manage to employ her?
SHARON TAYLOR
Company Accountant. The early bird. By the time most staff have struggled in on a Monday morming, she will have spent three hours at her computer firing off emails to all and sundry. “Have you done this yet?” “What about ....?” Err, no, I was thinking about having a cup of coffee first!
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