• Old flattened worm casts which had created small bare patches
• Some course procumbent bentgrass, mainly on lawn 5

1. A dressing of the weed and feed in stock should be delayed until the lawns had been rewet and softened by a reasonable amount of rain. The fertiliser should then be spread evenly at the recommended rate in subsequent showery weather.
2. Continue to lightly verticut (scarify) once a month, but only if good growth is taking place (suspend during any prolonged hot dry spells).
3. Continue cutting at 7mm but do not hesitate to raise the mowing height temporarily to 8mm if the grass is under stress in any long hot dry spells.
4. Worn areas around hoops or larger areas of flattened worm casts need to be pricked with the nailboard and the some topdressing containing grass seed hand rubbed into the prepared surface. Make sure you maintain levels. Some direct topdressing could also go ahead on any small localised low areas to build up the surface
5. An autumn/winter feed will be needed in late September/early October.
6. The levelling work on lawn 2 and 4 needs to be done by a contractor in early/mid October. I will talk to a couple of small companies about this and ask for a price. The latter could be significantly reduced and the job speeded up if a party of club members could assist (wheelbarrowing soil etc.).

• Occasional mowing as necessary to remove any excessive growth made during mild spells. The Dennis mower should be set at 10mm at this time of the year never letting the grass grow any longer than 13-14mm
• During dry spells, disperse the worm casts which are such a nuisance at this time of the year. Use the drag mat or the back of a springbok rake.
• Probably it will be necessary to apply some autumn/winter fertiliser in late February if suitable conditions prevail to try and boost early growth and grass density for the first tournament (which is particularly in 2008).
• When growth hopefully improves in March slowly reduce the mowing height to 7-8mm and then eventually 6-7mm in April.

Barbara Dutton, Walter Flattery, Geoff Whitaker, Roy Berry, Hugh Armitage and Abdul Ahmad.

Geoff Whitaker brought 10 bags of sharp sand for the job in his trailer. A large army of volunteers turned out with their garden forks ready to address the drainage problems at corner 1 of Lawn 5.

The soft ground conditions forced change in the approach. It wasn't feasible to spike the ground with garden forks and fill the resulting holes with sharp sand.

Instead slits 9 inch apart were made in the turf approximately 5 inches deep. The resulting trenches were filled with sharp sand. The worked area was roughly smoothed over with a rake. Finally it was spiked with the fork. Hopefully the rain and frost will level the ground over the coming months.

Abdul Ahmad.

Abdul Ahmad.

Cut and removed approximately 20 cm squares of worn turf at hoop positions. Cut similar sized turf from outside the lawn boundary and patched up the worn areas. Scarified hoop areas with a garden rake.Scattered some seeds and lightly top dressed the worked areas.
Finally applied 1.25 bags of autumn fertilizer on the lawn.

Abdul Ahmad.

Scarified hoop areas and corner 2 on lawn 2 with a garden rake. Scattered some seeds and lightly top dressed the worked areas.
Finally applied 1.25 bags of autumn fertilizer on the lawn.

Abdul Ahmad.

The two lawns were mowed with the Dennis set at 9mm. The conditions were reasonably firm on the ground and made mowing realtively easy.
4.5 bags of the autumn fertilzer were then evenly spread on the two lawns.

Walter Flattery and Abdul Ahmad.

The lawn was scarified twice in the prescribed fashion. The wet conditions made the job difficult. The scarifying cassette clogged up with mud and had to be regularly cleaned. A wheelbarrow full of debris was removed once on every single trip up and down the width of the lawn.

Walter Flattery, Geoff Whitaker, Abdul Ahmad, Mike Roberts and Liz Wilson

a) Seeds scattered on the remainder of the lawn;
b) Topdressing spread thinly over the seeded area; and,
c) The drag mat was used to work in the topdressing.

Walter Flattery, Geoff Whitaker and Abdul Ahmad.

a) Seeds scattered on one third of the lawn;
b) Topdressing spread thinly over the seeded area; and,
c) The drag mat was used to work in the topdressing.

* The spring fertiliser has been applied (with the exception of a narrow strip along the western side – which I will complete next weekend). Dependent upon weather conditions, there should be adequate growth from this fertilising for 6-8 weeks.

* Probably about mid May the Lawns should be given some more fertiliser but this time combined with weedkiller, i.e. a weed and feed product. Purchase of this dressing is in hand.

* 10 tons of top dressing has been ordered and will arrive before the end of the month. The aim should be to give each lawn about 750 Kg of this dressing, thoroughly working in the top dressing with the dragmat that has been ordered (again due to be delivered over the next few days).

* My advice is to try and rotate usage of the Lawns so that one Lawn is normally out of play to allow work such as topdressing, localised overseeding etc to proceed unhindered. A brief rest would also help worn uneven areas around the hoops to recover. Obviously for particular matches/tournaments all Lawns may need to be in use.

* As growth improves over the next few weeks, the mowing height should be gradually reduced to 6- 7mm.


* Worm casts should become les of a problem as the surfaces become a little drier (then the worms will move deeper into the soil for moisture and there will be less casting on the surface). However, there may be a need for some localised wormkilling if the casts remain prolific and persistent (there is some dichlorophen based wormkiller available).

* When bags of fertiliser or topdressing are delivered it would help if they could be covered with a tarpaulin. Even the slightest pinprick of a polythene bag allows moisture to penetrate, indeed many fertilisers are hydroscopic (that is they actually attract moisture, “cake” and become hard and difficult to spread). There may be a case to consider some kind of lean-to building for storage of materials?

* Equipment should be properly washed down after use to prolong machinery life/efficiency.