Martin Sampson

Managing Director, Lead Instructor and Assessor

Martin delivers a wide variety of Lantra, City & Guilds (NPTC) and UK Rural Skills accredited training across the country, covering all types of pesticide application, sports ground maintenance, and the use of tractors, ground care machinery, ATVs and hand held equipment. He is a Lantra Technical Verifier, a City & Guilds (NPTC) Assessor for pesticides and land-based machinery, a Lantra End Point Assessor (EPA) for greenkeeping and sports turf, and oversees the company's Lantra Customised Provision courses. He is also a visiting tutor for one of the country's foremost land-based colleges and provides consultancy and advisory services to commercial organisations within the ground care sector.

He has more than 35 years’ experience in the ground care industry, beginning his career in the valleys of South Wales with Taff Ely Borough Council where he learnt his trade as a groundsman. He worked his way through the ranks, eventually achieving the post of Area Grounds Maintenance Officer for Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council. Martin left Wales in 2000 to take over at Gosling Sports Park in Welwyn Garden City. He then went on to develop his career in the private sector, working at a number of prestigious facilities including;

Head Groundsman - Harlequins Rugby Football Club

Director of Grounds - Epsom College

Grounds Maintenance Manager and Head Groundsman - Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, Twickenham

He was also an FA appointed Pitch Judge for the Groundsman of the Year Awards.

Martin holds a number of turf culture qualifications, including the National Practical Certificate in the Science and Practice of Turf Culture and Sports Ground Management and the National Technical Certificate in the Science of Turf Culture and Sports Ground Management.