“Cricket makes a loss year in year out at club level but still pulls rank,
White explains. “Seeding needs to be done much earlier in the year to help the pitches recover more completely.” Adherents of synthetic pitches, such as Chris White, believe that 3G rubber crumb surfaces of the kind laid the US, offer perhaps the best surface for lacrosse to be played at its best. The downside is that they are relatively
expensive to install. “The reality of lacrosse-specific surfaces, or even a lacrosse specific sports arena, is still some way off, because of the emphasis in the UK on laying artificial pitches for multi- use, which means that quality could be sacrificed” says Ashley.
At the top end of the sport, and in the traditional North-western heartland of the game, are clubs such as Timperley. Five miles south of Manchester city centre, and founded in 1877, it is one of the oldest private sports clubs in the UK and incorporates lacrosse, cricket and hockey, enjoying first-class facilities that include a new clubhouse, two artificial pitches and two cricket areas.
The club offers structured junior development programmes in lacrosse (as well as cricket and hockey) starting from introductory level based on fun and participation and progressing to selection by county or regional teams for many of its 700 members.
But, even at the highest level, lacrosse plays second fiddle in terms of pitch priorities and allocated time to other more widely played counterparts. “The irony is that club lacrosse is a
profitable sport yet often has to be played on cricket outfields” says Ashley. “Cricket, on the other hand, makes a loss year in year out at club level but still pulls rank, as does hockey.”
In a move to safeguard precious playing time and pitches, lacrosse is moving in other directions, linking with another nationally-based sport, rugby, for example, to place its future on arguably a more secure footing. Until their is the assured availability of high quality surfaces on which lacrosse
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can be played, groundstaff are forced into a juggling act to optimise conditions for sports whose playing demands clearly conflict. Typical of the problem is Cheadle (Kingsway) Sports Club, sited, like Timperley, only a few miles from central Manchester and also a top-flight lacrosse club vying consistently for league title honours.
The club offers bowls, tennis, cricket,
hockey and lacrosse facilities for members, so must act accordingly when seasonal demand for pitches comes into play. Lacrosse’s September-March playing season means rarely a season passes without officials calling off at least one game due to inclement conditions, although players expect to compete in the worst that Britain’s increasingly unpredictable weather can throw at them. Cheadle suffers, as many other smaller private clubs do, from a constrained grounds maintenance budget and a game called off delivers the double whammy of lost bar and catering revenue and a more crowded fixture list later in the season. The hiring of groundsman, Ian Barber, in December 2005, however, has heralded a most welcome about turn in the scheme of things. One for a challenge, Ian left his job at Leeds United FC because of the demands of commuting from Stockport, where he had moved to for personal reasons. “The travel was killing me,” says 34- year-old Ian, who also enjoyed spells at Headingley Stadium, working on cricket and rugby pitches, and at Thorpe Arch, home to more than ten full-size natural and artificial grass football pitches. “The move made my lifestyle easier and working at Cheadle to a strict, tight budget, presented a fresh challenge.” Drainage is the single most important aspect of his job that Ian has brought to the club. A critical element in the equation of sporting provision as he explains. “If we were purely a lacrosse club, there would be no problem, but Cheadle is a multi-sports club and I have
as does hockey” Ashley Tarran-Jones, ELA
to take the playing requirements of all of them into account, not just lacrosse. “I’m standing here with just three weeks to go to the start of the cricket season, and there’s still at least one more lacrosse fixture left.” Cheadle's two lacrosse pitches cover the cricket outfield and, as Ian stresses “I have to view the bigger picture. Cricketers would not be pleased to have the ball popping up and hitting them in the face because the outfield needed attention.” “If an ‘A’ team lacrosse fixture has to succumb to the weather at this time of year, that’s a professional decision that I’m prepared to stomach, giving, as it does, more time for the grass to recover before cricket begins. I can always arrange with Kingsway School next door to take the game,” he says. A first team fixture, however, which may affect the placings at the top of the lacrosse league, is a different matter, concedes Ian, who is fully aware of the balancing act he faces week in week out. “If I call a game off, forty people will not be buying drinks and food in the bar. If I let them play and they cut the pitch up rough, I’ll be applying as much as ten tonnes of sand afterwards and there’s the cost of doing that to consider.” Ian maintains a controlled weekly
programme of work on the two pitches. After the Saturday game, Monday sees him forking, replacing divots and repairing any surface scars, then rolling, followed by slitting of the largely clay- based pitches during the week. “I mark out the pitches on Friday, stringing out the lines to ensure an arrow- straight result and making them as bright as possible with the transfer wheel marker. Bright, straight lines are important. They take people’s eye when they first arrive.” At this time of year, Ian brings in the contractor and the 40 tonnes of medium sand that they’ll be spreading over the two lacrosse pitches that will shortly transform into the cricket outfield. “They’ll vertidrain down to 12 or 13 inches then disk seed using twelve bags of
Images © Robert Carney
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