£50K OF Toro Kit for ‘The Foxes'

Leicester City Football Club has invested more than £50,000 in Toro machinery to further improve its playing surfaces and to perform renovation in-house.

Ed Mowe, head groundsman at the Championship club, has bought two Toro football favourites - the ProCore 648 pedestrian aerator and Reelmaster 3100-D mower - together with a ProCore SR54 deep-tine aerator and ProPass 200 topdresser.

Able to aerate a Premiership pitch in just three hours, Ed says the 648 is the ideal piece of kit for the club's stadium pitch. "We bought the ProCore especially for use on our new Desso stadium pitch," Ed explains. "It's great because you can get the pitch aerated just before a match or straight after, with minimum impact to the turf - it does exactly what it says on the tin."

The tractor-mounted SR54, meanwhile, is now hard at work at the Middlesex Road training ground. "We've definitely seen an improvement at both the training ground and stadium since we got the aerators," Ed continues. "We've resolved some drainage issues and there's less compaction."

The ProPass broadcast-style topdresser, used for applying sand to the soil-based training pitches, completes Ed's new renovation fleet. "This kit will basically see us through a season now. We used contractors in the past, but we want to be more in control going forwards. We can do what we want, when we want."

Finally, Ed's existing Reelmaster 5510-D has been joined by its 3100-D stable-mate. "Both Reelmasters give a very good quality of cut and I was also really impressed with the price - you get a lot of mower for your money."

Ed says the club has stuck with Toro machinery for the past 14 years because "it's just quality equipment that helps us get the quality of turf we require". As he sums up: "The new arrivals have already upped the standards of our playing surfaces, plus the support from Lely and Toro is always there when we need it."

For more information on Toro machinery, call distributor Lely UK on 01480 226800, email toro.info.uk@lely.com or visit www.toro.com.