Two great adverts for Winter bowling

Winter League

I had two big moments regarding Winter bowling on Thursday this week. The first was from Jim Baxter at Milnsbridge BC. He sent me an email about the state of their green and included three photographs all included below.

Jeff - I am sending you three photos of the Milnsbridge green and watering system.

The green has never been in better condition in the last ten years or so.

In my opinion this proves that if the bowling green is maintained properly, winter bowling does not have a detrimental effect. Some of the profit from Winter catering went towards the cost of installing the sprinkler system.

Used properly, this has also helped the green to be in good order all year round.

I realise that using the green in Winter is a worry for some clubs but in our experience it is not detrimental if maintaining the surface is carried out.

I was interested in your comments about the social impact and combating loneliness. This was stated on our grant application for our watering system. The charity also felt the Winter bowling would attract spectators and this has proved true at every venue.

It is worth adding to Jim's email the fact that the Milnsbridge green supports two Winter League competitions with the one-division competition staged every Friday through the Winter months as well as the Winter League Division 1 games played every Wednesday. It is also worth noting that the Milnsbridge green hasn't had a rest for over 6 years now as it has seen a continual sequence of Summer and Winter bowling seasons. Grass is a wonderfully resilient product and after the drought and hosepipe ban over the Summer has returned to provide year-round surfaces to satisfy all demands placed upon it.

The three Milnsbridge photos are below and are followed by my second big moment of Thursday at Netherton Con.

The second big moment of Thursday for me was being at Netherton Con for our very first Open Day when we were working hard to encourage potential new host green clubs to learn what Winter bowling is all about.

The sun was shining. There were 60 people on and around the green. The green was exemplary. There couldn't have been a better advertisement for Winter bowling. We had a team of 6 to welcome potential host clubs to the presentation we had prepared. Unfortunately, no team representatives turned up. Not to worry, we have had bigger setbacks than that over the last 6 years. Here are some more photographs of the Netherton Con green taken by Bob Haigh to showcase another wonderfully kept winter bowling green.