Magazine: 21 Questions with Rob Jenkins
By Sarah Gibson in 21 Questions on 2nd Feb 2010 6:00
Pitchcare Oceania is the sister company to the UK's Pitchcare Website. An idea that came about to provide information and a place for Greenkeepers and Groundsmen to talk and help each other learn. Pitchcare Oceania started after Rob and the UK's Pitchcare MD Dave Saltman got talking over a beer. The Pitchcare websites are home to over 42,000 thousand members around the world, who all have a interest in turfgrass. The websites provide all their information free of charge, making it a tool the whole industry can use.
Rob Jenkins has been fronting the small team in Oceania for nearly two years and continues to push the concept to the websites growing membership base. With the massive UK website as a template, the Oceania site has flourished and continues to grow by the day. Rob's extensive knowledge in Turf gained from working all over the world made him the ideal candidate to launch Pitchcare into the southern hemisphere.
Name: Rob Jenkins
Place Of Work & Position: Manager at Pitchcare Oceania
Family: My partner Susan
Favourite Food: Can't go wrong with a chicken Parma or anything with pasta.
Favourite Movie: Hard to pick one, loved all the Rocky movies, and anything with Will Smith normally gets my vote
Favourite Band: Always been a big fan of Grinspoon, Living End also.
Teams Barracked for: Liverpool love my football and St.Kilda in the AFL. I'm going through a bit of a drought with both teams.
Favourite Sport: Football go the Mighty Reds!
Hobbies: Basketball, dirt bikes and golf courses.
Drinker & Favourite Drink: Yes I'm known to indulge in one or two beers. Hard to pick a favourite I'll go with Carlton Draught as I would drink those more regularly.
Places Travelled: All over Europe lived in the UK for a few years. North and South America and parts of Asia. Most of Oceania as well.
Favourite Machine: Had plenty over the years. If I had to pick one I have always liked the Dakota Top dressers, they do a great job putting out heavy or light topdressing and can be used in many situations.
What would make your job easier: More Staff and website contributors!
Favourite Company in the Turf Industry: Turfcraft Machinery's John Purtell up in Sydney. I get on well with John.
Most Annoying Rep: Tough one there is so many ha! Dan Dixon from Toro Line marking. Dan is a pom who moved over to Brisbane, he also loves his football. I get consistent stick about Liverpool from him, and he's a bloody Notts County fan! I don't even remember the division they are in 8 or 9 maybe!
Industry's Biggest Cowboy: John Carr from Fleet Australasia, he knows how to twist an arm.
Who Is Your Turf God: Phil Ford would be up there. Had him as a teacher back in the day at NMIT in Melbourne.
What's Your Biggest Cockup: So many to name just one is hard! Double tining a bowling green is up there. When it came time to pick up the cores it wasn't pretty. It almost rotary hoed the green, it had no roots at all. Lucky it was the off season!
Funniest Moment in the Workplace: The first golf course I worked at during my apprenticeship, we used to cut time trials around the perimeter fence. We used to get a little carried away and ended up building little jumps for the motor bike and Gators. All outside of work hours of course.
What's Your Motto: When ever I finish a job I like to look back and ask myself can I do this any better. You're better off doing things right the first time as it only causes yourself more work in the long run.
Who would you turn Gay for: Never understand why guys struggle with this so badly can I name more than one? Will Smith the guys oodles charisma and Fernando Torres from Liverpool best striker in the world.
When I informed Rob we would need a photo of him for his 21 questions it was like getting blood from a stone. After numerous weeks and months he finally turned up clean shaven hardly! Perhaps more worrying than the photo was how quickly he answered the last question, you can tell it's something he must often think about. The pause every time he mentioned Will Smith's name was a little scary.
Thanks for being a good sport Rob and perhaps a little less of your favourite food and drink might not go astray!
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