BOWLSBANTER

... what’s happening

arrived to play with only three bowls in his bag but was very kindly helped by Pieter who scurried around the bowels of the Kowie clubhouse to find him a full set of bowls to play with. After being well down at the halfway stage, Ken and Ruth staged a great comeback to lead by one shot with one end to play but Pieter and Margaret picked up two shots on the last end to win and progress to the final. Well done to Ruth and Ken and thank you to Pieter and Margaret for your great friendship.

Lots of bowls happening this week with internal club competitions, Bess Tweedie and Kenton/Kowie and Social Saturday all coming up, we look forward to seeing you on the greens and please feel free to join us in the clubhouse for some refreshments afterwards. Club duties (April 29 - May 5): Tabs - Ruth Low, Bar Addie Wolf and Lee Slater.

Dates to remember (April 29 - May 5): 2nd - Bess Tweedie and Kenton/Kowie competitions at Kowie, 4th Social Saturday at Kenton.

Kowie Bowling Club

There is an old saying that anything that grows where you do not want it to grow is a weed. Weeds on a bowling green are an indication that your grass is under stress.

This could occur in June/July when wear on the green from the traffic is greater than the recuperative powers of the grass.

Our esteemed Department of Environmental Affairs has now decided that kweek grass (aka c. Dactylon, couch, Bermuda), what our “B” green is made of, is an invasive weed and cannot be propagated or sold. Anybody with a patch of this grass will have to obtain a permit (costing R100) to continue growing it. If the letter had been dated April 1 I would have accepted it, but it was for real.

C. Dactylon is a warm season grass found mainly in the southern hemisphere.

In 1949 when I started green keeping I was told by an old green keeper that if you walked from Durban to Oranjemund every second step you took you would be stepping on a c. Dactylon.

I have read many articles on the origin of grasses and some Americans claimed that c. Dactylon was first discovered in Bermuda and only later found in other parts of the Southern Hemisphere. It was imported to the USA where to-day c. Dactylon covers 3,640 hectares of their greens, mainly on golf courses in the southern states – some weed!

Our farmers refer to the grass growing in the high rainfall areas as sour-kweek while the grass growing in the semi-arid regions as sweet-kweek. I wonder if they will also be expected to get a permit for the grass growing naturally on their veld. Anyway appeals have now been lodged and we can only hope that common sense will prevail. Strangely enough the finer c. Transvalensis (Bayview – our “A” green) is recognised as a purely South African specie.

The wonderful rains had everyone smiling except those who had looked forward to an afternoon of bowls last Tuesday. By Thursday many were suffering from withdrawal symptoms and although the green was slow and heavy they all enjoyed themselves. In the end those with the strongest arms came out on top.

Congrats to Bryan Burger, Keith Benson, and Roland von Gericke who earned themselves a visit to Ocean Basket.

Big weekend at Kowie with us hosting the finals of the EA Mixed Pairs and the second round of the Moore Shield / Colleen Timm Cup. With four teams out of seven qualifiers from Kowie there was always a good chance that Kowie teams would contest the final-of the EA Pairs - and that is what happened. We saw some very good bowls with some good teams losing where they should not have lost.

In the final analysis it was the superior green craft which determined the winner when Grumpy Enslin and