Our green gets a well-deserved health boost.

On the afternoon of Monday 10th March and the morning of Tuesday 11th March our green was treated to major improvement work known as “Deep Drill n Fill”.

Why did we bother?

Keeping our green in the best possible condition takes a lot of work, as Norman Jackson, our Green Keeper and all those who work on the green can confirm. However, over time the undersoil inevitably becomes deeply compacted. This results in poor drainage and restricted root growth, adversely affecting the health of the turf – which then becomes a problem for our bowling!

What did we do?

We needed to drill lots of deep holes in our green to improve root growth and drainage. This is known as “Deep Drill n Fill”. Fortunately, men with the right machinery can be hired to undertake what would otherwise be back breaking work. Deep Drill n Fill” has a number of advantages:

“The drills remove soil, allowing lateral movement within the rootzone and releasing compaction pressure. Drilling improves surface water infiltration and percolation, reducing the soggy, spongy conditions. Deep holes (450mm) encourage deep, strong roots.”

“The Drill n Fill puts a sand-mix directly into the holes and, therefore, into the rootzone. This holds open the drainage channel, giving extended life."

Thankfully, the majority of this work was undertaken by the “Deep Drill n Fill” machine but this didn’t avoid the need for a considerable amount of manual labour. Step up members of the Club with jugs, rakes, snow shovels and wheelbarrows.

Day One: Drilling and filling has begun.

Heavy lifting.

Attention to detail is everything. Some drill holes need more sand-mix.

The team progresses steadily across the green, removing

the plugs of soil left by the drills.

Day Two: Stocks of sand-mix stand ready.

As does the man with the wheelbarrow.

The "driller n filler" gets underway. (Video)

But the machine can't get to all parts of the green and a human is needed!

Well done Norman.

The steady progress continues.

With an occasional break.

How do we benefit from all this effort?

Some benefits should come quickly…

• We should immediately see an improvement in drainage, particularly at the Valley Gardens end of the green.

• This means we should get more bowling time, due to fewer cancellations due to wet conditions.

• The large bowling mats should need to be used less often, enabling us to bowl “au naturel”.

Whilst other benefits will take longer to materialise…

In the medium term we expect to have a healthier, stronger turf and an improved playing surface. For example, the green will be less prone to divots – which not only need to be repaired but can affect bowling line!

However, it will take time for the roots of our turf to grow down deeper and we don’t expect to see any benefits during the 2025 playing season – and we might need to wait until the 2027 season. Nature can’t be rushed.

And now we wait.

Norman would like to thank all concerned with this 2-day project, from the “men with the machine” to the tea makers (you know who you are).

And I’m sure all club members would like to thank Norman for everything he does to keep our green in the best condition possible – it really is a never-ending task.

Words & photographs: Jeff Jaycock