This year’s RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park saw BALI and the WorldSkills Team UK combining forces and sharing space to raise the profile of both organisations amongst the consumer market. BALI staff and members handed out information to visitors looking for designers, contractors and material suppliers and were delighted with the response.

 

The WorldSkills Team UK were completing their final training before going off to Canada to represent the UK in the 40^th WorldSkills Competition, which takes place from 1^st-7^th September in Calgary (www.wordskills.org). Four individuals - Grant Finch, Simon Ginger, William Gadd and Luke Denby - had just 22 hours in teams of two to build two Canadian-themed gardens. RHS judges awarded both teams a Silver Award ‘Highly Commended’. The judges loved seeing the gardens being built live at the show and the feature encouraged many spectators to stop and watch, appreciating the skills involved and admiring sponsors’ materials. BALI, who manage the WorldSkills UK Landscape Gardening Competition on behalf of UK Skills, would like to thank BALI Affiliate members and competition sponsors Marshalls plc, Melcourt Industries and Johnsons of Whixley, and non-members Jewson.

 

The two individuals chosen to represent the UK in Canada in the landscape gardening category are Luke Denby, 19, from Skipton who works for Roderick French Groundworks and attends Craven College, and William Gadd, 22, from Thurston, near Bury St Edmunds, who works for The Country Life Landscapes and attends Otley College. They will be heading to Calgary in early September and we wish them the very best of luck. What an honour it will be for them to say they have competed for their country in their chosen profession.