Although the regional lawn bowls pennant competition season has recently ended, the Milang Bowling Club has nevertheless been busy with post-season activities, including an upgrade project for the main A-green, and a combined Presentation Night and AGM. Greenkeeper Greg Bowen is a finalist for the Bowls SA Volunteer Green Keeper of the Year 2023-2024 award. At the AGM, Club President Brian Patterson on behalf of all playing members expressed deep appreciation for the hard work and long hours expended by Greg to ensure the A-green remains one of the most popular and highly praised playing surfaces in the region. Most of the regional bowling surfaces are artificial turf. Lawn playing surfaces require significantly more time and effort to prepare for competition bowling. Visiting bowlers always praise the playing surface.
Greg Bowen put together a green upgrade project team of playing members who all have a vested interest in making sure the A-green is a top-quality playing surface when competition starts again in October. A coring machine contractor first cored the entire green surface. The A-green upgrade project required that once the topsoil had been spread over the surface of the green, it had to be manually levelled to ensure the topsoil filled the coring holes and began to filter into the lawn. Overseeing this important levelling task was Kevin Newton who has experience of upgrading greens and is one of the clubs’ top bowlers. The project support team included Bill Butlin, Alan Robertson, Paul Price, and Peter Miller. It was a hot day and the work played havoc with old backs and knees, but supervisor Kevin used a whip to keep the wheelbarrow loads of topsoil coming.
Once the topsoil was manually levelled it was then further compacted using a scooter to drag the heavy leveller over the surface. Next step, energetic Greenkeeper Greg Bowen spread fertilizer over the entire green before the team arranged the sprinklers and began soaking the topsoil into the lawn. At this point, Club Treasurer, and top womens’ bowler, Lee Robinson on behalf of a grateful Club generously provided cold beer and nibbles to the exhausted
