Dennis helps the fight back
When your club invests in a Dennis mower you get much more than a premium quality cutting machine – you also have at your disposal a whole supporting cast of optional cassettes that can each contribute in their own individual ways to in keeping the hard working turf in top condition. Brushes, spikers, scarifiers, verticutters, and slitters can all be interchanged within 15 seconds to suit your specific conditions and preferred routines.
At Cheriton Bowls Club on the northern edge of the Channel town of Folkestone, members certainly don’t take their surface for granted, having seen it devastated by a 2023 invasion of leatherjackets that made it unplayable for a long period. Professional help was needed to restore order after the pesky larvae of the crane fly consumed the living grass roots and effectively killed off the surface.
With the maintenance now fully back in the hands of the club’s crew of volunteer groundsmen, the club’s duo of Dennis FT430s – one now 12 years old and the other a new acquisition – are working to best effect.
As the man who leads the groundwork team, John Gleeson is particularly grateful to the donors who made the investment in the latest prestige Dennis possible. “Without those who support us from within the club and the wider community it would be impossible to achieve the condition of the green,” he says.
“We were absolutely devastated by the damage done by the leatherjackets and couldn’t play on the green for nearly a year. A lot of bowls and golf clubs have had the same problem in recent years. Thankfully, we have eradicated it now, but the trouble is you have to resurface it and for a time afterwards you haven’t got the depth in the grass roots.”
The revival of the green is helped greatly by an automated sprinkler system that cuts in overnight. In daytime hours, John’s team aim to cut at least three time a week and set Wednesdays aside for the more intensive programmes that uses their cassettes – notably the spiked sorrel roller and verticutter.
“We are all volunteers but, just like gardening, you learn as you go along, you make mistakes and then you overcome them,” says John.
The Dennis FT range is available in 17″ (43cm), 20″ (51cm) and 24″ (61cm) cutting widths and has a simple and robust click height adjustment in 0.25mm increments without tools. The Honda engine represents the ultimate in easy-start long-life using low noise, low-vibration technology. It also has a roller clutch drive for smooth take-up and variable clip rate for the ultimate finish. The three-section differential roller has cast segments for scuff-free turning without operator fatigue.
