American Trialist at Tottenham Hotspur FC
By Peter Driver
No, not the latest 'wunderkind' from an American soccer league, but the very latest super lightweight mower that Darren Baldwin, Grounds Manager at the Premiership club is going to be trialing soon at their Spurs Lodge training facility in Chigwell
Darren, who is known for his strong opinions on matters of groundsmanship, already uses two US-built Jacobsen LF-3800 five cylinder mowers for maintaining the 28 acres at Chigwell and is well pleased with them.
"We have a policy at the Club to have all our high maintenance machines on a contract lease basis and that's what we've done with these machines. They are very good and do an excellent job for us. Our leasing agreement comes with a maintenance contract from our dealer, Ernest Doe, and this gives us a known fixed cost, which makes it easier to manage our assets. Should a new piece of kit come onto the market during the 3-year leasing period we can look at it and perhaps include that in the next three year option."
That's exactly what Darren, and his team of four at Chigwell, will be doing when they trial the latest Jacobsen SLF-1880 mower in the near future. New cutting units have been designed to allow a cutting height at 26mm and that's just what he requires.
"The SLF is a very lightweight machine, so there's less compaction", he added, "and with its 5" diameter cylinders it has an improved clip rate when compared to the 3800s. It's especially important that we evaluate machinery now as we have a £ multi-million academy and training centre in the final stages of planning at Enfield. That, together with our possible involvement in an associated community project will double the size of grass under our control and we need to look at the best equipment available."
Ransomes Jacobsen is a subsidiary of Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT), a $10 billion multi-industry company operating in 33 countries with approximately 37,000 employees in continuing operations. The company leverages its global network of aircraft, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO and Greenlee, among others. More information is available at www.textron.com.
