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Work started last week on laying a new synthetic green at Mahurangi East Bowling Club, following receipt of a $70,000 grant from Auckland Council’s Sport and Recreation Facilities Investment Fund.
Club captain Gary Gibson said the grant was the final chunk of money required to fund the $300,000-plus renewal at the Hamatana Road HQ, which would give the club two international class surfaces to play on.
The rest of the cost has come from club funds and a number of other sporting and recreation grants obtained by club treasurer Mike Day, who recently won Club Administrator of the Year at the Bowls North Harbour Annual Awards.
“New greens are not cheap,” Gibson said. “Mike has worked tirelessly in getting these grants and needs to be congratulated.”
With luck, Mahu East members will get to play on the new carpet on B Green by the end of the month.
A Green was re-laid five years ago, though that was a much longer process, as it involved converting natural lawn to a synthetic surface.
“We replaced the grass with synthetic in 2019, but unfortunately had a weather bomb come through and made a mess of that, so that had to be redone,” Gibson said.
He said replacing an existing carpet was much quicker and easier.
“The old surface is removed and they take out about 90mm of soil, restack and repack it up before laying the new surface,” he said.
“It’s very timely, because we start our twilight social bowls on Wednesday evenings in November and we have 32 teams of four come in for that, so it will be good to have two really good greens.”
Council’s Sport and Recreation Facilities Investment Fund for 2024/2025 was approved last month, granting $13.6 million to 18 sports organisations across the Auckland region. There were 55 applications requesting a total of $40.7 million. Of the successful applicants, Mahurangi East Bowling Club was the only one based in north Rodney.
Info: https://www.sporty.co.nz/mahurangieastbowls or Mahurangi East Bowls Club on Facebook
