MANX LOTTERY TRUST HELPS SOUTH RAMSEY BOWLING CLUB WITH GRASS CARE

South Ramsey Bowling Club has improved its playing surface thanks to a grant from Manx Lottery Trust.

The £2,500 funding has enabled the purchase of a Verticut TT mowing machine to help reduce thatch, improve the sward and encourage finer grasses to flourish, increasing bowl speed on the surface.

David Kelly, Greenkeeper at South Ramsey Bowling Club said: ‘Manx Lottery Trust’s support is invaluable. The grass was growing sideways which gave the green a bumpy surface, not suitable for playing bowls. Weekly use of the new mowing machine has helped keep the thatch off the green, encourage new roots and vertical leaf growth. All-in all this should maintain a smooth safe surface – great news for our ever-increasing membership and League and competition visitors.

‘For obvious reasons the season has had to be put on hold for now, but once we’re back up-and- running the northern bowls community will be able to benefit greatly from this improvement to the green.’

The Club has invested time and money in hollow tining (the removal of cores from the lawn, a good way to aerate and relieve compaction), scarifying and overseeding, but a side effect of all this work has been a build-up of thatch. This loose, intermingled organic layer of dead and living shoots, stems and roots develop between the zone of green vegetation and the soil surface, building up when turf produces organic debris faster than it can be broken down.

Manx Lottery Trust Chairman Sarah Kelly added: ‘We are very happy to be in a position to help South Ramsey Bowling Club. The Club is a great community network and it’s good to know, with membership on the increase, that the playing surface can now be in the best possible condition to maximise enjoyment for all.’