Educational Establishments Improvise, adapt and overcome
Improvidus, apto quod victum
Mike Atherton
Mike Atherton, Head Groundsman at King William’s College on the Isle of Man, talks us through a year in the life of his groundcare team; one that contained the good, the bad and the downright ugly!
A
s time goes by, I see benefits in having individual ringtones for certain people on my phone. I’m sure we all get calls from people whom we look forward to
speaking to, but also from people where we hastily look for a reason to avoid answering the phone. So, anyway, my phone rings ... Loz ... “Have you done that article for me yet?” A line that I’m sure many of you are all too familiar with, and also a line that forms the foundations of the very magazine that we all read and (hopefully) enjoy on a bi-monthly basis; I think
purely on that basis alone, Loz has to go into the “yes, I’ll answer the phone” category (just), even if it does mean that I have to go and find another pen! At this juncture, I always wonder what on earth I am going to write about. I always try to avoid writing about ‘the technical stuff ’ as, quite simply put, that should be left to the technical folk, who can convey that side of things far more aptly than I. I could have a general gripe about the daily (and somewhat repetitive) challenges that we all face, but I figure that we all hear enough of that, so all I am really left with is to share some of my
experiences of the past year or so, both good and bad, as it really has been ‘one of those years’. Towards the end of last year, my team and I were extremely honoured and proud to be awarded the Schools, College and University Grounds Team of the Year. As I sit here and write this article, I know the nominations are in, and the finalists chosen for this year’s awards; however, by the time this article goes to print, I know that the winners of each award will have been chosen, and the trophies will be taking pride of place in each winner’s establishment. I would
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