Clay Court |
Clay Court |
| Startup | |
| Stow Fence |
| Unlock Gates |
| Remove Ballast |
| Remove Cover |
| Clear Clay |
| Lines |
| Hand Roll |
| Machine Roll |
| Topping Clay |
| Net Posts & Nets |
| Stow Winter Fence (Cleanup Day) | |
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Minimum 4 person crew, better a 5 or 6 person crew |
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Dismantle the temporary Winter chain link Fence that closes the west side of Court 1 |
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All connecting hardware should be bolted back onto the temporary fence sections for storage through the Summer, so it can easily be found again in the Fall. |
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Stow the temporary Winter Fence, twin pipe/plates and shim bricks between the shed and back of Court 9 on top of the neatly piled rebar or behind the shed if there is room. |
| Unlock the Gates (Cleanup Day) | |
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Find padlock keys in the Office key box |
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Unlock the gates to Clay and Hard Courts |
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Chains and locks can be stored by locking them to the fence next their gates. They will be easily found in here in the Fall |
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Return the keys to the Office key box. Are the labels are still correct? If you didn't leave the locks and chains locked to the fence by their gates, add a tag to the keys noting where you put them. |
| Remove Ballast (Cleanup Day) | |
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Many hands make light work. |
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Take care to not leave foot prints. The clay under the cover may be very soft. |
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Rebar and other steel ballast should be neatly laid on wood slats to keep it off the ground, in the gap between the shed and the back of Court 9. The temporary winter fence sections will stand on top of the rebar. |
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It should be obvious where other ballast goes, benches etc. |
| Remove Cover (Cleanup Day) | |
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Many hands make light work. |
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Take care to not leave foot prints. The clay under the cover may be very soft. |
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Clean and dry the cover as best you can. We don't want it to be funky in the Fall. |
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Roll or fold the cover as tightly as possible to minimize storage size. |
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Store the cover out of the sun if possible. |
| Clear debris & litter from Clay (Cleanup Day/Staff) | |
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Only work areas dry enough to support your weight without leaving foot prints. Old runners or shoes with no tread or heel are best. |
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Drive down any frost raised nails. (see "Drive Nails" the 4th item under "Lines" on the Startup menu). |
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Use the Aussie Clean Sweep and fan rakes to clear all foreign material such as pine needles, leaves, mud etc. Leave the larger course clay particles on the courts. |
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Stubborn moss, grass and seedlings growing on the edges may be overlooked during startup, but should be dealt with as maintenance after startup. |
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Mounds of mostly clean larger particles, where the drag brooms were hung, can be carefully scraped down with the scarifier/lute and/or a shovel and stored in pails or in a temporary off court pile on a plywood sheet. Scrape down the mounds level with the outer retention board or 1/2" above the perimeter dyke, which ever is higher. After startup reused this material in problem areas close to the fence but not for repairs in active play areas. |
| Hand Rolling (Staff/Members) | |
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Empty all but 1/4 of the water from the hand roller. Make the surface of the drum relatively free of debris and rust. Get the scraper bar and springs working. Grease the bearings. An old towel or rag under the scraper bar makes quieter rolling. |
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Drag sweep the entire clay surface before each set of full surface rolls. |
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Only roll areas dry enough that you don't leave foot prints or that plates of clay don't stick to or wrap onto the roller. The scraper bar prevents lumps of clay from traveling around the drum to make dents in the hard pack. Such unwanted dents may remain all season long. |
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No pivot turns! Change direction by flipping the handle over the roller then pushing in the opposite direction. Pivots and sharp turns easily damage the hardpack. |
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Subtle steering only! Each pass starts by returning fully overlapped over the previous pass. Subtly steer away so that half way across this pass, you're only half overlapping the previous pass. As you approach the far side, start gently steering back in preparation for your next pass so that when you reach the end of this pass you only overlap the previous by about an inch. |
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Occasionally alternate roll/drag sets East/West then North/South. Diagonal sets are ok but the frequent reversals as you work into the corners wastes time and energy. |
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After each full set of roll/drags assess whether the courts can take more weight. If so add 1/4 to 1/3 more water to the roller. It's not unusual to do 3 or 4 complete sets of roll/drags at each weight. After two successful complete sets of roll/drags with the roller full you may be ready to machine roll. |
| Machine Rolling (Staff) | |
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Ear protection recommended |
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Build a simple ramp of planks and plywood wide enough and strong enough for the machine to climb onto and later off the courts. Design the ramp so that it bridges the entire court edge so that none of the weight of the machine ever bears on the edge retaining board or the edge dyke which is about a foot farther inside. Damage to these edge components could be a very costly setback. |
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NEVER VIBRATE! The roller may have a vibrate setting. Never use it! |
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Hand rolling advice applies: subtle steering only, keep rollers clean, drag/sweep after each full set of rolls, overlap as with the hand roller. |
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Watch your first full set of machine rolls very closely, and don't move too fast. If plates of clay wrap onto the rollers or if the clay bunches out in front or between the rollers like carpet, then the clay may still be too wet or soft for the machine. Do another set of hand rolling with the roller tank full. |
