One of the UK’s leading cricket clubs, Sussex County Cricket Club, has heaped praise on Sherriff Amenity’s range of Marathon fertiliser products, noting a vast improvement in the turf of its famous cricket pitches.
Founded in 1839, Sussex CCC was the first ever first-class county cricket club to be formed, and some of the game’s finest players have worn the Sussex shirt over the years. Names such Greig, Fry, Prior, Snow, Ahmed, Goodwin, Khan, Yardy and Robinson are all associated with greatness and banners celebrating these cricket legends can be seen at the club’s main venue - The County Cricket Ground in Hove.
Although it may be the players that take all the headlines, the pitches that Sussex CCC plays their home games on are all un-sung heroes, making it all possible for the club to produce such legendary sportsmen.
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Andy Mackay has been head groundsman since 2008 and his team of twelve look after the County Cricket Ground in Hove, as well as the grounds at the Academy Ground, Horsham CC, and Preston Nomads CC. In order to keep the pitches to a standard of a top tier County Cricket club, Andy chooses the finest products from leading supplier Sherriff Amenity - the UK’s market leaders in providing turf care and amenity solutions.
Andy has been working with Sherriff Amenity since 2010 and hasn’t looked back since.
“Historically I have always contacted several companies for prices on products and Sherriff Amenity has consistently been the most competitive – in fact this is the first year that I haven’t even looked elsewhere at other prices.
“The company has been superb and the customer service is always excellent - particularly my Sherriff representative Adam Hartley who always works hard for me when I want him to and I trust him implicitly. I always receive my deliveries on time and there is never any hassle when it comes to ordering,” he said.
Amongst Sherriff Amenity’s extensive array of products is the ever popular Marathon range of fertilisers which provides a long-lasting, balanced growth. More and more cricket groundsmen across the UK are turning to Marathon and in particular Andy uses Marathon Allround and Marathon Sport Summer, which are perfect for cricket outfields.
Marathon Allround is a versatile long release fertiliser for use on all outfield areas that provides a reliable growth response with good colour for up to three months. The patented nitrogen complex ensures steady growth, using nutrient sources that avoid excess leaching and help prevent soft growth that can bring on unwanted disease attack
“We put Marathon Allround down in early March depending on the weather and then we apply Marathon Sport Summer mid-June, which is a finer granule and is why we use this during the playing season. That gives us a base feed so it’s working in the background and then we use liquid feeds to supplement that,” said Andy.
Marathon Sport Summer has an analysis with zero phosphate and additional magnesium to provide fresh summer colour. The methylene urea content provides the extended release characteristics required to keep turf well supplied with nutrients for 12 to 16 weeks after application.
“I would definitely recommend the Sherriff Amenity products; we’ve seen a big increase in the quality of the turfs since we’ve been using the Marathon fertilisers,” he said.