LIVE AT LEEDS
Yorkshire take on Lancashire in a Twenty20 ‘Roses’ clash in front of 8,000 spectators at Headingley ... and it’s raining!
I
arrived at the Headingley Carnegie cricket ground at 7.30am, after a two-hour drive from Shropshire, to find Andy Fogarty and his staff getting ready for the War of the
Roses Twenty20 match between Yorkshire Carnegie and Lancashire Lightning. The weather forecast was awful with light rain predicted for the morning followed by heavy showers in the evening. Not ideal for getting a game of cricket played!
And so it was that we spent much of the morning watching light rain fall and drinking cups of tea. The wicket and square were well protected with raised covers and flat sheets, most of the preparation work had been completed in the week leading up to the match. There are four large sheets and two run up sheets to help cover the whole square. The flat sheet covers are made locally and measure 100ft x 40ft, with run up covers
measuring 50ft x 50ft. The
outfield and square had been cut on the previous
Tuesday along with
final wicket preparations
(mowing brushing, rolling and marking out). All there was left to do on the day, fortunately given the weather, was a final roll, clean up, touch
up of the lines and setting out the stumps. Andy has been Head Groundsman at Headingley for eleven years. He has two full time staff to help him, his assistant Christian Dunkerley, who has been at the club for ten years, and Gareth Milthorpe, who has seven year’s service. On match days Andy’s son often comes in and helps out, a useful extra pair of hands, especially when having to move covers on and off!
The square at Headingley has sixteen tracks constructed with Ongar Loam. In addition there are another four practice tracks at either end of the square. Andy has to get at least two matches per track. This season he will have two international matches, six four day county games, three second eleven matches and thirteen one dayers. As always the quality of the square is dependant on the success of the previous winter’s renovations. The square was scarified in four directions to a depth of between 3-4mm and overseeded and topdressed with 4 bags of Ongar Loam per pitch. The seed used was a 50/50 perennial rye grass mix using Sauvignon and Margarita. A programme of aeration was undertaken after November and completed in January.
The square is maintained at 25mm, with tracks cut to a height of 15mm at the beginning of the 10-14 day prep for matches. Final height of cut is between 3- 4mm using Lloyds Paladins. Andy’s equipment includes three
Paladins for the square, two 36” Allett Regals for the outfield and two rollers, a 1.5 and 2.5 tonne for the square and wickets. He also uses a SISIS RotaRake and CombiRake for preparing the tracks and square. Fortunately, with the weather as it is during my visit, he has two water removal machines, a Blotter and a Water Hog. Any other equipment is usually hired in or borrowed from Jason Booth at the Rugby Stadium.
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