News
Musselburgh add another award to their impressive list
L-r: Mark Thomson, Andrew Ross, Toby Johnstone, Bob Bolland, Mark Bemrose (HG), John Richards, Andrew Jackson and Eddie Watt
Scottish racecourse adds to their collection of silverware
A LARGE crowd was in attendance to watch the Musselburgh grounds team receive their award for the best dual-purpose racecourse of 2011. The team of just four full- time staff, headed by Mark Bemrose, collected their trophy for winning the coveted dual purpose Racecourse Groundstaff of the Year Award from John Richards and Bob Bolland on behalf of sponsors Pitchcare, ALS and Fornells.
The presentation took place at the beginning of June, at the popular Edinburgh Cup meeting, in the winner’s enclosure in front of a very appreciative audience of racegoers.
The groundstaff award follows other recent successes for Musselburgh, namely the Racecourse Association
CRT advise of changes to their funding scheme
6 PC JUNE/JULY 2012
Showcase Award for Operational Excellence and, more prestigiously, the betting industry’s Racecourse of the Year Award, pipping York and Haydock to this title.
Musselburgh Racecourse general manager, Bill Farnsworth, said the groundstaff award was a “truly great result” against strong competition. He said: “Mark and his team deserve great credit, it reflects the dedication and hard work which goes into the track and grounds at Musselburgh throughout the year. Working alongside our clerk of the course, Harriet Graham, we undoubtedly have one of the strongest groundstaff in the country, and I don’t think anyone who has visited the course would object to Musselburgh’s team receiving this accolade.”
IN our article on Funding for Grassroots Sport in issue 42, some of the information provided for the Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT) was inaccurate due to the a website being out of date.
We have been advised that CRT are now running just one funding programme, for grants of up to £5,000, which is called Level 1 (previously known as Bridging the Gap). The Main Grants programme is closed.
CRT would like to encourage organisations in eligible areas to
Ash dieback enters UK via Holland
Quarantine pest alert issued by Forestry Commission for ash dieback
A VIRULENT disease which kills ash trees has been detected in Britain for the first time.
The fungal disease, called ash dieback, was found in a consignment of trees imported from Holland in November last year.
Government experts say the blight, which has devastated trees across Europe, is a ‘serious concern’ for the country’s eighty million ash trees which are a much-loved feature of parks and gardens.
Symptoms include leaves developing black spots before dropping off, followed by cankers on bark and twigs and branches dying.
Inspectors from the Government’s Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) are frantically trying to trace all infected batches, believing that other foreign firms may have sent diseased trees to Britain.
Some of the 2,000 Dutch trees have already been sold to ninety customers from an unnamed nursery in the South East by mail order.
apply for funding.
Eligible areas in the north west are, Bolton, St Helens, Knowsley, Warrington, Wigan and Salford and, in the West Midlands, Stoke-on-Trent, Cannock Chase, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Moorlands, Tamworth, Warwickshire North, Nuneaton, Bedworth and Stafford.
Full details are available from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust by contacting Suzanne Clarke, Regional Programme Manager on 01782 626584, email:
suzanne.clarke@coalfields-
regen.org.uk or visit
www.coalfields-regen.org.uk
All ninety customers have been asked to destroy their trees and take them to dumps in sealed bags to be disposed of in landfill.
The disease is rife across eastern Europe and Scandinavia. In Denmark, it has infected around ninety percent of ash trees.
Richard McIntosh of FERA said: “The worst case scenario is that, if left unchecked, the disease could have a very serious impact. We know that the disease can spread through trading of infected trees, as in this case.”
Scientists are not sure how the fungus - called Chalara fraxinea - spreads between trees, but suspect it could be carried by rain or insects.
The Forestry Commission has now issued a ‘quarantine pest alert’ and has brought in emergency measures urging anyone who has imported ashes to check their trees for symptoms and report suspected cases.
The alert has grim echoes of the arrival of Dutch elm disease which has wiped out millions of British trees in the last forty years.
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