‘The Dennis Razor Ultra 560 fine turf mower has made a significant improvement’

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Vic Demain, Durham CCC head groundsman, says that the Dennis Razor Ultra 560 fine turf mower has made a significant improvement to the pitch at the Emirates Riverside stadium and in particular has praised the groomer reel attachment.

Vic was appointed head groundsman at Durham County Cricket Club in 2015, following two years as deputy head groundsman at Trent Bridge and before that seven years as head groundsman at Uxbridge CC.

He was the first ever cricket groundsman to win the Professional Groundsman of the Year in 2017 and just last year his team was named Professional Cricket Grounds Team of the Year. It is without doubt testament to the incredible job he is doing at the Emirates Riverside. To say that Vic is constantly striving for improvement is an understatement.

“I’m someone who constantly needs to be challenging himself,” he says and candidly admits to facing a number of trials throughout his five-year tenure at Durham.

“When I first came here a lot of the equipment was aging and money hasn’t particularly been forthcoming so we soldiered on with what we had,” he said.

However, Vic claims that his most recent addition of the Dennis Razor Ultra 560 fine turf mower has made a significant difference to his pitch preparations.

Before purchase, the mower was demonstrated at the Emirates Riverside and there was something in particular which caught Vic’s eye.

“The Razor Ultra has a tungsten tipped groomer reel and I’ve never really used one of these for cricket before. However, at the time I had a very good friend of mine with me who had come over from Australia to help out with the World Cup preparations. He is in golf now and told me that he uses groomer reels all the time. Needless to say, he was really impressed and so I decided to give it a go.

“It takes a lot of rubbish off the pitches such as creeping grasses and all the stuff that is lying down flat. This groomer simply flicks them all out and carries out a more thorough job than a cutting reel.”

Superbly balanced and ideal for cricket pitches and other fine turf surfaces, the Razor Ultra features a 560mm (22in), 11 blade cutting cylinder for a perfect finish. An ultra-short wheelbase ensures easy manoeuvrability and excellent performance, even on undulating surfaces. The Dennis Razor Ultra encompasses the simple ‘no tools required’ click height adjusters for quick and easy operation, a feature which Vic is particularly impressed with.

“It is so easy to adjust the height of cut with the simple click adjustor – half a mm here or half a mm there, depending on requirements, and it is not a question of running for the spanners or any other tools.

“I’ve been working with Dennis for as long as I’ve been in the industry and they have never once let me down.”