After 26 years at Radley College, head of grounds Adam King has seen grounds management change dramatically. Weather is less predictable, playing surfaces are under more pressure, and flexibility has become one of a grounds team’s most valuable assets. That is why investing in a Redexim Overseeder 3D 1575 was an easy decision.
King and his team look after one of the country’s largest independent school sports estates: 14 rugby pitches that convert into 16 football pitches in winter, nine cricket squares, a nine-hole golf course and extensive grounds, all of which must be ready for hundreds of pupils throughout the year. “We make sport happen,” he says. “The boys are at their happiest when they’re out playing, and our job is to make sure the facilities are there for them every single day.”
The college bought the overseeder two years ago to replace a second-hand Redexim machine that had served it well. “We knew exactly what we wanted,” he says. But the purchase was about more than replacing old equipment. “It’s really about having control over what you’re doing. If you’ve got your own overseeder, your own top dresser and the machinery you need, you can renovate when it suits you, rather than waiting for a contractor or a hire company to have equipment available.”
That has changed how the college approaches renovations. “We used to bring contractors in every March to carry out the work. But with the weather becoming so unpredictable, we’ve moved away from that. Now, because we’ve got our own equipment, we can spread renovations through April, May and June, and continue them into the autumn when conditions are right. It allows us to work around the weather rather than sticking to a fixed timetable.”
King chose Redexim because of its track record. “They don’t produce poor machines. The build quality, the robustness and the level of control you have over things like seeding rates made it a no-brainer when the budget allowed.” He likes the machine’s weight. “Even when the ground is still quite hard, like it often is at this time of year, we’re still able to achieve the seeding depth we’re looking for.”
It is now one of the hardest-working machines on site. “We use it almost everywhere,” he says. “Football pitches, rugby pitches, golf tees, aprons and fairways, and even the larger lawns. The only place we don’t use it is on the cricket squares or the golf greens.” At 1.6 metres wide, it remains manoeuvrable and “not too cumbersome” on larger lawns.
“It’s a very good bit of kit,” King says. “It does exactly what it says it’s going to do, and that’s ultimately what you want from any machine.”
More information is at redexim.com/uk