Daisies, dandelions, plantains, clover, worm casts, piles of rubbish and broken seats. This is what faced groundsman PETER ROBINSON when he took up his new position at Carnforth Cricket Club
Robinson’s CRUSADE
THERE has been much discussion on the Pitchcare message board recently about the use of the Koro machine to alleviate thatch and layering problems on cricket squares. Having seen the machine in action, there is no doubt that the system has many attributes and, done correctly, offers a quick fix for the above problems. However, on the down side, the system is very costly and is probably out of reach for the majority of cricket clubs. I was faced with this
dilemma in September of last year. I used to be the groundsman at Warton Cricket Club in Lancashire but was offered a paid position at Carnforth Cricket Club about two miles away.
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Rumours were around that Carnforth were applying to join the Surridge Northern Premier League, one of the top leagues in the country. The prospect of preparing pitches for professional cricketers was too good to miss so I accepted the job. However, when I saw the ground I nearly changed my mind. The outfield was covered in weeds and was black with worm casts. All the seats were broken, there was litter and piles of rubbish all around the perimeter... and then there was the square; it was hard to believe they had actually played cricket on it! It is a twelve pitch square and had about 50% grass cover. Of this, about 60% was poa, there was some rye on
the ends where some bits of seeding had been done and most of the rest was daisies, dandelions, plantains and clover! I doubt that it had ever been overseeded. I took six cores out in various places. All showed the same characteristics, 30mm of Kettering loam on top of a 3mm layer of marl. Underneath this was the indigenous soil which looked good. Thatch was evident in the top 5mm or 6mm. The roots, and there weren’t many of them, were contained in the loam and did not penetrate through the marl layer. The answer was easy; Koro the top off to below the marl layer, apply new loam and seed, but this would cost thousands of pounds. The
Club had employed me with the expectation that I had the skills to turn it round. With this in mind, after much consideration, I decided to try to overcome the problems using traditional methods.
THE first job was to get rid of the worms. I sprayed the whole ground with carbendazim using my Team Scout sprayer. The Scout is a great piece of kit, although the battery is not big enough for a cricket ground. Easily remedied, replace it with a small car battery. With the worms sorted, a couple of days later I sprayed the outfield with a selective weedkiller.
It was the third week in September and we had had a
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