News

 Bretton, it’s St Andrews Links Trust on the phone enquiring about Drill n Fill." An exciting call to get in the early days of this legendary aerator becoming the initial mainstay of Ecosolve, a family-owned and run business now celebrating its quarter century.

As it turned out, it was Drill n Fill’s sister aerator, the Deep Drill 60/18 which went to Scotland because its longer, finer drills could penetrate to the depth of 450mm, that Gordon Moir and Eddy Adams wanted. That early visit was a total success, avoiding the vast expense of taking more drastic action to rectify the issue on the Old Course’s first green. The likes of Gordon and Eddy thus became unofficial ambassadors of the system, providing welcome kudos for the burgeoning business as it made its first tentative steps into the golf world via Saltex at Windsor Racecourse and BTME at Harrogate – no internet and social media in 1999!

The concept of drilling into rootzones stemmed from an American agronomist realising that solid tine aeration was compacting the USGA-specification greens and there needed to be a reintroduction of greater inter-particle pore space to enhance gas exchange, percolation rate and general soil profile health.

Bath Rugby bagged a handsome trophy recently as its pitch management team were voted 2023 Professional Rugby Union Grounds Team of the Year at a glittering Oscar-style awards dinner at Headingley Stadium.

Wiltshire-based Ecosol Turfcare, who provide the grounds management for Bath Rugby, were commended by the industry body, Grounds Management Association (GMA), for the excellence of the Rec pitch and Farleigh House training surfaces in what are often very testing circumstances. Grounds manager Bretton King, head groundsman Nigel Harvey and assistant groundsman Steven Barber, travelled to Leeds for the event and were naturally delighted to be announced as the winners by Premiership Rugby’s Head of Operations, Catherine Hall, who presented the award.

All hands went on deck last week to tackle a major drainage and renovation job at Swindon Town FC’s hallowed County Ground pitch.

Welcome to the Ecosol Turfcare maintenance guide across our social media sites.

Every month we’ll give you a plan of what work you could be looking to complete across Rugby, Football, Golf, Cricket and Bowls. We’ll follow up with weekly Top Tips on specific maintenance procedures -   aeration for example, together with optimum conditions, kit/materials you’ll need and how Ecosol Turfcare may be able to help.

Head on to Facebook, Instagram and twitter to catch the latest tips

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South west London’s slow-draining clay soil profile has been causing almost total course closure for 2-3 months every winter at Malden G.C. “This is obviously unacceptable for our members,” says Head greenkeeper  Josh Thorley, “so this year we decided to invest in primary drainage throughout most of the course.”