Looking after one football pitch can be tough. Managing a multi-sport site poses a few additional challenges, now imagine a remit consisting of 38 winter sports pitches, 11 grass cricket squares, a nine-hole golf course and various artificial and athletics surfaces to boot.
It’s therefore no surprise that the grounds operation at the world-renowned Eton College is a sizeable one and, at its heart, is an equally sizeable fleet of equipment from Kubota.
Eton College is a leading educational provider for boys, with a number of notable public figures proudly within Eton’s long and illustrious catalogue of alumni.
A platform for success, even the staff are receiving accolades, with the school’s grounds department securing the title of ‘Best Independent School Grounds Team of the Year’ at the 2023 Grounds Management Association (GMA) Awards.
In addition, Grounds Manager Lee Marshallsay also scooped the top individual honour of the night.
Sport is a central pillar of the Eton curriculum, with almost 1500 acres of sport surfaces and landscaped areas around the campus – all of which have been under Lee’s expert guidance for the last four and a half years. “I’ve personally been a longstanding Kubota user, having run a fleet at both Charterhouse School and during my time at Harrow School before that. I was therefore pretty pleased to see Kubota equipment in use at Eton when I joined, and it’s only grown from there” he explains.
“We have 10 Kubota RTV’s which are the main method of transport for the team, as well as getting smaller equipment and materials around the site. We then have tractors ranging from 23hp up to 99hp for complete versatility and capability when powering our implements of all shapes and sizes.”
Their most recent delivery, a Kubota M4-073 75hp tractor, was made by Lister Wilder and Lee emphasises the importance of a strong dealer relationship in their procurement process. “We need good, reliable product that is supported by fantastic back-up service if it’s needed. We’ve always had that from the team at Lister’s.”
The M4-073 joins other tractors from Kubota’s M Series, together with three L-Series compact tractors, which Lee says are the most frequently used. “These are the power houses for our operation, incredibly reliable and versatile.” He continues, “We conduct a lot of renovation work at various times of the year and it’s our tractors, particularly those with higher horsepower and those equipped with the loaders or other attachments that really help to get the projects complete on specification and on time.”
“Interestingly, most of the other powered equipment we run here at Eton is also equipped with Kubota engines, which gives us the peace of mind and quality we’re looking to achieve across the board.”
