Best practice

B E S T P R A C T I C E

SITTING PRETTY IN NOTTINGHAM

What links a bowls club with a champion racehorse? The answer is the Pretty Polly hosiery company, named after the 1904 Fillies Triple Crown winner. The factory has closed but its club is thriving, winning 2019 Bowling Grounds Team of the Year Award

By Andy Carmichael, Freelance writer

OPPOSITE: Chairman Patrick Eames (left) and secretary John Brunt (right) BELOW: Polly Bowls Club’s expansive 1,600yd 2 green

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he volunteer grounds team at Polly Bowls Club is justifiably proud of its Sutton-in-Ashfield green which, at 1,600 yds 2 , is large and enjoys access to a clubhouse bar, kitchen and spacious function room. Adjacent are a series of football pitches that the club sub-leases to a once nomadic football club. With chairman Patrick Eames, secretary John Brunt and a host of dedicated volunteers, the bowls club is very much a community facility, providing not only a high level of sporting activity but also an opportunity for people to come together in a common purpose. As John explains: “Everyone owns a problem and we all just muck in.” This applies to jobs of all sizes and types. During the winter, for example, the roof space was insulated and sealed, while previously the buildings were newly clad.

“If they do get potential players over the threshold, they feel they stand a good chance of turning them into bowlers. ‘When they come here, they see it’s not what they perceived’”

It’s John’s role to maintain the playing surfaces. The club has around 60 members and hosts nine teams, each playing 14 league matches per season. With county teams and Disability Bowls England also using the green for regional fixtures, the fescue and bent sward receives plenty of activity. An Allett cassette mower is used to cut and groom the surface, with regular employment of a Groundsman aerator and an array of tines depending on the season and need. A carefully chosen fertiliser programme is in operation (liquid for when bowling is imminent), supported by advice from Rigby Taylor. John undertook PA1 and PA6 training authorising him to apply any chemical sprays, and the club even bought its own theodolite to aid with topdressing (local Mansfield sand, of course) and levelling during the annual renovations. As if these weren’t tasks enough, John also cuts the football pitches with his Kubota ride-on mower.

MEETING THE CHALLENGES The big question, however, is how they manage to afford all this given the challenging times that bowling clubs seem to have endured in recent years? Patrick confirms that it is a difficult environment for the sport at present, reeling off a number of local club closures from a once flourishing total of 47, just in Ashfield. He explains that it is changing demographics that hinder the game’s development and provides a fascinating insight of how alterations to the way we live, work and play have impacted participation. In the 1960s and ‘70s, he says, the local coal mines provided a steady stream of newly retired people, keen to remain active and take up a competitive sport. They were aided by those leaving other industries, where 30 years’ service might have been reached and work pensions could support a lot of people still in relatively good health. Now people work longer, the demands on them have changed and bowls is not the only game in town. Allied to this is the difficulty in selling the sport to youth.

“We can attract kids,” says John, “but not enough.” It’s a point echoed by Patrick: “Trying to get young ones involved is hard,” particularly given the TV coverage of sports such as cricket that have been updated to appeal to new audiences. “Indoor bowls is mostly what you see on TV; maybe outdoor bowls once every four years when the Commonwealth Games are held,” John adds. And yet if they do get potential players over the threshold, they feel they stand a good chance of turning them into bowlers. “When they come here, they see it’s not what they perceived.”

TOP: The function rooms host many non-bowling activities BOTTOM LEFT: Beehives add to the sense of shared enterprise RIGHT: John uses a Kubota ride-on to cut the football pitches

PRIVILEGED POSITION Yet the club is thriving to such an extent that it is able to keep memberships at £20 a year for bowlers (free for the juniors they crave) and only £1 per match. They raise funds to donate to local causes, such as a hospital scanner appeal, and feel they would struggle to know what to do with any sudden windfall. John acknowledges that “we are privileged here”.

It is a combination of the very good relationship they have with Peveril Homes (to which the club pays a peppercorn rent), the freely given

“This sense of shared enterprise with the community extends to other areas. There are solar panels on the clubhouse roof, bringing free electricity, and there are beehives to the side of the green”

efforts of club members and the facilities that were the legacy of the Pretty Polly company that a number of those volunteers worked for. The function room in particular plays host to many activities far removed from bowling. Line dancing, a model flying club and a tabletop games night all attract enthusiasts who in turn support the provision of the facility. It is a sustainable model of community activity likely to be the ideal standard of local authorities pursuing asset transfers.

This sense of shared enterprise with the community extends to other areas. There are solar panels on the clubhouse roof – thanks to a contribution from Eon – that benefit the club with an annual remuneration and free electricity, and there are beehives to the side of the green. The club also hosts a RAF benevolent day and there is a memorial bench for SAC (senior aircraftman) Andy Hallam, a young serving relative of John’s who was sadly killed in a road accident. His colleagues at RAF Wittering may now be based all over the country, such is the nature of their roles, but once a year they reunite on the football pitch to raise money and remember their friend, raising £19,000 to date.

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For more on all the award winners see www.thegma.org.uk/awards

POLLY BOWLS CLUB’S SCHEDULE OF WORKS

Maintenance activities vary depending on the time of year, but in the playing season the volunteers:

Cut at least three times a week Spike with pencil tines every third week Apply magnesium/calcium and potassium every month to alleviate any deficiencies highlighted by soil analysis Apply wetting agents and liquid feed every month.

At the end of the playing season there is a schedule of scarifying, solid tine aeration, over seeding, top dressing and levelling, and an autumn/ winter granular feed is applied. Aeration with chisel tines continues throughout the winter, plus cutting when the weather permits. If needed, a fungicide would be applied in the winter.

In the spring, prior to the start of the season, a mosskiller is used if needed and the green is scarified then a slow-release granular fertiliser is applied. Cluster tines are used to help relieve any compaction and ensure the green is free draining – changing to pencil tines for use throughout the summer playing season.