Educational Establishments
The FA’s Alan Ferguson speaking to the Dennis and Sisis delegates
uncommon to see spring come either twenty days ‘early’, or even up to thirty days ‘late’ - that is quite some variation”
“It is not
Dennis and Sisis machines - along with a few MF tractors - ready for action at the demo day in April 2013
generally just being something of a nerd when the subject of weather rears its ‘ugly front’. Some see benefits in using data, others don’t - we all have ways in which we are comfortable in how to approach our work - there is no one size fits all programme! In saying that, and in keeping with the timing of the seasons, I have found it a not infrequent occurrence that seasons shift quite markedly. There has been a verifiable and demonstrated case that climate change is occurring (let’s leave the deeper reasoning for another day) but, in terms of simple seasonal variation, it is not uncommon to see spring come either twenty days ‘early’, or even up to thirty days ‘late’ - that is quite some variation, and it does affect us all. Timing of renovations, planting schemes, pest control, weed control etc. - phenological indicators are a dead giveaway of what’s happening in the world in which we work, and these are a far better indicator of what is actually happening than the calendar will ever be able to provide. Earlier this year, in particular, I actually recall offering a portion of our land to provide a safe haven from four metre high snow drifts for several stricken sheep and cattle - this was in April and, furthermore, followed the wettest winter on record since 1956 - something of a challenging period to say the least!
Campey’s Lee Morgado putting the Air2G2 through its paces
92 PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014
In the autumn of 2012, we did suffer something of an unfortunate set of circumstances, losing a member of my team. We already operate a small team - four men across two fairly large schools - so this was a loss that hit us particularly hard in terms of the reduction in our productivity - re-allocating one man’s work amongst three brings a lot of additional pressure to the remaining team members. However, as always, my remaining team members stepped up to the plate. We discussed the situation openly between the remaining team members, and our management team - a collective
decision was taken to not reappoint until the springtime, and utilise the savings in wages to allow us to add to our fleet of equipment - this is typical of the men that I am fortunate to have working for me - always willing to take on extra work and responsibility if it helps the bigger picture.
As with every cloud, the silver lining was not far away. As promised, we were allowed to reappoint in the spring. Following a rigorous programme of advertising, short listing and interviewing, we were delighted to welcome Chris Preston (and his dog, Tux) to the Grounds Department at King William’s College. Despite still being young, Chris brings a wealth of experience, talent, a wide ranging knowledge base and a tremendous flair for his work that any employer would be lucky to have.
Having started his career as an
apprentice greenkeeper with the largest local authority on the island, he moved internally through the horticultural division, and ultimately to the arboricultural section, which is where his passion truly lies. We are certainly looking forward to helping Chris further develop his skills, whilst reaping the rewards of his talents at King William’s College.
I also have to say that, despite Chris being the standout candidate right from his initial application, I also took great pleasure in the quality of the remainder of the applicants. I firmly believe that the work that has gone into enhancing the turfcare sector on the island in recent years has paid dividends to many employees and employers alike - perhaps the much improved level of applicants was indicative of just how far we have come as an island in the past few years. And speaking of the development of the turfcare sector on the island, in keeping with our efforts of the past few years, in 2013 we were fortunate to welcome a number of highly regarded groundsmen to the island, along with several machinery manufacturers and dealers, with the aim of further
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