Pontarddulais
Bowls Club and Graig Merthyr Bowls Club share the same council-owned green in
Coedbach Park, Pontarddulais, Swansea.
The green
there has seen around ninety years of play and until early in 2018 had always
been free draining, with regular treatment such as Vertidraining, although it
had become noticeable the green was changing.
Built on
shale, as is typical of many greens, the gradual compaction was taking its
toll.
Club
Treasurer Bryan Gillard remembers standing under the canopy by the Clubhouse
and watching what happened to the green when it rained heavily.
“The green
was filling with water before my very eyes,” he says, “and after the heavy
showers it remained quite sodden and unplayable. It seemed no amount of work
could get it back into shape.” This left fifty or so members without playing
facilities until it dried out.
Bryan
remembered reading about Terrain Aeration’s treatment for bowling greens and
sports pitches and he invited the specialist aeration company to come along and
advise on the situation. It became immediately clear that much deeper aeration
was needed than the usual Vertidraining, to relieve the compaction and panning
beneath the surface. Bryan sought approval from Swansea City Council and with
the help of two local councillors the funds were raised to do the work in March
2018.
Terrain
Aeration’s deep penetration aeration system uses their Terralift machine to
drive a probe one metre deep into the soil, through the compaction, where it
releases a blast of compressed air, fracturing the soil.
On the tail end of the air blast dried seaweed
is injected, which sticks to the walls of the fissures. This is finished with
the probe hole being filled with porous Lytag aggregate and topped with the
usual top dressing. Here the seaweed will remain, swelling and contracting with
the moisture in the soil, maintaining the aeration, drainage and allowing
oxygen to get to the roots. In some instances water-storing polymers may also
be added with the seaweed.
The
process is repeated over a staggered grid every two metres to ensure the
fissures are fully interlinked. The result is immediate and vastly improved
draining, allowing play to commence straight away.
The
problem for Bryan was there was no rain to speak of for a long period and no
one was able to judge the results. Until the first heavy rains that is, when
the car park at the club became totally awash.
The
bowling green, however, remained free of water and the success and improvement
to the sward became even more evident during the long summer drought.
Torrential
rains left no evidence as they passed, with the green remaining free-draining
and the surface vastly improved.
“It’s fair
to say everyone has been well pleased with the result,” says Bryan, who though
now retired as Treasurer, remains a part of the long tradition of bowling in
Pontarddulais.
