Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff began his cricketing career at St Anne’s Cricket Club in Blackpool.
The local residents (and their insurance companies) were delighted when young Freddie was fast-t
tracked into the Lancashire County set-u up!
FREDDIE’S old hunting ground
Laurence Gale MSc reports D
uring a recent trip to Blackpool to attend an NTF meeting I took the opportunity to call in and see one
of Pitchcare’s long standing members, Andy Mackay, who is the groundsman of two cricket clubs, Blackpool and St Anne’s, the latter located to the south side of the town. Both clubs play in the same Lancashire Premier Cricket League.
Andy is employed by both clubs, sharing his time between the two. To help him undertake the heavy workload, especially during the season, Andy employs his dad full time.
I met up with Andy at St Anne’s where I found him busy carrying out hollow coring operations on the outfield.
St Anne’s is a
prosperous club with well over 1300 members, putting out four senior sides and a number of youth teams. The club has been responsible for grooming many talented players over the years, none more famous than England’s current legend,
Freddie Flintoff. He played at St
Anne’s for a number of seasons before being fast-tracked to the Lancashire County side. There is plenty of memorabilia celebrating his time at the club. The ground is a tight
Andy Mackay
and small, having a relatively short boundary on all sides, and surrounded by 1960’s housing developments. It was no surprise to discover that young Freddie was responsible for breaking a few of the roof tiles during his early career!
ANDY has been working at St Anne’s for five years and, during that time, has vastly improved the playing quality of both the square and outfield. The club generously supported his education at Myerscouth College, where he gained a degree in sports turf management. The square at St Anne’s provides 16 match wickets and four practice wickets. 8 of them are kept for the first team and are generally sited in the middle of the square. With over 80 fixtures a year, maximising wicket use is a priority for Andy.
Autumn renovations had been completed on the square, with the new grass now beginning to thicken. The square is well over 70 years old and comprises made up ground with a loam profile averaging 125mm in depth. The loam on the square is a Surrey Supernatural 28% Gostd loam which was introduced three years ago. The previous loam was another Surrey loam supplied by Gem. However there was a need to improve the quality of the square to accommodate better players. In the first year the new loam was integrated into the square at a 1-3 ratio, followed the second year at a rate of 50/50 . This year has seen a full application of 5 tons of Gostd loam at 100% content. Before renovations were started the
square was well watered. Several passes with a SISIS scarifyer were undertaken followed by some aeration using solid tines set at 100 mm depth. The square
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