Leaf clearance began in August at Maxstoke Park Golf Club, the earliest in Course Manager Andy Ross’s 38 years at the Warwickshire club.
“I can’t remember ever starting this early,” he says. “The leaves are brown, dry, and falling fast. With so little rain, the poplars especially are under stress. It’s unusual to see this volume before September.”
Up to September 1, 2025 , the club recorded just 280 mm of rainfall, less than half the 600 mm normally expected. Four heatwaves left the ground parched and trees struggling. “Some of the silver birch have gone very brown — three or four may not have survived — but we’ll wait until next year to be sure,” adds Andy Ross.
Their Wiedenmann Super 600 sweeper collector and Mega Twister blower, supplied by local Wiedenmann UK dealer Farol at Hinckley in 2022, are now central to the effort. To begin with, in August, backpack blowers were enough to push leaves into manageable areas, but rising volumes soon demanded bigger kit. The Super 600 replaced a smaller collector and gave the team much-needed extra capacity, while the Mega Twister is ready for the heaviest leaf fall across the larger open spaces.
“We blow leaves into strips and then collect them with the Super 600,” explains Andy Ross. “Its large tank fills in about 30–40 minutes, and we empty at the nearest mulching bays. As the season goes on those bays rise quickly, and that’s when the high-tip facility really comes into its own.”
Normally, leaf clearance at Maxstoke Park runs September to Christmas with no days missed. “Turkey oaks sometimes hang on until January,” says Andy Ross, “but usually everything is tidied by Christmas. This year, who knows? It may turn into five months instead of the usual three or four.”
“Day to day, many of us are involved in leaf clearance,” he continues. “Once the immediate playing areas are cleared, two people move to the bigger spaces — one on the blower and one on the Super 600. The arrival of the two Wiedenmanns has made a vast difference. The Mega can swivel 220 degrees, which means fewer journeys over the turf, and because it can move side to side, one pass is often enough. It speeds up the process, makes a tidier job, and frees some of us up for other tasks.”
The Super 600 can also be deployed for scarifying fairways, but the summer’s dry conditions meant holding off this year. “We were keen to use the Super 600 for scarifying, but the ground was so parched it would have stressed the fairways,” says Andy Ross. “We’ll hold off until conditions improve.”
Alongside the Super 600 and Mega Twister, Maxstoke Park also operates a Wiedenmann GXi8 HD for deep aeration.
Set in more than 100 acres of Warwickshire countryside east of Birmingham, Maxstoke Park is a par-71, 6,418-yard course where mature oaks, horse chestnuts, and water hazards across eight holes create both a scenic setting and a demanding test — and a constant autumn challenge for the greenkeeping team of six.
