true enough. If you as tuggie know that the glider pilot behind you is well experienced, it is quite fun, on encountering a useful thermal at 800 feet, to turn in the lift until he decides he is fed up following you round.
If a winch only club needs a tug from another club, it is usually brought round by a qualified tug pilot. If the club has no tug, any owner of a towing aircraft would rightly be reluctant to let an inexperienced PPL use it.
As far as towing from strange fields, we would do it no problem. If it was a farmers field, I was very reluctant to let our tug retrieve a glider from anything but an airstrip. Bolder tuggies may do so, but get really pissed off if the farmers field turns out to be less than safe. Like boggy, up hill, tall trees, high crop, nervous animals, invisible phone wires, etc.
The average PPL needs experience, to be a good tuggie. For a glider pilot to be called experienced, really a silver c is a minimum. That's FIVE HOURS ENDURANCE WITH NO ENGINE, GUYS. Also gain of height, 1,000 meters from lowest point, and 50 kilometer cross country flight. Local soaring? you havn't really experienced cross country until you have landed out!