Posted on by paulfelton

Now THAT’S What I Call A Croquet Court

(The Trials And Tribulations Of Lawn Maintenance)

After an enforced six-day closure of the lawns at Stoney Ley, the club is now open for the resumption of play.

After a battle with the elements and frustrating equipment breakdowns, Jon Carrington completed the mammoth clean-up operation after the lawns were recently hollow tined.

Tining is the physical remove of turf cores from a playing surface to allow compacted turf to expand and allow air and moisture to be absorbed more readily. The process is essential in order to keep the Broadwas lawns healthy.

Jon fought heavy rain, winds and several breakdowns of mowers and tractor over the six days but completed the task after a decent day of fine weather and two trips to a mower retailer to source spare parts to effect another repair.

The club enlisted outside help to carry out the tining process.
The turf cores – many thousands of them – had to be cleared after the tining process.
The turf cores had to be blown into neat lines so the collecting machine could gather them up without being
crushed between the wheels of the tractor. Then the rain moved in and the cores were too heavy to collect.
Day 2. The rain moves in AND the tractor pulling a trailer refuses to start.
Jolly though it was, the rainbow didn’t herald the arrival of finer weather. The day was abandoned,
The Broadwas Croquet Club Committee inspected the lawns during their meeting. Jon had to abandon work over the weekend after a crucial bolt sheared on the collecting machine.
A reasonable spell of fair weather meant Jon could press on with collecting the turf debris.
Jon carries out a final inspection and replaces the hoops.
Now, you could almost imagine playing croquet on the lawns!