‘THAT ADMIRABLE OLD ENGLISH GAME OF BOWLS"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 22 June 1936, Page 10

‘THAT ADMIRABLE OLD ENGLISH GAME OF BOWLS"

TURF RESEARCHES That admirable old English game of bowls, of good historic flavour, should be much encouraged by the discoveries of the research workers of Bingley Hall in Yorkshire (says “The London Spectator”). They are chiefly supported by golf clubs, as their title, the Board of Greenkeeping Research suggests for though there are village greens where cricket is played, golf has purloined the world in any technical reference. Nevertheless the work of this committee is of concern to all who play any game on grass or even those who regard grass as a tapis vert, a part of the ornamental structure of a garden. Nov/ nothing has arrested the growth of bowls so much as the expense of turf; and not seldom this turf, transplanted in an alien environment, has degenerated and been supplanted by local grasses. Several hundred pounds have beert spent in vain. It is now claimed that by the aid of certain New Zealand grasses in association with our own finer grasses (such as sheep’s fescue) a bowling green of the highest truth and delicacy may be secured for a comparatively small sum and within the space of as little as 18 months. The maintenance of such a lawn, inhabited only by the finer sorts of grass, depends a good deal on the acidity of the soil. The coarser grasses delight in lime (which is the great anti-acid) the finer .grasses flourish in its absence,