Phil Wright

Made of the Wright stuff

You probably haven’t heard of Phil Wright, but If you’re a believer in the phrase, “If you want something doing, do it yourself” you will soon be a big fan of the man, and what he has achieved at Earl’s Barton Bowling Club in Northamptonshire.

Phil, who retired as a roofer in 2020, decided that he would volunteer to help out with the endof-season renovations at the club, a situation not unusual at many bowls clubs where budgets are tight and any offers of help from members are grateful received.

What is unusual, however, is that less than three years later Phil is the current Bowls England Greenkeeper of the Year and was named as one of the final two in the GMA Bowls Grounds Team/Individual }

HE SET ABOUT LEARNING AS MUCH AS HE POSSIBLE COULD ABOUT THE ART OF BOWLS GREENKEEPING – USING A SECOND-HAND COPY OF STRI’S BOWLING GREEN MAINTENANCE HE’D BEEN GIVEN BY THE PERSON WHO HAD TAKEN OVER HIS ALLOTMENT. THAT, COMBINED WITH A HEALTHY WORK ETHIC – “I AM A GRAFTER” HE FREELY ADMITS – HAS SEEN HIM TAKE THE GREEN TO LEVELS NOT SEEN IN ITS RECENT HISTORY.

of the Year category announced during Saltex in November.

“It all started with the winter renovation programme in 2020. The club used to hire in a professional contractor to do the work and we’d help with the humping and the heaving, I’d be barrowing and helping out however I could,” explained Phil.

“Now, when you hire someone in you have a problem in that you can’t control the weather conditions for the day they are booked to come, and if he has brought in machinery he wants to get on with it. On the day, it rained and rained, and we all know that you shouldn’t cut grass in the wet.

“Well, he was scarifying and I was running a mower behind him and it couldn’t even pick up. You can imagine the state the mower was in by the end,” recalled Phil.

“I just thought that it was ridiculous. I was about to retire at the time, reluctantly, as I couldn’t physically work on roofs any more as I’d had a couple of knee ops and lost my agility, and thought I could get more involved in maintaining the green.

“I’d been watching everything he did and thought that, surely, anyone could do it.”

It was a bold statement, given that by his own admission Phil barely knew how to switch on some of the machines.

But Phil was to prove that he was not a man limited to talking the talk – he could do plenty of the walking too!

He set about learning as much as he possible could about the art of bowls greenkeeping – using a second-hand copy of STRI’s Bowling Green Maintenance he’d been given by the person who had taken over his allotment. That, combined with a healthy work ethic – “I am a grafter” he freely admits – has seen him take the green to levels not seen in its recent history.

The club has hosted some of the county’s top players, seen top county quarter- and semi-finals played on it, while it will be the venue for a Northamptonshire versus Middlesex match later this year. Not bad for a little village with a population of no more than 8,600.

“One of the county Chairmen

actually said that it was the best he had seen the green in 40 years,” said Phil, his tone more of amazement than bravado.

So how did this volunteer layman turf manager become one of the top bowls greenkeepers in the country?

When Phil started out all he had a hand-pushed Sorrel roller, an old Dennis mower and an even older Ransomes Certes mower, generally used for back up, but the breakthrough came when they got hold of a verticutter and he was able to make a real difference.

“I was able to start a routine of six cuts to one verticut, and the results were unbelievable. That said, it was a little frightening because when you start scarifying you really do think you are destroying the surface!”

Phil is full of admiration for Robert Jack, of Dennis SISIS, who not only put some machines into the club for test, but was also on hand to persuade the club committee that the verticutter was a necessity rather than just an optional extra.

“The guy is a diamond and having got the verticutter I got quite addicted to the work. It is so rewarding, it really is. I’d recommend it to anyone if they ever had the opportunity.”

Asked to what he actually got addicted – the therapeutic act of pushing a mower or learning how to do the job, Phil came down on the side of the latter.

