December 19th
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After an early cup of bovril the first batch of mulled wine was christened. Mince pies and hot sausage rolls were also on the menu. Bernard started the stove to heat up a "sausage log" and started the second batch of mulled wine. Clubhouse has aroma of Christmas! Just about to run out of warm mulled wine when TT arrived with another flask to keep us going!
Happy Xmas and a prosperous new year to all from SWC. |
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December 5th
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On a very cold morning the usual crew turned out - with an extra guest - Sparky TT. Exterior windows are now undercoated and ready for gloss finish. Front of pavilion has now been creosoted to match the rest of the pavilion etc. More leaves were swept up and added to the bonfire pile. This could be a regular task as three of the oak trees have still to shed there leaves, which are still green. Perhaps we have evergreen oaks! Conduit and cabling have been added to the verandah in readiness for lighting.
Still awaiting weather to break to allow further treatment to green. |
November 28th
Green brushed clean of surface water, leaves cleared, green cut and woodwork around windows puttied and polyfillered. Awaiting delivery of some timber to add shelves in new verandah area. 2 pallets of green treatment have been delivered to the car park. When weather is not as wet the dressing will be applied to green.
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November 14th
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Another busy day! Windows and frames now have all paint burnt off. Rotton wood removed and filled in. Benches have now been moved and are under cover. Plant pots also moved. The new verandah is finished and will be used to house some of the benches etc over the winter months. A shelf is to be added to the front of the new facility.
Green was cleared of leaves and other winter debris. Still awaiting top soil delivery. |
November 7th
A busy day for the crew. Windows completely stripped of paint. All creosoting looks finished. Primer applied to bare woodwork. Green mowed, outside grass cut and last weeks debris from the green moved to compost corner. More leaves swept up.
Contractors have started work on the "verandah" |
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October 31st
Work party day moved back to Wednesday as no games (!)and convenience for the guys. Contractors scarrified and hollow tined the green, while more paintwork was stripped from window panes. More creosote applied to club house.
October 18 and 25th
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No work on the green, but clubhouse is been given some attention. Window frames are being made ready for repainting. Outside walls have been given a coating of wood preserve and most of the surrounds have been weeded and swept free of dead leaves.
4 sq metres of sports turf have been bought and collected from Rolawn in Nether Whitacre. This turf will be used to repair the green. |
October 4th
Green scarrified (again), mown, treated against worms and fertilised in readiness for winter.
September 27thOnly two of us here today but much work done in ideal autumn conditions. Green scarrified to help let air into the grass roots and remove dead grass. For those that are interested over 10 mower buckets were removed from the green!
Green mown and surrounds were also tidied up and the area looks picture postcard perfect! Other good news was that DM provided the doughnuts but had to leave early leaving KR & BM to share all 5 doughnuts! |
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July 26thHedge trimming started - look at the ladder substitute!
Green mown and watered in certain areas. Surrounds tidied |
June 29th
Despite very heavy thunderstorms - a fair bit was achieved on and around the green today. Green was completely underwater at 10:00am The cricket pitch kept up a steady supply of water to test the ditches. These struggled but succeeded. Unfortunately the drain that feeds the irrigation gulleys was not as clever as was blocked with a few years of tree debris. Once cleared up during thunderstorm #1 the rain water steadily started to disappear. Work was started on the green to reseed the patches before thunderstorm #2 came down. This storm lasted for 45 minutes or so and completely covered all the green for the second time in 2 hours.
An hour later most of the water had dissappeared and reseeding was restarted. Surplus water was pumped off the green to enable an attempt to cut of the green later. Pavillion guttering was also cleaned out in between the wet spells. A new step to replace the temporary one was created. This step is to allow the mower easy access to the green Green cut twice in the sunshine and was almost bone dry!! |
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Video (low quality) of the days 2nd storm.
1st June
Selective slittting (heavy scarrifying) of green done, and seeded after - because both Saturday teams away tomorrow. Green will look better after proper cut.
31st May
Some of fence creosoted, surrounds mown, green hand scariffied and cut twice resulting in the removal of 7 buckets of clippings.
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25, 26 & 27th May
Green cut every day, improving the surface in readiness for Saturday W&W game and Sundays ladies county game. All hard work worth it as W&W team beat top of the table team Royal Oak and the Ladies have a resounding win on Sunday afternoon. Photos for Ladies game are available here
24th May
Green has been manually scarrified - Hard work in about 25 deg of sun! Another 6 buckets of clippings removed, beating recently set record, for the year, a couple of days ago!
22nd May
One week after the hail storm the temperature is now mid 20 deg C. Green is cut twice - removing 3 buckets of clippings. This has not happened for some time!. Recent prolonged wet weather and now wall to wall sunshine is really encouraging the grass to grow.
15th MayAn attempt to scarrify the green was made today but unfortunately the machine was being tempermental! Abit od success was had and parts of the green were "scratched"! Blades were lowered to .25" and green mown. Two severe hailstorms hampered any further work.
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11th AprilGreen scarrified,and cut.
Excess slabs moved to out of harms way Concrete added to enhance the equipment shed ramp Two little helpers were about the green today |
4th April
Snow, sleet and rain curtailed most of the planned work!
28th MarchSlab laying completed plus green scarrified with a domestic machine! Green cut
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7th MarchAn extra body was welcomed today - no less than our Hon Sec - Thanks Rob
Green was verti-drained, cut and treated for moss. This means that the green will not be bowlable till about the 17th March. Despite early morning heavy rain, slab laying was continued with. Fixtures and fittings were also moved with in the paviliion. |
29th FebAfter last weeks wet weather, work was continued on slab laying and some more finishing touches were applied to kitchen in the pavillion which currently looks like a carpenters work shop.
22nd FebWeather very wet and quite blustery. More kitchen unit fitting. Shifted 31 slabs from car park to club in readiness for laying.
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8th Feb
1st Feb
No slab laying was possible as sand frozen. Brian constructs a device to help flatten sand to ensure slabs will be laid flat.
25th Jan
A lesson in slab laying was given to last weeks two apprentices (Keith & Rob) by the master craftsman (Phil). All last weeks slabs were lifted and relaid properly with a new datum line. If the two apprentice layers had been left to carry on, the slabbed area would have been not much better than the ones that had been taken up!
18th Jan
11th Jan
1st meet of the new year. The remains of 3 tonne of sand is moved from car park - to be used to bed replaced paving stones, The green is given its first trim of the year. The first batch of new slabs are transported from the car park to the work area.