Following on from Syd Kennerley’s recent article describing how he converted an old mower into a spiker and Doug Smith’s earlier article about adapting his mower to include a spiker; Eric Barklem from Halton Castle Bowling Club in Westhead near Ormskirk has been inspired to follow Doug’s example and has added a spiker attachment to his Atco mower.

Eric’s machine is a bit different from Doug’s as it uses a cylinder mower where as Doug has adapted a rotary mower.

I asked Eric how he approached the project and he had this to say:

Hi John.

After seeing Doug’s spiker I thought I wonder if I can do that.

I bought a spiker and not being an engineer I tried several ways to make it fit our bowling clubs ATCO lawn mower.

I had two pieces of metal which I made a bracket with to fit on the front of the mower but there was not enough leverage to force the spikes into the ground, a weight across may have been enough but when I reached the end of the green I needed it to be supported for when I turned the mower.

After much discussion in the office of how I could achieve making the spikes go deep enough into the ground with some support I had an idea what I needed so I went to the local hardware store and bought the stud bar and brackets etc, and the attached pictures are my final design which works, the stud bar allows adjustment to the height of the spiker

It took me a while to figure out the best way to do it, I knew I needed leverage to force the spikes into the ground and support to hold it up when I reached the end of the green and needed to turn the mower round, also I needed something that was easy to fix on and remove, the nuts and bolts fit into the slot for the front roller at the bottom which gives the support (blue bar) with one nut and bolt to secure it either side in the middle, takes about 5 mins to fix on, it works well have used it a couple of times, just a pity I can’t cut the green at the same time but I can’t fit the collection box on.

I look after the green for the Halton Castle Bowling Club in Westhead near Ormskirk, we’re just like most clubs just about cover the cost of maintaining the green which is increasing year on year.

I have thought of contacting other clubs in the area to share the cost of buying equipment to reduce cost on each club which can be used by every club involved.

Thanks Eric for this insight.

It would be great to get feedback or suggestions from other readers about this or any other issues regarding bowling green maintenance and/or club managment.