Andrew Wain Named As 2020 Allett Creative Stripes Champion

It's been a tough year for everyone going through the coronavirus pandemic but homeowners all around the world have had a great excuse to get in their garden to work on their Allett Creative Lawn Stripes competition entries. The competition is run annually with all entries welcome, regardless of how big or small your lawn is. We encourage homeowners to use their lawns to design the most creative, eye catching designs that truly shows off the craftsmanship and dedication that goes into grass maintenance. The quintessentially British striped lawn is idealised across the world and in celebration of this we opened the competition internationally.The first Allett mower was launched in 1965 and our machines are synonymous with creating stripes on lawns and sports grounds around the world. Spending time in the garden can be great for your mental health and what better way is there to relax than mowing your lawn. Sales of Allett homeowner products in 2020 has been extremely successful despite the current global situation- so thank-you! Striped lawns used to be the preserve of the British garden, but now keen gardeners from around the globe compete each year for this coveted green award. The standard of this year's entries has again been incredible and keeps on getting better year after year. This year's competition saw entries come in from USA, Wales, England, Denmark, Australia, Belgium, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland - a truly global set of entries! This year's judge was Edgbaston Cricket Ground's very own Head Groundsman Gary Barwell. Allett are proud partners with Edgbaston and felt Gary's expertise was perfect for the role of this year's judge. An internal vote was done at Allett with the top 6 entries being forwarded to Gary to pick his overall winner. Creativity is the key to this competition as well as using current themes to design patterns around and you will see from the top 6 below how creative they really are.

 

THE TOP 6 ENTRIES ARE BELOW

 In 6th place (as judged by Gary Barwell) was Dennis West from the USA
Dennis: ''Professionally I am an instructional designer with a background in graphic design and animation. My interests in lawn care are primarily a hobby that I enjoy as it gives me a reason to get out of the house often, even if it is only out into the yard.
This design began on my computer where I traced, using Adobe Illustrator, an aerial view of my home from Google Maps. I then created the following original design as a guide for the stripes.
The design is created by mowing the lawn with two heights of cut. The lower cut is at 5/8” (about 16mm) and the higher cut is at 1 1/8” (about 29mm). I mow every two to three days.
One of the most rewarding aspects of this process has been the overwhelmingly positive response my lawn has received from my neighbors, who often stop as they drive by to ask about my mower and how I am able to accomplish such results with just basic Kentucky Blue Grass. Especially as we have had temperatures in the high 90s (35-38 celsius) and most lawns are dry and stressed.
The following images show some closer angles of the designs and the heights of cut''
Gary's comments ''The waves look stunning and original''
In 5th place was Niklas Andersson from Sweden
In 5th place was Niklas Andersson. Niklas came 2nd in the 2019 Allett Creative Stripes Competition with an incredible design. He's done another amazing job this year reaching our TOP 6 yet again. The difficulty level of this design is great with the different directions taking some real thinking of!
Last year I came in second place in the competition so I have tried my hand at many patterns. In the end I was satisfied and the difficult thing about this is that I have the ENTIRE surface at the same height, which not everyone has.In addition, I have driven in all different directions, straight, round and different color.This took approximately 4-6 hours to create. Now in retrospect, I would have waited until the sun went down to take the picture.Next year there will probably be no participation for me, at least not on this lawn as we sold the house today. The new owner will get a nice lawn next year! Gary's comments ''A stunning design that looks hard to create and very inspired''
4th Place- Cooper Thomson from Australia
In 4th place was Cooper Thomson - an Australian groundsman who has spent time in the USA.
''My entry is my work in Batavia, New York, minor league affiliate of the Miami Marlins Major League Baseball team. The pattern was inspired by several aspects. One being the first time the team had made the playoffs in 9 years. Obviously a massive occasion for the small town of Batavia so I tried to dress up our playing surface as much as possible. The team is named the ‘Muckdogs’ hence the dog paw in centre field and the infield I mowed in a duel set of boomerangs. This I designed in as I’m a Australian who then worked in the US and wanted to bring a spice of my own to the aesthetics. Enjoy! @cooper_tommo on instagram
Gary's comments - A brilliant design despite it being from a professional grounds crew who clearly know their skills''
3rd Place-William Axmacher from the USA
In 3rd place this year was William Axmacher from the USA
Gary's comments ''To craft something that totally works from the air is great time and effort''
William-
I’ve been taking care of my Dad’s yard since I was 12 years old so grass cutting and patterns are definitely a passion of mine. I reached out to a groundsman on Twitter with a grass question and he encouraged me to enter .I actually found him by just looking for stadium groundskeeper personal twitter accounts. I now have this wonderful community on twitter for all turf lovers! My dad and I are pretty patriotic people and have found that the yard is a perfect setup for the American flag. We did it once back in 2013, but it was nowhere as good as this past one. Due to quarantine, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to spend more time on a 4th of July pattern and try to perfect it as much as possible! We calculated the dimension of all parts of the flag based on our 36” mower. We got a stencil made for the stars, which we used white spray paint used for athletic field striping.
I find yard work and making patterns extremely relaxing and therapeutic. It's kind of my escape from the real world but also allows me to be creative from week to week with an art medium that many people aren’t familiar with.
2nd Place- Edward Aitken from Cheltenham,UK
2nd Place this year went to Edward Aitken from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. Edward's entry last year unfortunately got lost in the email systems and we didn't receive it. His entry is incredible and has clearly been well designed ahead of creation. It looks like alot of patience, time and effort was involved. Gary's comments ''This is truly outstanding. The work, time and effort that has gone into this is incredible''

