The Groundsman January 2017

Page 20

IOG BEST PRACTICE

THE DYNAMIC DUO! Husband and wife volunteer greenkeepers Rod and Sandra Smale have made dramatic improvements to Potters Bar Bowls Club’s green in a relatively short time – partly by applying a natural approach to turf care and also by developing some clever home-made equipment

R By Colin Hoskins Features editor

20 THE GROUNDSMAN January 2018

od and Sandra Smale weren’t exactly twiddling their thumbs during their retirement. Their free-range chickens and vegetable plots, for example, at home in St Albans saw to that. “But we wanted to do something else,” says Sandra, “and a friend suggested we spend a weekend at the Potters Resort in Norfolk to learn ballroom dancing. We didn’t get on too well with the waltz, foxtrot and quickstep but, being at Potters – an established bowls venue with indoor and outdoor rinks – we tried a game of bowls and were hooked. When we got home we immediately joined the local bowls club and on our first day were asked to play in a match! “But I wanted to find out more about the sport and, by accident, signed up for a coaching course,” says Sandra [who subsequently gained accreditation as a senior coach and regional umpire]. “We also soon realised that the green we were playing on was less than ideal.” The club’s mowers had packed up and,

drawing on his design and engineering expertise, Rod salvaged parts from the various models and built a ‘new’ one that worked. “I had been suffering with a back problem,” remembers Rod, “and, curiously, found that mowing actually helped my condition. I started mowing the surrounds, then the club asked if I would cut the green. That was the start of it all.” Sandra continues: “We gradually started to find out more about greenkeeping by contacting the local (Hertfordshire) county greenkeepers’ forum and attending various events. We learned a lot from the county greens advisor and from Mark Ellis, at that time a salesman for a range of greenkeeping products. He popped in to see us and gave his advice, which has stuck with us. His ‘natural approach’ views mirrored our own outlook – for example, the ‘fruits’ of our garden means that we are largely self-sufficient at home during the summer months. “We also signed up for a number of Institute of Groundsmanship courses for the Preparation and Maintenance of Flat


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The Groundsman January 2017 by Grounds Management Association - Issuu