The hot, dry weather over the past month had dried the green and it was beginning to shrink.
The plinth board that sits between the green and ditch had separated from the green.
Large gaps were appearing and the green was beginning to sink.
It becomes dangerous for spectators when the board sits above the green, because bowls can bounce off it.
Geeves used $57 of his own money to buy two soak hoses and installed them at the green.
They soaked it on Monday afternoon and rectified the problem.
But they are also blamed for attracting the rain that fell all night and flooded the green, causing play at the New Zealand championships to be abandoned yesterday.
Geeves (92) retired from his sheep and cattle farm at Kuri Bush, between Brighton and Taieri Mouth, in 1979.
He started playing bowls a year later and was greenkeeper at the Kaituna club for 27 years until it disbanded four years ago.
He has helped at the St Kilda club since Allan Varcoe was appointed greenkeeper three years ago.
"Don't blame me for the rain," quipped Geeves.
"I'm too old to be blamed for that. It should have come sooner.
"When other clubs hear about this, they will get me to buy soak hoses for them when they need rain, and get me broke."
Geeves is now being dubbed as the man with the magic touch who can bring rain to thirsting bowling greens.
"It's the best joke I've heard for a long time.
"I don't think I can take the blame for the rain," he quipped.
Geeves has saved the St Kilda club thousands of dollars by buying second-hand equipment and using his engineering skills to make it work.
He relished the opportunity to get stuck into physical work again with the resurfacing of the green, joining teenage members in a working bee.
"Too many people do nothing when they retire and wonder why they go to pieces," Geeves said.
"My health and my mind have improved over the last three years."
Geeves spent four years in a German prisoner of war camp near Auschwitz during World War 2 and survived a six-day forced march at the end of the war.
He lives by himself in St Kilda and visits his wife, Winnie (93), who has severe arthritis and lives at the nearby Montecillo home, twice a day.
They were married two months after he returned from the war in 1945.
He was the youngest of five boys in the family who grew up at Kuri Bush.
Bill, the oldest brother, lived to 100 and his other brothers all lived into their late 80s.
"We grew up in hard times and always did a lot of physical work and ate plain food," he said.
Geeves is keen to see how the improvements to the St Kilda green over the past three years stack up during the championships.
"The edges were too high," he said.
"We had the green surveyed and there was 60mm difference between the highest and lowest points."