2020 ALLETT CREATIVE LAWN STRIPES COMPETITION CHAMPION- ANDREW WAIN

1st Place-Andrew Wain, Chippenham, England
This year we have been forever grateful for the NHS and this year's winning entry is a lovely tribute to them. Andew Wain (Head Gardener of Euridge Manor) has placed high in our stripes competition for the last few years and this year has gone one better! Euridge Manor is a private estate in Chippenham, UK. The estate regularly holds weddings and has 40 booked in for next year. Andrew has faced the battles of having wedding guests walking over his entries in previous years and marquees on the lawn. We feel this entry reflects the theme of the year with the coronavirus pandemic and the different patterns Andrew has made use of no matter which way you look at the design is incredible. Well done! Andrew Wain's quote This was my fourth year entering the creative stripes competition. Having come second place in my first year of entering, I was determined to keep going and win that much coveted FIRST PLACE. However, since then the property where I work has become a wedding venue. Each year I found it harder and harder to work around the wear and tear of weddings on the lawn and capture that perfect picture of the pattern. This year however has been very different! Covid! I had originally planned to create a flower pattern on the lawn but as the pattern evolved, as did Covid. I felt that this was my opportunity of saying THANK YOU to all those in all departments of the NHS that have put themselves in harms way to look after us. It is also my way of saying thank you to all those in the NHS who have cared for relatives of mine who in the last few years and indeed weeks lost their battles with cancer. So that is where I came up with the idea of the butterfly. To carry the thank-you message. The Allett creative stripes competition has encouraged me to turn the lawn at Euridge Manor, into a piece of art. I encourage anyone to have a go, as it is great fun. And adds a whole new dimension of creativity to the garden. Andrew now becomes the proud owner of an Allett Liberty 43 battery powered cylinder mower alongside the ALLETT Complete Lawn Care System of six interchangeable cartridges consisting of an aerator, a scarifier, a lawn brush, a dethatcher, a verticutter and a 10 –blade cartridge together with two cartridge stands. He will also get to spend 'a day in the life of a groundsman' at Edgbaston alongside Gary and his team. We will hopefully be shooting a video with Andrew when we drop his prize off to hear his story. Gary's comments ''The standard was truly outstanding and the time and work that was put into these was on another level it was so difficult to decide but the winner showed craft flair knowledge and relevance'' Creative Lawn Stripe Competition WINNER ''The rise in international competitors in this competition is in line with the rise in demand our company has seen for our mowers from overseas lawn-fanatics” says Austin Jarrett, Managing Director at Allett Ltd. Allett recently won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise – International trade because of the increase in overseas demand and consequently our export sales. Keep an eye on our social media channels for information on next year's competition aswell as further posts on this year's entries. Thank-you to all that entered- We're sure that any of the TOP 6 could quite easily have won! Find our video with Andrew here
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