Bowling Green Maintenance: 38a. Minimal Resources and Low Club Membership

Introduction
This is not an ideal situation, however, this is the reality for many clubs.

The health and well-being benefits gained from having a bowling green, along with associated club activities, make a positive contribution to the overall viability, diversity and sustainability of a local community.

A key consideration is to be realistic about the expectations from the playing surface. Its primary purpose is to support social engagement, friendship and maintain and promote the health and well-being of all users. Indirectly this can then contribute to supporting the local care system, as a more active community group will have less demands than a sedentary and less active community group.

How then can a suitable surface be provided at minimal effort?
A generally enjoyable playing experience should still be possible, in which case the outcome has been achieved. A club is not aiming to provide a consistently uniform playing experience throughout the entire playing season, but there will be ups and downs throughout, yet players have been able to take part and enjoy the social engagement which accompanies a game of bowls.

This is clearly going to be a significant challenge and the purpose of the green needs to be reinforced for all players – the green is only a means to an end, with the outcome being judged on there still being a green available and the health and well-being of users, certainly not the quality of the green, although the green will be safe to play on.

Low club membership numbers will have a positive side-effect and that is that wear, tear and compaction on the green will be significantly reduced, or it should be. So, straight away, the intensity of maintenance does not have to be the same as a much better used green.

There will need to be some monies for the clubhouse and its upkeep, but for this article, we are just looking at the maintenance of the bowling green surface.

All work is assumed to be carried out by members, so consideration must be given to physical capabilities and how best to utilise the efforts of everyone concerned. Renovation work will require more physical effort than the more routine maintenance activities, but possibilities exist where younger or stronger relatives or friends might be able to be persuaded to donate a small amount of time to help out as a one-off, being rewarded (non-financially) in some way. Estimated timings given in this scenario are towards the higher end of guides as it is assumed that those maintaining the green may not be as physically agile as they once were but are still quite capable of carrying out all the required activities.