The
EACH year I get the pleasant job of judging various cricket grounds around the country as part of the Cricket World and Pitchcare Groundsman of the Year competition. This year, on my travels, I called in to meet Bryan Evans the Head Groundsman at Wellington College Berkshire, a large 800 pupil public school facility. As I entered the site I could see a few staff working on the squares. I approached one of them to ask the way to Bryan’s office and was pleasantly surprised to find a girl rolling the square. She pointed me in the right direction and, within minutes, I was with Bryan. The college has over 80
acres of sports facilities within a 400 acre woodland estate, with a range of natural and artificial pitches including 15 cricket squares, 12 senior size football pitches, 14 rugby pitches, 18 tennis courts, 7 grass and 2 sand filled artificial hockey pitches.
various cricket grounds around the country
FEMALE Touch
Bryan employs six
groundstaff, two of them women, Jackie and Sarah. The girl on the roller, Jackie, turned out to be Bryan’s daughter and she has been working at the college for eight years. After leaving school Jackie attended college and obtained qualifications in sports turf management. She was awarded ‘Best Student in Turf Management’ and ‘Most improved Student’ whilst at Guildford College. She has proved to be very dedicated and has worked her way up to the position of Deputy Head Groundsman at Wellington.
Jackie has always had an affinity with the college, having been brought up in the grounds since the age of five. At the age of fourteen she began helping her father out to earn herself some pocket money. This
developed in to a genuine interest in groundsmanship, which has continued to the present day.
CRICKET is the college’s major summer sport. Bryan likes accountability, so he allocates facilities to particular members of the team. Jackie looks after the Colts and Yearlings squares, the 1st XV rugby pitch, shares some of the gang mowing with Sarah and is responsible for all aspects of maintenance throughout the year. She particularly enjoys match preparation and repairing of the wickets. She also has claim to fame in that Prince Harry played on one of the cricket squares prepared by her when he turned out for Eton school against Wellington. She
Year competition. When he called in to meet the Head Groundsman at Wellington College he was surprised to
Each year Pitchcare’s Laurence Gale judges
as part of the Cricket World and Pitchcare Groundsman of the
find two young ladies working on the cricket facilities.
also prepared the 1st XV Rugby pitch for England and the All Blacks who used it as a training facility during the last Rugby World Cup. Jackie also regularly maintains the College’s fleet of five tractors and two utility vehicles and keeps maintenance records of all the machinery the department uses. Working in the inspection pit to drain the engine and hydraulic oils from the tractors and change the filters isn’t an issue for Jackie.
The other female member of the team is Sarah Hack who previously worked on a golf course. Sarah spends most of her days driving tractors around the school site, carrying out most of the outfield operations, gang mowing,
Father and daughter team -B
Bryan and Jackie Evans
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67