Oakham School, situated in the market town of Oakham in Rutland, is a boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 10 to 18. It is fair to say that Oakham is a forward thinking school – in 1971 Oakham was one of the first boys’ independent secondary school in Britain to accept both male and female pupils throughout the whole school.
This outstanding school, which was voted one of the UK’s top IB schools, boasts exceptional academic achievements and has a fine reputation for producing competitive sporting teams. Perhaps this is why the school has 43 acres of one of the best grass playing areas in the country. In fact, many ‘Oakhamians’ have gone on to international sporting success such as former British Lions and England captain Lewis Moody, Crista Cullen – who won bronze in the women’s hockey at the London 2012 Olympics and Stuart Broad – Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and England T20 Captain.
Tasked with helping support the next generation of sporting talent is Richard, who, along with his team of seven dedicated staff members, keeps the 43 acres of sports turf in pristine condition. It is essential that he uses only the finest products and it is for this reason that Oakham chooses Limagrain.
“Oakham School has had a very long relationship with Limagrain and were even using it before I started working here. I’ve been here for nine years and have been using their products throughout that time.
“We use Limagrain’s MM50 solely for cricket pitches and then on the winter pitches, we use MM60 and Action Replay. The Limagrain grass seed provides us with good and fast germination, it always colours nicely through the winter and more importantly for me it’s hard wearing and fits our business extremely well.”
The three Limagrain products used by Richard are popular choices amongst the company’s extensive range of grass seed. MM50 is the preferred choice for intensively used cricket wickets and is used from club cricket right up to Test Match level. Consisting of a three way Dwarf Rye mixture, MM50 excels in wear tolerance, speed of establishment, recovery and tolerance of close mowing.
MM60 is ideal for winter pitches such as football and rugby. The four-way ryegrass blend contains top rated cultivars, which together produce a sward that recovers from scarring and divot damage. Superior disease resistance along with good all year colour make this the mixture of choice for many grounds managers.
Limagrain’s Action Replay belongs to the company’s Designer range of amenity grass seed and is an excellent mixture to use when renovating winter sports pitches. It will establish very quickly producing a dense, hard wearing sward for all heavy-duty sports areas.
As Richard continues to ensure the facilities are good enough for a steady stream of ‘Oakhamians’ to garner sporting success, Limagrain will also continue to play its part.
“I receive great customer service from Limagrain – they are extremely knowledgeable and even when I don’t see one of their representatives I always feel that the support is there because they are always at the end of the phone if I need them.
“I’ve tried different products over the years from many different companies but Limagrain takes a bit of beating,” said Richard.
For further information, please contact us on 01472 371471 or visit the amenity grass section by clicking here. You can also follow us on Twitter: @MM_Seed