Amenity Sprayer Operator of the Year 2024 open for entries

The Amenity Sprayer Operator of the Year (ASOOTY) Awards highlight best practice and experience in the challenging role of ensuring accurate application on all amenity surfaces.

The Amenity Forum competition, supported by ICL and Syngenta, seeks to share guidance and advice that will raise the standards of spray application across the amenity industry.

The finalists will be announced at the Amenity Forum Conference on 10 October, with the overall winner presented at the prestigious BIGGA Celebration at BTME in January 2025.

Along with assessing operators’ skills of spray application and use of products, the ASOOTY judging panel also now incorporate the importance of an integrated pest management approach to any issues involving turf and landscape maintenance.

Announcing the opening of the ASOOTY 2024 Awards, Amenity Forum Chairman Ian Graham said: “This competition seeks to highlight the remarkable talent that exists within our sector, and I encourage as many spray operators as possible to engage with the process.

“Our industry has many highly skilled spray operators working within it, using a diverse range of products accurately applied through a huge range of complex application equipment.

“The environments in which these applications take place can also be varied and are often challenging.”

Dan Waring, professional spray technician at JCB Golf and Country Club in Uttoxeter, took home the prize last time and encouraged his fellow sprayer operators to seize all opportunities to hone their skills.

“I would urge all sprayer operators to undertake as much training as possible to gain more knowledge on the products being used and the application technology,” he said.

“That will enable people to be more confident in what they are doing and give the spray tech’s role the credit it deserves.” GI