the ground, the early highlight being a World Cup Match between the West Indies and Bangladesh The club is constantly in use during the season. Training takes place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and there are also midweek and weekend matches. It has now got to the stage where Karl is working every day to keep up with the demand for cricket. Karl is the only officially employed Groundsmen. However, he does have a number of committed helpers who lend a hand to move covers, flat sheets and help out on match days. This season has been particularly busy, with Karl having to prepare wickets for several one day international matches held at the ground in July. These included Holland v West Indies, Scotland v West Indies, a match reduced to 30 overs because of rain, Ireland v West Indies, match
abandoned after 17.2 overs because of rain. To get a flavour of what
With the experience gained Karl began to raise the standards of the ground at Clontarf. Soon it was being chosen to host international matches, a great compliment to Karl for all the hard work being put in at
Karl was up against here is an extract from his working diary: “Two pitches, one for the first two matches then the other for the Ireland v West Indies game. Preparation started for pitch one on the 27th of June, and the 3rd July for pitch two. Constant bad weather hindered pitch preparation throughout. There were only two days of sunshine and no rain! There were also days where you couldn’t roll due to constant rain, or the outfield was too wet to take the roller out!! So the covers were on and off on numerous occasions. I tried to get as much natural light on
the
pitches by getting the covers off at first light and putting them on at sundown. This was obviously interrupted at times due to more rain!! Outfield and square was cut
everyday and after matches. The square was lightly scarified after each game to clean up any debris. Rain interrupted the Scotland
v West Indies game on the 12th July. I can’t remember how many times the covers were pulled back only to put them on again! Despite the late finish the outfield and square was cut as the forecast for the Friday (the 13th!!!) was terrible. This turned out to be so true! An inch of rain fell on the Friday! The whole day was spent checking under the covers to make sure no rain was getting in! The Blotter was doing overtime running around the edge of the groundsheets to prevent any water running down the hill under them. The ‘slope’ is 7 foot diagonally from the scoreboard to the carpark. It eventually stopped at 6.30pm so off came the covers to ‘blot’ any wet areas. It was too wet to bring out any machinery but there was plenty of other work to be done. The pitch was marked and the fielding restriction marks were put down and the boundary rope was placed and pegged down. The covers went back on at sundown.
One thing happened that I had never seen before. The weather was wet but very humid. The amount of sweating that occurred under the sheets was huge! It was very wet underneath initially when the sheets came off. There is normally sweating but this was like it had rained. Obviously the combination of the very wet soil underneath and the humid conditions led to this intense sweating.
2400 people turned up the next day to see Ireland play the West Indies but after only 17.2 overs the game was abandoned as heavy rains returned. Then the clean up began! 2400 people around a wet cricket ground can make a big mess!!
All in all I was happy with the week. There was a huge amount of pressure on with three matches in five days and the fact that the weather was terrible all along added to it. Long hours and sleepless nights were had but I was pleased with the pitches considering the constant rain. I did enjoy the pressure and the hard work but I also enjoyed my first sleep-in past 6.30am for the first time in three weeks!!!!”
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