Golf
THE Isles of Scilly (Enesek Syllan in Cornish) form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula.
Since 1890, the Islands have had a local authority separate from Cornwall’s, but some services were combined and the islands are still part of the ceremonial county of Cornwall; the authority has otherwise had the status of a county council since the passing of the Isles of Scilly Order 1930. The council is currently known as the Council of the Isles of Scilly.
The adjective “Scillonian” is sometimes used for people or things related to the archipelago. The Duchy of Cornwall owns most of the freehold land on the islands. Tourism plays a major part in the local economy, along with farming and agriculture.
There are five inhabited islands - St Mary’s (1,666 inhabitants), Tresco (180), St Martin’s (142), Bryher (92) and St Agnes (73), plus numerous other small rocky islets (around 140 in total) lying 28 miles off Land’s End. They are all composed of granite rock of early Permian age, an exposed part of the Cornubian batholith.
The islands’ position produces a place of great contrast - the ameliorating effect of the sea, greatly influenced by the North Atlantic Current, means they rarely have frost or snow, which allows local farmers to grow flowers well ahead of those in mainland Britain, the chief product being daffodils.
Exposure to Atlantic winds also means that spectacular winter gales lash the islands from time to time. This is reflected in the landscape, most clearly seen on Tresco where the lush sub-tropical Abbey Gardens on the sheltered southern end of the island contrast with the low heather and bare rock sculpted by the wind on the exposed northern end.
As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose sea thrift (Armeria maritima) as the “county flower” of the islands.
L-r: Bill Pender, Garfield Ellis and Derek Metcalfe 24 PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
In just the short time we have been into the volunteer scheme, we’ve had a two extreme summers - last year with torrential rain and this year with drought conditions. Even then though, the look of the course can change in the blink of an eye. Some days I can look at the course and go wow, we did that, but within minutes it can look completely different. I give the management committee a course report every month on the work we have been able to do and what we hope to be able to do in the following month.
I will start work on preparing three temporary greens soon so all the members will be informed about our work programme for autumn. In the winter, we hope to start enlarging the ladies tees as most of them are too small. We will need a digger and driver if we proceed, but the driver will come from in-house, i.e. a member.
In my past employment, I was a health and safety rep for the union UCAAT, so I have undertaken risk assessments for all
the machinery used on the course, and we do try to keep up with legislation, but I’m sure there are things we miss, as we have discovered in the past. We do hire in a qualified spray contractor for pesticides and herbicides, who uses our spray equipment and tractor. As for ‘washing down’ the machinery, we use a compressed air gun! It works for us.
Garfield is our workshop technician and engineer and he takes on as many tasks as he can cope with. If we have a large breakdown, it means we may have to outsource as we have no pit in our workshop and the work can be heavy. Most of our equipment is either second hand or demo models, and we buy from people we have a good history with; we only get one chance, as all our machinery has to be shipped to the islands. We get a lot of help from contacts in Cornwall in sourcing what we need but, at the end of the day, we just have to buy what we can afford. A lottery win would help; I could then buy all new equipment to last this
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