Green light near for damaged green
The Bowls Tahunanui green damaged by a wayward driver is nearing the last stage of its restoration.
Last July, the club had an unwelcome guest in the shape of a stolen car driven by a 15-year-old boy that ploughed through the club’s fence and across its synthetic green.
The resulting damage required a full replacement.
Bowls Tahunanui greenkeeper John Williscroft said the club was now just waiting for results from the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute that evaluated the replacement surface on March 24.
The evaluation included rigorous World Bowls Performance Standards measurements.
That involved ‘‘ hundreds of tests’’ such as measuring roll distance, the curve of the roll and surveying every two metres of the 36.6 square metres of green.
‘‘All that has to be stuffed into the computer, and the computer will say, ‘Yes, perfect’.’’
The club replaced the green’s turf only seven years ago, costing about $125,000.
This time around insurance covered the $150,000 bill with an excess of $380 paid out by the club.
Williscroft said synthetic greens normally had a life of 15 to 20 years.
Bowls Tahunanui has two greens, the synthetic surface and a weed green, so it could keep operating after the crash.
Williscroft said while the weed green was unable to be played on during winter, the club only ‘‘lost a portion’’ of the damaged green, allowing bowlers to continue playing on the unaffected portion.
Williscroft said the airborne car had landed about six metres from the edge of the bowling green, its wheels tearing out four chunks.
The damaged area was ‘‘quite small’’ but he compared it to replacing carpet at home.
‘‘Unless you’ve got a piece exactly the same in the shed at home, you can never replace it because it’s always going to look a slightly different colour.’’
With the entire turf replaced by insurance, the club used $12,000 of its own money to carpet the top of the green.
‘‘So we have a lovely artificial surface all the way to the fence line and it just looks so good.’’
Bowls Tahunanui received a letter of apology from the driver of the car, who suffered serious leg injuries in the crash, and an offer to help repair the turf.
Williscroft said helping the club out wouldn’t be necessary.
‘‘Get himself tidied up, that’s all we hope.’’