undeterred
Westmorland Cricket League. We have always been committed to
W
producing the best possible batting pitches we can achieve. I am the unpaid groundsman and have been looking after the square for four years now. I have gradually increased my knowledge and improved my skills by attending courses and taking advice from professional people within the industry. On our old square we used Mendip loam and, through overseeding, we were working towards having a 100% rye grass sward. Why then even consider constructing a new square?
THE ground is situated alongside the main Euston to Glasgow rail line. There was only a 42 yard boundary resulting in the ball being hit onto the line several times each game. This had gone on for many years. However, with the trains becoming ever faster and quieter, the dangers associated with retrieving the ball were becoming unacceptable. The only answer was to approach the local
arton Cricket Club is situated right on the boundary between Cumbria and Lancashire and play in the
landowner and try to obtain extra land to increase the size of our ground, thus enabling us to move the square further away from the rail line. Being a persuasive type of person, I managed to get him to not only let us use an extra 20 yards opposite the rail line but also an extra 10 yards at a right angle to this, enabling us to increase the size of the square from 9 pitches to 12. He gave us a 25 year lease at £70 per year, instructing us never to pay it, but also making it clear that he didn’t expect to have to pay for a pint if he called in to watch a match! I then approached Wayne Chorley, the
ECB Pitch Adviser for Cumbria, who came to our ground and carried out a survey and provided us with an extensive report, including his recommendations for the new square. Because the ground is on sand and gravel, he decided that we only needed to remove sufficient topsoil to give us a 4” layer (120 tonne) of his recommended Kettering loam. This would then be seeded with 100% rye grass mix. Three quotations were obtained from contractors to undertake the job and we decided to use Terry Charlton, whose company Turfcare Limited came highly recommended. While all this was going
Warton Cricket Club’s match balls could well end up in London!
That was the view of their unpaid groundsman Peter Robinson. So he set about rectifying the situation with the help of local contractors Turfcare
Unpaid and
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