All posts by Patricia Erwin

Club Members, Club Projects, Volunteer Work

Sitting Pretty

“ Another One Bites the Dust! ” (to quote a Sander)

By 2017, the 20 or so benches surrounding green had fallen into serious disrepair. These benches dated back to the early 1960s and showed evidence of having been painted at least a half dozen times.. More significantly, the wood seats were rotting. So, the rotting seats were demolished and the steel standards sanded back to bare metal. New redwood seating and fresh paint on the standards made them good as new. Every few years the redwood is maintained with a light sanding and a new coat of stain.

Old bench c. 2017
The first staining (before assembly)

Thanks to our enthusiastic crew of volunteers, our wonderful benches are stained and look great.  On Wednesday morning March 25 the Sanding Crew—Ben Corson, Patricia Erwin, and Ben Steinberg—under the tutelage of our in-house pro Janie Hillyer, finished all of the benches in an hour (a club record).

Ben Corson
Sanding Crew
Ben Steinberg

Not to be outdone on Friday March 27 the Staining Crew—Ann Brillhart, Ben Corson, Cathy Dinnean, Leslie Engler, Patricia Erwin, Stephen Harris, and Martin Kershaw—under the sharp eye of our other in-house pro Judy Hillyer, finished the staining in just over an hour (surely another club record). Another win for the volunteerism movement in the BLBC and for our beautiful club.

Staining Crew (left-right): Patricia Erwin, Ann Brillhart, Ben Corson, Judy Hillyer, Martin Kershaw, Leslie Engler, Gary Samonsky, Cathy Dinnean, Stephen Harris

Staining Crew hard at work

Club Members

Aloha Berkeley

Four bowlers from BLBC escaped winter blues in February and flew to Honolulu for the annual Aloha Barefoot Bowls tournament.  The two teams from BLBC, July Hillyer and John Gardiner (dual/SFLBC) and Patricia Erwin and Janie Hillyer were joined by another PIMD bowler, Janee Hunt from Oakland LBC, and competed in a pool of 24 teams with bowlers coming from Australia, British Columbia and California, and of course Hawaii.  The beautiful setting of the green overlooking the Pacific Ocean and steps from a beach greeted us as we practiced and worked on adjusting to the green.  

Amigas in paradise
Amigas in paradise

Bowlers were broken into 2 different groups for the fun, social tournament with fast-paced 6 end 3-bowl pairs games.  On the third day the top 8 teams, which included Judy Hillyer and John Gardiner, came together for the finals.  The fast-paced games continued in the finals, and when the last bowl came to rest Judy and John took 3rd place, the only team to place in the top 4 that was not from Honolulu. Well done John and Judy!  The fun tournament with great food, lots of socialization and a luau was a great opportunity to meet bowlers from many different clubs and make some new bowling friends which came with invitations to join them at their greens. 

Hardship duty

Club Members, Volunteer Work

Surgery on the Green 

... and Other Green Maintenance Experiences

BLBC members may have observed an unusual, dark, and mossy patch in the northeast corner of the green. A few weeks ago, we aerated the area and applied a light dose of seed and sand to level the section and introduce new grass. The outer perimeter responded favorably, but the interior of the section appeared to deteriorate further.

Harvesting turf from the nursery
Removing turf from the green
Patching the nursery wound
Exposed wound on green

In consultation with Jose, we decided to perform surgical intervention on the green to remove and replace the affected area with bent grass from the nursery. Jose provided and sharpened a specialized tool resembling a cheese slicer, which enabled the removal of rolls of sod approximately 5 feet long and 10 inches wide from the nursery. The same process was employed in the impacted area on the green.

Upon removing the mossy patch from the green, we discovered a lump of dirt containing a redwood tree root. The root had a diameter of approximately 3 inches and was situated just below the green’s surface. Its removal was necessary. Jose collaborated with us to saw the root into two sections and extract it from beneath the mossy patch.

The exposed redwood root
laying nursery turf on the green
Post surgery patching
Root section removed

Subsequent steps involved the placement and leveling of sand, followed by the rolling out of the sod harvested from the nursery to patch the affected area. Light watering was applied to saturate the sand beneath, which will be continued for the next few days. The nursery area was also filled with plugs, sand, and seed to restore the removed section. We remain optimistic that the removal of the root and the installation of the new bent grass sod will yield positive results. In the interim, please exercise caution when bowling in the affected area.

Continue reading Surgery on the Green  →
Club Members, Tournaments

A Good Showing

Editor’s note: Bowling on San Jose’s new synthetic green is quite unlike bowling on grass. With fast speeds and pronounced draw, the synthetic green put our Berkeley bowlers to the test and they answered confidently.

The San Jose LBC Vet Novice Fours took place Saturday April 26. 

Eight teams participated and played four 10 end games of fours, two bowls for each of the four bowlers.  Bowlers from five PIMD clubs participated: Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto,  San Jose and Santa Clara. When all was said and done, Berkeley bowlers made up 5 of the 8 bowlers of the top 2 teams.  

The first place undefeated team (left to right) Leslie Marshall (San Jose), Reggie Banares (San Jose), Patricia Erwin (BLBC) and Janie Hillyer (BLBC) was undefeated.

The second place team (left to right) Ben Corson (BLBC), Bernadette Chang (BLBC), HC Yung (BLBC), and Mark Cooney (San Jose) lost just one game by a close score.

Judy Hillyer played on the fourth place team and was recognized as the MVP by their team skip.  Well done BLBC bowlers!.

Club Projects, Volunteer Work

The Nursery

Editor’s note: Ever wonder about the small Mini-Me bowling green next to the mat shed. Read on for greenskeeper Patrica Erwin’s glimpse into spring initiatives to keep our green in tip top condition.

Since the Spring ‘drill and fill’ workday various bowlers have asked the BLBC greenskeepers if we got some time off since the green was closed.  In fact, the work on the green has continued at a brisk pace, but with different tasks and more flexible timing while it was closed for bowling. 

Janie painstakingly dispatching Poa.

Following the drill and fill, the greenskeepers diligently dragged and swept the green daily. In a few areas, they filled holes one by one with sand. As the sand settled, regular watering was conducted to prevent the green from drying out due to the extensive sand distribution. Careful walking of the green was essential to search for and remove weeds, particularly during the spring season. In the photo, Poa (annual meadow grass) is being removed. Poa requires proactive control to prevent it from overrunning the green.

Grass in the nursery is well matched to our bowling green. It provides a source of turf for small transplanting operations.
Janie and Jose harvesting a thin layer of turf from the nursery.

Another specific area of focus is supporting challenging areas such as the western corners. In mid-April, the team harvested a section of the nursery to replace an approximately 3’x4’ area in the southwest corner. This process, sometimes humorously referred to as a ‘surgery’ on the green, involves delicately cutting a section from the nursery, peeling off the grass and roots, and then ‘grafting’ it into the green. The grafting process requires meticulous attention to detail, including carefully removing the damaged area and placing the new section from the nursery just so. It is then leveled with a layer of sand and seed to enhance its strength. We place wire nets over the grafted area to prevent critters from digging and to mark the area for daily misting to aid seed germination.

The completed transplant will be carefully watched and nurtured.

The nursery has also received recent care. Damaged areas that were excessively dry or mossy were removed and then refilled using some of the thousands of plugs removed during the aeration process. Currently, the nursery is regularly watered, weeded, and supported to promote its growth and health. This will enable us to continue using sections of the nursery as needed on the green in the coming year.