Summer Sports - Cricket & Bowls
due to lack of members, Carmarthenshire County Council’s bowling green in Llandovery is now being used by a newly-formed croquet club. Although upkeep did not stop when the bowls
club folded, the green has since been restored to a full maintenance schedule by the council’s grounds maintenance department
Following the closure of the town’s bowls club
Historically, the annual fee paid by users of sports facilities owned and maintained by the council has been low and not really economical in comparison with the subscriptions paid by users of private sports clubs
clubs, Carmarthenshire has also played host, over the years, to a good number of cricket teams as well as bowls and football clubs. Traditionally, many of the sports played on council-owned grounds were grouped together within one park, with a resident groundsman employed to prepare and keep the fine-turf summer sports surfaces in good shape throughout the year. These duties overlapped in late summer
and early spring with work on nearby winter sports pitches - primarily white- lining and goalmouth repairs. Regular mowing of the council’s thirty
football and fifteen rugby pitches during the main growing season was carried out by tractor and gangmower or by ride-on machines, visiting on a ten to fourteen day
cycle which included also the mowing of cricket outfields, parks, school playing fields and other large public open spaces. Winter mowing was undertaken as and when needed, depending on the weather and level of grass growth. The system worked well, with the eleven
council-employed resident groundsmen taking a real competitive pride in the parks and sports facilities under their personal care and supervision. However, the global financial crisis of late 2008 and 2009, and subsequent economic downturn, resulted in the spotlight being focused sharply on the cost of providing local authority services throughout Britain, with no exemption for Carmarthenshire. “Historically, the annual fee paid by users of sports facilities owned and maintained
”
by the council has been low and not really economical in comparison with the subscriptions paid by users of private sports clubs,” commented Gareth Howells, assistant grounds maintenance manager with Carmarthenshire County Council, based at the council’s main Trostre depot in Llanelli. A former bowls greenkeeper with Llanelli
Borough Council, Gareth has been in his current position for eighteen years, reporting to the council’s grounds manager, Paul Murray. Giving an example of the disparity
between income and expenditure, Gareth pointed out that an annual season ticket for a full member of a bowling club playing on one of the fourteen greens owned and maintained by Carmarthenshire County
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