Summer Sports - Tennis
conditions have been so
“2013 was one of the best in my time here for renovation because
warm and nicely moist”
favourable; Drastic, but hugely effective: Koro work on courts 4, 5 and 6
grass courts at the club. They are just where they were constructed 105 years ago and were coming through the latest end-of-season renovation period. Five months or more hibernation awaited. For three of the courts, 4, 5 and 6, this latest pick-up period had been different. At the end of September they were koroed, given a fresh Surrey loam topdressing, and laser levelled courtesy of R & K Kensett. The plan is to have all of them similarly upgraded to inject new life into them, but Steve chose the three furthest away for action first because they needed rectifying the most, especially in terms of the level. Since the work, which took a couple of days, the far corners have been raised by as much as 100mm. These should now be the best courts for play next season, reckons Steve. “Who knows what grass was originally in them?” he said. “Gradually, over the years, they have become 100 percent ryegrass and that’s how I reseed them annually.”
Leaf blowing: the prime job during the first half of the close season for the grass courts - a far from satisfying task!
“Leaf and debris blowing is a daily task and a lengthy one. It’s far from
satisfying, I’ve never seen so many acorns as this autumn”
56 PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014
Drainage is not a huge problem despite the London Clay base, though in mid-autumn the newly flourishing sward, boosted by Steve’s reseeding, was literally sitting in water from an extended period of rainfall. He was reluctant to do any cutting or spiking just then, but he’d be on it as soon as things dried out a bit. Steve’s winter programme for the grass courts is a simple one. Cut as much as possible and spike as much as possible, once reseeding has had time to develop. He will spike until say the end of January, and no more after that. He says that snow hasn’t ever been much of a problem because, being quite well into London, it thaws that bit faster. You have to let it disappear naturally though - no brushing or shovelling.
The club’s neighbour is the celebrated Sundridge Park Golf Club, but they are in no way connected. The boundary between them, along one side of six of the courts, is dominated by sizeable oak trees. I saw leaves and acorns in their thousands strewn across the grass, and many a twig from the windiest of
autumns for years.
Leaf fall dominates certainly the first half of the winter care programme for Steve. It’s a daily task and a lengthy one. He admits it’s far from satisfying and says he has never seen so many acorns as this autumn. He hates them. Each year, he spends up to two hours a day for the best part of three months just blowing leaves and tree debris.
The next stage of proposed upgrading is more than koroing the other three courts. It includes installing a new automatic watering system, new boundary fencing to replace the existing 70-year old one, and trimming the trees, perhaps taking them down all together. There are no TPOs, but the actual ownership may be in doubt, so the matter is unclear just yet.
In summer, Steve has no choice but to irrigate all of the eight grass courts using two small sprinklers. It can take him up to three hours per court to get the job properly done. The water pressure is quite low and each move takes up to an hour and a half just to get enough water to keep them growing well.
“Timed overnight watering would be so much more efficient and far less disruptive for members,” enthused Steve. “Hoses everywhere means mowing gets put on hold and court space is taken up. As things are, it’s not popular and a massive juggling act.”
He has acquired four quotes for designing and installing a six pop-up per court irrigation system to suit the site, and these range from £17,000 to £30,000. The matter is on hold at the moment alongside the possibility of digging much deeper into club funds and installing two more SmashCourts. Either way, 2014 is going to be an exciting time at the club - a watershed if it’s Steve’s preference.
Steve reckons 2013 was one of the best in his time there for renovation because conditions have been so favourable; warm and nicely moist. When we met, he was shortly going to apply what he called a normal granular autumn feed. In the
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