“It was the progression of learning. I’m not very IT literate, but I went to college and got my PA1 and PA6 so that I could use a sprayer. That was really daunting because I was at college at the age of 66 with a whole lot of kids on a farm. But I passed.

“So the addiction came from there. But when you see the lovely lines on the green…”

It took time and slowly but surely tangible, measurable improvements began to become obvious and any doubts there may have been about handing over the management of the green to a novice fell away.

“The corners of the green were bare and there were a few other bare patches over the green. We just persevered with our verticutting, and our seeding and watering and we got some growth back and people started to realise that they were liking bowling on the green again. }

} That gave me a massive buzz,” said

Phil, who was helped originally by another club member, David Rust.

“The fact is that we turned the green around. David and I used to share the work, he’d do half and

I’d do half, but he started to reduce his time and I’ve ended up doing it all for the last 18 months and I love it. I never stop thinking and am always trying to find a way to get things done. I do persevere.”

What makes Phil’s progress as a greenkeeper all the more remarkable is that his early development occurred during Covid.

“We followed all the rules during the time. There was a time when bowls weren’t being played but that didn’t mean the green didn’t mean maintenance so we kept working. When we did open for play, we segregated the rinks so 1, 3, and 5 were in play or 2, 4, and 6 were played. We obeyed the rules and, in fact, we got quite a few new members over the following year as we got back to normal.”

Phil did speak with a couple of other greenkeepers at neighbouring clubs who were particularly helpful and supportive.

“One thing I was taught was that you get the feel. Sometimes something feels as though it’s not right or you get the feel of the machine.

“You also have to be observant., You look at every inch of the green and see where the weeds are growing and what might be causing the area to be a problem.”

But feel is one thing. Knowledge is another and that piece of the jigsaw was provided by his “Bible”, the STRI’s Bowling Green Maintenance.

“It is an old book but it has been invaluable to me. If I want to know anything, it is in there and it goes right back to how a green is built and everything about maintenance. Some of it is beyond me because it talks about the pace of bowls and that side of things but, when it comes to advice on chemicals, it is invaluable,” said Phil, who compiles charts cross-referencing what he needs to do and when.

“Sometimes it’s easy to learn because you want to learn but other times it is quite difficult to grasp and you have to really work at it.”

Having been nominated for the Bowls England Award, Phil was absolutely, in his own words, “gobsmacked” that he won.

“If I’m honest. I was very, very surprised and in a funny way it frightened me to have won as it put me in the spotlight and there were a few snipes this year as the green didn’t look as good.

“It was an evil year with a cold spring and a dry summer. I can’t wait for the green to grow again and to look good. That said, it still bowled well,” he explained.

“I do like things done properly. I was a self-taught roofer and I’m not arrogant, but I was as good as anyone when it came to roofing, and doing things properly has transferred with me to the bowling green.”

Asked about his ambitions going forward, Phil’s thoughts are interesting and fully in keeping with a man who loves his green, and loves his bowling club.

“My son-in-law is in his late 50s and he helps me because he’s a little bit fitter than me – I’m 68 now. He is interested in learning, so my objective is to train him up – succession planning!”

When Phil spoke with Turf Matters he and his “apprentice” had just overcome a succession of issues, including a dodgy fan belt on a Ryan Mataway, to complete a winter programme which had taken a full 58 hours.

“Initially there were 14 procedures – scarifying in three directions, brush, cut, aerate, but because of the problem we had to do much of it by hand,” recalled Phil, for whom all the work is unpaid, and, as he revealed in an unguarded moment, he doesn’t even get his subs paid.

So, Phil may not be known by many within the industry but he is a wonderful example of a breed of men and women without whom so many sports clubs would fail.

They are unheralded and unsung but so very vital in the wellbeing of this country.

On behalf of the whole industry, Phil, we applaud you!

“YOU ALSO HAVE TO BE OBSERVANT. YOU LOOK AT EVERY INCH OF THE GREEN AND SEE WHERE THE WEEDS ARE GROWING AND WHAT MIGHT BE CAUSING THE AREA TO BE A PROBLEM.”