By David Steele
Yesterday, together with Paul Robinson, I joined the five regular members of the Green team of Bill Gray, Paul Harris, Geoff Newman, Chris Bowen and Joe Shacklady. I thought it useful to provide an update to the wider membership.
Firstly, nobody should be in any doubt as to the dedication and hard work that these gentlemen undertake on a regular basis on behalf of all the members within our Club.
The Green Team all appreciate the need to improve the speed of our Green for next year, and are putting in place a plan to do so. We are also reassessing the contract with the external contractor (currently DGM) to establish if we can set speed criteria for them to work towards achieving.
Out on the Green, we verti-cut the grass in two directions and then mowed it twice. The amount of grass and thatch removed was astounding. This took seven of us over four hours. I understand this is only the first, very initial, step to increase the speed of the Green for next year. With further scarifying and aeration planned again before the growing season ends, and repeating the process in the Spring, we should all see the benefit. Further help during this period would be appreciated. Depending on weather conditions, and subject to further volunteers offering to help on an ad hoc basis, this will be repeated throughout the forthcoming season.
Not having assisted the Green team with physical labour myself previously, I have now experienced, and appreciate the extent of their strenuous efforts. Due to the weight and speed of the equipment, I found even keeping the machines running in a straight line challenging – certainly far harder than my domestic lawn mower at home! My already high opinion of them has risen further as I saw, first hand, a small ‘taster’ of what they achieve.
Before criticising the speed of the Green and, by association, the work undertaken throughout the season, first consider whether you are prepared, or able. to step forward to help take on some of these roles or, subject to obtaining quotes, whether you wish to have your membership fee increased significantly (to around £200) to cover the cost of outsourcing more of these tasks. The size of the Green Team needs to increase, even if only to undertake the more labour intensive operations on a monthly basis, and I look forward to hearing from those able to help.