Kyles
Athletic Shinty Club has turned to the Imants ShockWave 100 from Campey Turf Care Systems to solve their drainage problems.
The
club is based on the west coast of Scotland in Auchenlochan, with their
facility at the edge of the Kyles of Bute – a narrow sea channel.
They
are often subjected to heavy rain, and when combined with a drainage issue on
the field a number of games were called off with some having to be played at
other clubs at a cost to the Kyles Athletic. Because of this, they decided to
have drainage installed.
Tom
Whyte is the sole volunteer groundsman at the club. He explains that the field
was in good condition before the drainage issues started to appear, and after
unsuccessful attempts to resolve it, he thinks the ShockWave could be the
solution.
“Two
years ago, the committee decided to get a contractor in to install drains, but
they weren’t a success, and it was put down to the stone being too close to the
surface. Because of the compaction, they couldn’t go further down without
causing a lot of hassle to the field. We spent a significant amount of money to
have the work done, and it wasn’t a success, so we had to look at other ways of
fixing the issue.
“The
council tried to use a tine aerator, but after covering about a seventh of the
pitch, they said it was too wet and never came back. I was recommended a
ShockWave, and I spoke to Richard Heywood at Campey and he explained to me that
when the ShockWave hits the rock, it rides it, it doesn’t try to break its way
through, but it will go through the small stuff.
“For
us, it was all down to money, I spoke to Richard Campey, and he did us a deal
with the ShockWave, a New Holland Boomer 125 and a fertiliser spreader. That
led to me approaching our district council and Clackmannanshire District
Council. Both of them gave us money towards the machines, and that made it
affordable for the club.”
The
Imants ShockWave is the perfect solution for Kyles Athletic because it is
designed to decompact heavy wear areas by relieving soil compaction using 12mm
thick knives. This makes it the ideal aerator on fields that have stone near
the surface because the blades won’t break and cause further damage to the
machine.
While
the main aim of purchasing the machines was to eliminate the drainage issue,
Tom also wanted to be able to plan his maintenance. In the past, the club
relied on borrowing equipment from others, but now they own their machines Tom
feels able to raise the standards with plans already in place to hire the
machinery out to provide income for the club.