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Three successful sets of machine rolls and drag/sweeps may be sufficient. (also read Topping Clay) |
| Lines (Staff/Supervised) | |
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Unless damage or wear replacement is required, existing line tapes need no attention if there's no winter debris under them. They don't need to be taken up or reset. Frost raised nails should be driven down(see 4th item) or carefully rolled down. Use continuous line tapes! NO BREAKS OR SPLICES! Even at the net tie down, cut a small hole so a tie-down clip extension can stand up through the tape for easy access. |
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If replacing lines where topping clay is to be added, remove the affected tapes before hand rolling and laying new clay. Lay new tapes after the new clay topping but before machine rolling. Sweep the tape alignments clear before laying new tape so no larger loose particles are trapped under them. |
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The tape "stretcher" helps flatten and straighten new tape, but RELEASE ALL TENSION before nailing. Any tension left in the tape will pull corners out of alignment, cause nails to become crooked and cause tape edges to curl. Once tape curls, each sweep pushes more course particles under the edges producing a bad uneven result. |
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Drive nails vertically so the underside of the head just touches the tape texture. Do NOT drive the head down flush into the tape as you would nailing wood. Nails driven so they dent the tape even slightly can cause curling edges. Replace nails whose heads don't lie flat. Bent nails are ok as long as their heads lie flat. |
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The ideal result is tape inset in the hardpack so the tape's textured surface is flush with the surface of the hardpack. When the loose large particles have been swept back over the tape you shouldn't be able to feel where the tape is with your eyes closed. |
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Lines lower than adjacent re-topped areas, can be "floated" up by rolling. Without removing the tape, sweep a path centered on the tape and comfortably wider than the hand roller so the roller path is clear of all loose larger particles. Save this material to be swept back over the line when you're finished. Carefully moisten this tape rolling path as much as you dare without risking sucking up chunks of clay onto the roller. Using a full roller make about 20 passes along the length of the tape or until the repeated rolling forces the adjacent clay down so clay under tape floats the tape up flush against the roller. Sweep the course material back onto the rolled path. |
| Topping Clay (Staff) | |
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Using push brooms, sweep the area to be topped plus a bit, clear of the larger loose particles. Save this material, it will be spread back over the same area after the topping has been fully hand rolled. If not removed this loose material forms a weak sheer plane allowing sliding players to easily dislodge the new layer of clay topping. |
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Using the tooth edged side of the lute, aggressively scratch the surface of the hardpack to provide a key for the new clay to bind to. |
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Determine the amount of clay needed so that it can be spread as a single lift. Remember: rolling will compact the clay to nearly 1/2 its loose depth. Laying one thick lift is less work and more durable than two thinner lifts. |
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For extensive topping, screed bars are laid and long straight edges are pulled across the screeds ensuring an even depth of new material. For medium sized areas clay bags are set out at equally spaced intervals over the area. When each is broken open, and spread in it's immediate area, the overall result is even distribution. |
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Shovel, pour or lute the dry clay as LITTLE AS POSSIBLE! Clay in the bag is ideally blended for strength and compaction. Every time you work the material it segregates and sorts into a weaker configuration. Ideally moisture wicks up into the new material from below. Once moist, it is difficult to level. Working in the moist state produces a weaker result. Don't lay areas so large that they can't be leveled before become unworkably moist. |
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Hand rolling new topping is essential. The hardpack on which the new material lies must be moist. If moisture hasn't wicked up from below into the new material then carefully top mist, but never spray. The entire area of new material must be moist. Clay is extremely easy to damage with hosing. At least five sets of hand rolls with the roller full will be needed and 10 or more sets may be required to achieve proper compaction. You may have to do your first rolls with the roller partially filled. Proper compaction is achieved when you aren't able to push your thumb into the new material using half your body weight. Virgin clay doesn't require sweeping between every set of rolls. |
| Net Posts & Nets (Staff) | |
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Net post sleeves are set in concrete footings. Sleeve bottoms are closed and will probably be full of water in the Spring. A wet/dry shop vac or length of pipe or hose can be used to remove most of the water from the sleeves. Water not removed will make unsightly rust puddles when the net posts dropped into place. |
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Stones added or removed from the bottom of the sleeve adjust the net post height. A wet/dry shop vac can suck stones up from the bottom of the sleeve if necessary. The top of the net cable should be 3 feet 6 inches above the playing surface where it passes over the post. (3'-0" at the centre strap) |
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The posts with the winches are usually put in the sleeve closer to the Club House. |
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DON'T OVER TIGHTEN THE CABLE. The cable and "trailer winches" can achieve incredible mechanical leverage on the posts. Tension has broken cranks in the past and can bend the posts. Players should never sit on the cable. The net cable should only be tight enough to appear relatively straight between post and centre strap. |
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Fibre-glass rods should be in the hem at each end of each net. Neatly lace the end hems to the posts with black nylon cord through the grommets in the net and the rings on the posts. |
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Remove the crank handles and keep them in the Club Office. This eliminates the risk of members over tensioning the cables and keeps the handles from getting lost. |
| Cleaning Shoes | |
| Tennie Two-Step |
| Brushes & Mats |
| Why Clean Shoes? |
| Watering | |||
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| Fall Shutdown | |||
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