When Yelverton Bowling Club set out to replace its ageing greens mower, advice and assistance was sought from a variety of information sources, both online and in print form.
After detailed research, comparative demonstrations and due deliberations, the 83-year-old club selected an Allett C-24 accompanied by four interchangeable cartridge heads purpose-designed for mowing and turf grooming, verticutting, sorrel rolling and brushing.
"We were somewhat out of touch as we hadn't needed to look at fine-turf mowing equipment for close on 20 years," explained green manager, Ron Collier. "In fact, the Allett C-24 is the first new walk-behind machine of any type purchased by the club as we've always relied previously on pre-owned equipment."
Located within a rural village community about eight miles north of Plymouth, Yelverton Bowling Club is affiliated to Bowls England and Bowls Devon and is a member of the Plymouth and District League. The club has mens, ladies and mixed teams playing league, club and friendly matches during a season that runs from May to early October.
"We are able to call on a team of eight members who work in pairs on a rota system looking after and preparing the green throughout the playing season," explained Ron Collier. "Having put the necessary funding in place, a shortlist was drawn up of three different mowers and demonstrations arranged of each one to assess cutting performance and ease of setting, use and maintenance."
Ron pointed out that one of the short-listed machines was solely a mower while the other two could be equipped with interchangeable cartridge heads for mowing, aeration, grooming and thatch control. The Allett C-24 was one of those two machines.
"Although the pure mower did a great job, we decided to go for a machine capable of carrying out a variety of turf maintenance tasks," he said. "Not only would this save the club money in the long-term by enabling us to do more turf maintenance ourselves, but it would make machine familiarisation and operation easier for all members of the team."
Ron commented that a key factor in choosing the C-24 was the thoroughness of the demonstration provided by Allett sales engineer, Graham Probyn. "We liked the ease of setting-up the machine and its handling and mowing performance, especially the ability to maintain a constant clip rate irrespective of walking speed," he said. "In highlighting all of these details, Graham displayed tremendous knowledge and attention to detail.
"Throughout his entire visit, Graham showed a genuine interest in our requirements and made sure that we understood fully how to get the best out of the machine and how to keep it that way. It cemented our confidence in Allett."
Purchased using a combination of club funds and five-year loan bonds taken up by members, the C-24 was supplied through local Allett dealer, Masons of Chudleigh.
Following its arrival in summer 2012, the Allett C-24 helped produce in a very short time the best bowling surface seen at the club in living memory, commented Ron Collier. "We put that down to regular turf grooming and the excellent cut produced by a mower that is designed and built clearly with a huge amount of passion, care and understanding. I cannot praise Allett highly enough."
