L-r: Paul Taylor, Daryl Day, Paul Marshall, Craig Harvey and Rikki Marshall
the soil structure, along with maintaining a decent sward colour during the winter months. Ecosolve usually come back in November each year to undertake deep drilling and aeration on both the square and net areas, drilling down to a depth of 250mm (10”) using 12mm diameter drills set at 175mm spacing. More aeration is undertaken in December using a Groundsman spiker set at 100mm. This completes the renovation programme, allowing Paul and his staff to take some much earned rest and recuperation. However, the club always seem to find additional work for the groundstaff, who usually get a number of interior jobs to undertake. These may include painting and decorating offices and stands. The club, like many of the older county grounds, are continually trying to improve their infrastructure with better facilities. Many of the older stands are in need of refurbishment and modernisation. During the winter, working hours
Paul Taylor mixing up his concoction for repairing bowlers’ footmarks
80
are 8.30am to 5.00pm. During the season the set start time is 7.30am and they finish ‘whenever’! On match days, though, Paul staggers the start times to give his team slightly more sensible hours. Paul does not have a great deal of equipment to hand. His old Massey Ferguson tractor is currently in for repair, so he is having to hire one (a Kubota STV40) until he gets it back. He is hoping budgets will allow him to upgrade his tractor soon. All the mowers are serviced in
January to ensure they remain sharp and fit for purpose. Match wickets are cut using either a Lloyds Paladin or a 24” Allett, whilst a John Deere triple mower is used on the outfield. A few years ago, Paul decided to use only pedestrian rear roller rotaries for cutting the square, with the aim of reducing compaction. The square is kept at between 15-20mm in the summer and 20-25mm in the winter. The Paladin is set between 3-5mm for final cut. Pre season rolling gets going as early as possible to accommodate the practice matches scheduled for mid March. They begin by using the weight of the Allett mower, gradually building up to the 1.5 tonne heavy roller. Paul does not roll ‘for the sake of it’, preferring to roll as the weather dictates and maximising what moisture is in the ground. This year, he managed to get all his wickets done with less than thirty hours of rolling. The square is fed with granular and liquid feeds - 14:0:7 spring and summer fertiliser along with a 17:2:5 liquid - throughout the growing season, as and when needed. Time allotted to prepare wickets is set between 10-14 days, which is generally determined by weather conditions and the time between games. Both Pauls like to keep a bit of grass on their wickets and not cut too short. The wicket is prepared by a combination of brushing, scarifying, watering, rolling (the pitches get an initial roll of 45 minutes at the start of preparations
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