A mower fleet at Plymouth Argyle Football Club
SPORTS PITCHES
INFINICUT ® mowers enter Home Park two by two
recent upgrade to the
A mower fleet at Plymouth Argyle Football Club
has seen the delivery of two INFINICUT ® 34 ” FX cylinders and two SM34 rotary mowers to the club ’ s stadium pitch at Home Park . Together with outstanding quality of cut and first-class presentation , Head Groundsman Chris Ralph also cites the improvements in consistency achieved with their mowing operations thanks to the industry-leading INFINIApp™ .
The investment has been on the cards for the last 18 months , which gave Chris and his team of five ample time to compare and contrast the options available . “ We ’ d been using two INFINICUT ® fixed head cylinders and were always happy with those – they ’ re reliable and comfortable to use , with minimal noise and vibrations . We found nothing that could better those ” he explains . “ On the rotary front , we demonstrated various models and were impressed with the performance and finish of the SM34 ’ s , the ease of height adjustment compared to competitor machines and the side placement of the grass bucket which means it ’ s not hitting your legs all the time !”
With the decision made , the fleet was delivered by Andy White and Paul Curgenven of Shinners Bridge Garden Machinery and INFINICUT ’ s Mark Clifford-Kennedy in February 2024 . “ Andy , Paul and Mark left no stone unturned when they dropped the machines off . They went through every detail of the machines , guided us through
“ The whole team have been really impressed , with not just the INFINICUT ® machines themselves but the support and service we ’ ve had from Shinners Bridge along the way .
set-up and demonstrated the full functionality of the INFINIApp™ .” Chris continues , “ The Bluetooth control is a great feature . We can quickly and easily set reel speed , clip rates and more , and share settings between machines to give us greater consistency than we ’ ve ever achieved before .”
In addition to the cylinder and rotary mowers , the club also purchased a pair of ThatchMasterTM cassettes from the TMSystem™ . “ I ’ ve been looking at these for a while ! Our ProPitch reports were identifying an increase in thatch levels over the last 12 months and our only way of trying to combat that previously was with a tractor and rake . We equipped our 34 ” machines with the ThatchMasterTM cassettes for a first pass in mid-March and the results were outstanding ! We each removed three or four boxes of unwanted organic matter , and the pitch looked healthier immediately .”
“ The whole team have been really impressed , with not just the INFINICUT ® machines themselves but the support and service we ’ ve had from Shinners Bridge along the way . We ’ re now well placed to further drive up the standards of our stadium pitch , along with our neighbouring first-team training surfaces too .”
www . infinicut . com
86 GroundskeepingJournal . co . uk | September / October 2024