After a recommendation from his father Keith, Alex Exton, head
groundsman at Witham Hall in Lincolnshire, claims he has not looked back since
using a range of MM grass seed from Limagrain UK.
Keith Exton has enjoyed a long and prosperous career in the turf
industry and Alex, long inspired by his dad, is now carving his own successful
path in the industry. However, he admits that he would be foolish to not soak
up some of the wisdom Keith has accumulated over the years.
“I first heard about Limagrain through my father who is a big fan
of them,” said Alex. “He’s been quite successful within the industry and I
suppose I have just tried to follow in his footsteps.
“I know he used Limagrain when he was at Oakham School for 16
years or so and then continued to use them when he went to Glamorgan County
Cricket Club. He is now at Grantham CC and is still using MM50 and
Action Replay to this day".
Alex is entering his ninth year at the prestigious Witham Hall
which is a thriving boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 4-13 years.
The school is committed to providing a first-class education both in and beyond
the classroom and sport is a fundamental part of the curriculum – which is
where Alex comes in.
The children can enjoy the major team sports of rugby, football,
hockey, cricket, netball and rounders, and Alex alongside two other members of
staff, maintain the fabulous sports pitches, grounds and facilities all year
round.
Alex has a busy schedule which sees a tight turnaround in
transforming the pitches for the relevant sports in between terms. As you can
imagine, the playing fields experience an incredibly high amount of usage all
year round but Alex claims that his use of Limagrain grass seed helps the turf
to withstand such high wear.
Throughout his tenure at Witham Hall, he has relied on Limagrain’s
MM50 for the cricket squares and Action Replay for all of the outfields which
includes the rugby, hockey and football pitches.
MM is one of the most respected brands in the UK sportsturf and
amenity industries and is relied upon at top sports grounds throughout the UK
and beyond. In particular, MM50 is ideal for cricket squares and outfields.
This hard-wearing mix has rapid germination, very fine leaved appearance, high
shoot density and is tolerant to very close mowing, along with high disease
resistance. All these attributes together produce a fantastic sward that has
great colour all year round
Limagrain's Action Replay belongs to the company's Designer range
of amenity grass seed and is an excellent mixture to use when renovating winter
sports pitches. It will establish very quickly producing a dense, hard wearing
sward for all heavy-duty sports areas.
According to Alex, both of these products provide him with
everything he is looking for in a grass seed.
“We try to put Action Replay down in the spring and autumn as part
of our renovations. I have just recently purchased a disc seeder so I tend to
put it down between 20-25g/m2.
“On the cricket square it all depends on what I’m doing. If I have
cleaned a track out in the playing season and want to reuse it, I will groove
out and apply the product with the pedestrian push spreader. When I’m
over-seeding the whole square, as part of our end of season renovations, I must
admit that I put plenty on. I will normally apply two bags with the pedestrian
spreader, to fall into the grooves made by the scarifier and then I will go
over it in four directions with our SISIS Variseeder, again with another two
bags.
“I know it sounds a lot but our square is on a slope, so when
watering, the water can run and take a fair bit of seed with it. I just think
that doing it this way works really well for our site and I get a fantastic
take and coverage.
“The MM50 is excellent for the cricket – it stands the sort
mowing, the heavy rolling and recovers incredibly well. In fact, both products
perform consistently well and I never have any bad results or problems. It’s as
simple as that really – they are good solid products.
“If I'm ever asked what seed I use, I only ever say Limagrain and
I would recommend MM50 and Action Replay to anyone.”
