The prestigious title of Amenity Sprayer Operator of the Year (ASOY) has been won by Nathan Hume, Contracts Manager and Ecologist for national grounds maintenance experts, SH Goss Ltd.

ASOY rewards top sprayer operators across the amenity industry, with the aim to share their best practices to enhance standards for all.

Presented for the first time at BTME Harrogate this week (23 January 2018), the ASOY Awards are organised by the Amenity Forum, and sponsored by ICL and Syngenta, in association with BASIS.

As well as the overall top operator, Nathan Hume was the winner of the Landscape & Industrial using hand held equipment category.

Also recognised by the Awards were Chris Phillips of Complete Weed Control South Wales, as the top operator for Sports turf using boom sprayer or hand held equipment, along with the company’s Lee Harrison, winner of the Landscape & Industrial using vehicle mounted equipment category.

Nathan primarily specialises in the prevention of invasive non-native plants. He operates in a wide variety of sites including airports, railways, cemeteries, rivers, forests, nature reserves, construction sites and golf courses.

“It was an honour to receive the Award,” he said. “Myself and the company have always followed best practice so it’s a nice justification that we are doing things right,” he said.

Commenting on Nathan’s success, from a record entry in the third annual ASOY Awards, Professor John Moverley, Chairman of the Amenity Forum, said: ‘‘The Awards seek to recognise the quality and level of professionalism in our sector. They highlight how professional amenity maintenance keeps Britain moving.

“All of the Category winners have demonstrated an extremely high level of professionalism; picking an overall winner was extremely difficult,” he reported. “They have all demonstrated the exceptional skills of operators across the amenity sector - doing their jobs to an extremely high standard every day.

“Secondly they have exemplified the whole concept of the safe use of pesticides, being applied correctly and in a sustainable manner.”

ICL Landscape and Industrial Manager, Mark Pyrah, added: “Accurate application, ably demonstrated by the skills of all the ASOY entrants, is a key element of effective stewardship of products and helping to ensure they will remain available,” he said.

“It is all about sprayer awareness - maintaining good application to maintain the product so that the individual is promoting best practice.”

Daniel Lightfoot, Syngenta Turf UK Business Manager, believed that the Awards should be a shining light of the amenity industry’s approach to safe and sustainable spray application.  

“The independent judging panel highlighted Nathan has shown outstanding skills and worked to very high standards to achieve the best possible results. He has proved a worthy winner by showing that best practice can deliver efficient, cost effective and, above all, safe amenity spraying.

“Syngenta recognises that the skills of the sprayer operator are paramount in achieving the full potential from all applications and assuring the future sustainable use,” he added.