TURF MANAGEMENT
Ribble Valley Borough Council aim to get
Games on with the Imants ShockWave
Ribble Valley Borough Council has invested in their own Imants ShockWave to help alleviate
com-paction and gets games on.
C
hris Shepard, Head
Gardener at Ribble
Council has 14 sports
pitches and the fields
at Clitheroe Castle, a
medieval construction that has been in
place for 800-years, to look after as well
as other non-sports areas across the
Ribble Valley.
The council had a desire to improve the
drainage on the pitches and prevent
fixture cancellations while improving
other areas that were less problematic.
To achieve this the decision to purchase
44
a ShockWave was made and it has
had a busy start to life during its first
three months in Lancashire with the
difference already visible.
Chris said: “There were some pitches
that had some standing water, but it had
got to a point where we needed to do
something regarding drainage for all of
the pitches and the land to put money
back into it and improve our facilities
and we thought to get better use in the
winter peri-ods that the ShockWave was
the way to go.
“There has been a difference in some of
the pitches we’ve used it on. There was
one area that would always hold water
but that’s gone now. It’s still a bit softer
underfoot than the rest of the field but
you’re not squelching water like you
would have been.
“Once we go on that area again, we’ll be
able to go deeper and get down to 18
inches and that’ll definitely help.”
The ShockWave is specifically designed
to revitalise heavy wear areas by
relieving soil compaction and in turn
GroundskeepingJournal.co.uk | Sept/Oct 2019