Lawn Tennis
Machine Controls for
perfect laser grading • Very easy to set up and use • Many standard features
• No plastic casings: machined out of solid aluminium
• Shock and waterproof
• Impressive range and accuracy
levels, which we can then analyse to assist us with watering levels, hardness and such like.
Much of what we do is governed by the weather and the players. Are they toe draggers or sliders, how long did the match last? For example, the ladies final lasted under an hour; the men’s for four hours. There’s a lot of variables, which is part of the enjoyment of the job. It’s not like a football match that only lasts for ninety-odd minutes.
Do you water the courts during the Championships?
We have to water every evening. It’s a case of enough to replenish the surface, but be dry enough for play the next day. It’s a fine line. We have a benchmark for water in the soil profile from day one, so it’s a case of keeping that topped up.
We have to accommodate 654 matches each year, usually across nineteen courts. But, this year, we only had seventeen, which added approximately eight hours of play to each match court, plus temperatures were the warmest they had been for ten years. These are the sort of thing that have to be added into the equation.
What are your feeding regimes?
This winter, we did a couple more autumn/winter granular feeds than we would normally do because of the weather. Purely because of the amount of
rain that was going through and, even with our clay soils, leaching was up on normal. From April onwards we enter our Primo Maxx programme, which includes a liquid feed, iron and amino acids, plus the odd granular feed.
Since we’ve gone to 100% ryegrass, we’ve noticed that our feeding regimes have gone up, purely because of the demands of ryegrass. It’s a catch 22. To have 100% ryegrass tennis courts gives you the strongest possible playing surfaces but, to achieve that, you are giving the grasses the one thing that poa annua loves, which is high nitrogen. That’s now our biggest battle. We’ve had the stats back and they show, at worst, 2.7% poa, which is a far cry from prior to fraise mowing, when it was more like 50/50. At 2.7%, alarm bells will start to ring for us and, even at 1.5% we are thinking how can we get that down?
What about the beds and borders, flowers and hanging baskets; are they are bought in and maintained by your staff?
To some visitors, they are as important as the tennis. Many come here just to see the displays. We get fantastic feedback. We used to use a contractor, but now everything is done by our in-house team.
Who chooses the colour schemes?
We still use our old horticultural consultant with regards to design, whilst a contractor will
PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014 I 73
+44(0)1787 311811
info@trenchers.co.uk www.trenchers.co.uk
NEXT DAY DISPATCH
AT ONLY £1995+VAT
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The new SEED-CAR is a compact pedestrian propelled seeder with roller. This high quality, ready-to-go seeder features a working width of 700mm and a 55ltr seed capacity, so it is perfect for smaller spaces or locations with access restrictions. At £1995 (ex Vat) the SEED-CAR is great value for money and can be delivered promptly.
Exclusively available in the UK from The Grass Group, ask us for more information
www.thegrassgroup.co.uk Call 01638 720123
ROTADARION SEED-CAR
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