21st September, 2009
It looks as though 22 members will be going through to Havelock North Bowling Club on Thursday to play against their club members. This should not only gives us a nice day out playing bowlers from another club but will be a chance to play on a new surface so that we will be able to assess its qualities which could be important if at some time in the future, the replacement of our artificial green arises.
Ken Hayward had been interested in the origin of artificial surfaces and has done some research on the internet and below you can read an article he has written about the topic. Thanks Ken.
Artificial Sports Surfaces
The earliest artificial sports surfaces were developed in the USA as a response to the need to have playing surfaces for baseball and American football which required little irrigation, low maintenance costs and were suitable in colder climates where growing grass year round was a problem.
The first artificial turf was created by a research team led by David Chaney at North Carolina State University’s College of Textiles in Raleigh, North Carolina in the early 1960s. This led to the laying of Astroturf, a product developed by Monsanto Chemicals, in the Houston Astrodome in 1965 as an indoor surface for field sports. Astroturf was laid in a number of Stadiums in the northern cities like Cincinnatti, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
In the UK in the 1980s some soccer clubs (e.g. Queens Park Rangers and Luton Town) put down Astroturf pitches. They were known as the plastic pitches and were unpopular with players and spectators because they were hard and unforgiving and led to grass burns and joint injuries and a high bouncing soccer ball. They were later banned by the world body FIFA and Europe’s UEFA and the clubs took up their pitches.
In the early years of this century new technology and the so-called third generation surfaces caused renewed interest, especially in northern Europe where cancellations of soccer matches due to frozen pitches has always been an issue. New pitches were laid by Dunfermline Athletic in Scotland and Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany in 2004, and in 2007 a European championship match between Russia and England was played on an artificial pitch for the first time. Earlier in 2009 another international match was held in Costa Rica on a similar surface.
The first artificial outdoor bowling green was laid in Cyprus by Dales UK in 1989.This green is still in good playing condition 20 years later. Many indoor bowling centres in the UK laid woven-carpet greens from the early 1990s and artificial greens are now well established in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.
Over time the surfaces on which bowls are played have evolved like this:
1 Natural grass greens – or cotula / maniototo greens in NZ
2 Synthetic grass – e.g. Astrograss, as at Levin Bowling Club
3 Woven Carpet greens – Greengauge ( in UK ) called Greenweave in NZ.
e.g. Heretaunga BC
4 Needle-punched Carpet greens – Dale’s Mastergreen called Pro-Grass
Plus in NZ e.g. Havelock North BC
The World Bowls Board is responsible for the quality of artificial greens around the world. They approve the type of turf used and set standards and ensure that their standards are met. The standards include the following factors – dimensions, Green speed, amount of draw, the evenness of the surface, the design system and the infiltration rate for water.
In NZ there are three companies that lay artificial greens: Dales NZ (Pro Green Plus), Tiger Turf (Greenweave) and Action Sports (Pro-Master).