Rake Expectations

The grass is always greener with a Springbok, says Toby, as he celebrates the longevity of this truly lawn-loving rake

- Toby Buckland

THE appropriately named parrot nose secateurs have rounded blades, shaped like the bill of a cockatoo, and the bolt that locks them together ‘stares’ like the beady eye of a macaw that thinks you’re a peanut. Conversely, a Springbok rake looks more like a mermaid’s tail than a South African antelope, and if that wasn’t bamboozling enough, it also answers to the nom de plume ‘spring tine rake’.

The Springbok name has mystified me for years, but a chance encounter with an old friend, Dominic Elsom, the marketing manager of Bulldog Tools, has finally solved the mystery. Dom let slip that the company is giving the rake a special centenary label to mark 100 years of manufacture.