Vic Demain, parched outfield and Hampshire CCC warming up!
cricket. Vic and his “invaluable” assistant, Ramesh Patel, have a tough job of keeping the square up to the standards that cricketers of all levels increasingly demand. “Preparing the finest surfaces for county play can be a real challenge, yet still be a real thrill,” says Vic, “because I’m seeking to provide bounce, pace, spin, seam and consistency. We can only try and do the best job we can with, what is, a very limited budget.” “When I do need something extra, I have to go to the committee and, in most cases, our requests are turned down.”
Vic with his ‘invaluable’ good friend Ramesh Patel
Not one to moan about his plight, Vic is professional enough to know that he just has to get on with the job in hand. “When Middlesex come here, they take over the ground. That’s the way it is. You’ll never be able to control them, just mop up afterwards,” he jokes. Given the daily grind of matches, Vic’s key priority is to try and protect the main square as much as he can and to maintain standards. With the rugby pitch, bowls green and grass tennis courts to manage to boot, he knows that he has to devote the level of care and attention to the cricket surfaces that will deliver results.
“It’s a bit of a change
from my positions at Ascott Park and Campbell Park, as I have to tend to these facilities in the same timespan as I used to look after just one cricket pitch - and here we have around 500 club members to keep happy as well,” he explains. For the four-day games,
Players warm up ahead of the T20 game between Middlesex and Hampshire
“We are expected to work 12 to 14-hour days for little financial reward, and that’s something that just doesn’t appeal to younger people now”
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Vic likes to leave a little more grass on the pitch and allow for a tad more bounce, particularly on the first day. “It can get a little one- sided if we’re not careful,” he says. “For Twenty20 games, my aim is to produce wickets as dry and hard as possible - everyone wants to see the runs pile on, so we’ll aim for a wicket that can generate at least 120 an innings.” His wish came true in the Hampshire game although the result may not have suited him - Middlesex ramped up a total of 165, but were outflanked by their opponents Hampshire, losing by three wickets.
“I like the strip ready two days before the event so we can keep it as hard as possible. If rain does come in the run-up, we have a large Blotter ready in the shed and plenty of cover, so we can be out playing after only a couple of hours if we need to.”
Once the Festival, which attracts crowds of up to 3,000 a day, is over, the first task is to apply water to the ground, and especially the square, by hose or sprinkler, as Uxbridge are unlikely ever to see the scale of outfield irrigation that is transforming the top venues. With only an inch of topsoil, then gravel below that, the surface turns a bright white in hot summers as the grass shuts down and lies dormant. With daily irrigation on the squares, his wickets turns into, what Vic calls poetically, “an oasis of green in the centre of a white desert,” scenes reminiscent of the Oval in the unprecedentedly dry summer of 1976, he recalls - a period many will remember for the
appointment of Labour MP and avid cricketer Denis Howell as Minister for Drought, and the
Government’s plea to the nation to ‘Bath with a friend’ to save water. With so many fixtures, and Uxbridge first and second elevens using the main square, Vic stresses the need for caution to balance the desire for hard surfaces with simply keeping the grass alive when so little rain has fallen. Irrigation is something
that Vic wishes he had more control over though. “The outfield is not in great shape at the moment - it’s built to a very ‘old school’ design and, unfortunately, we don’t have irrigation to deal with the dry spells. It’ll be a long time before we see the benefit of ECB grants to transform the outfield,” he adds wistfully.
“It’s something we have to live with - there’s no point getting worked up about things you can’t control, so I don’t worry about it anymore.” The angst of a turfcare professional, clearly frustrated by a predicament unlikely to change anytime soon, is tangible enough to
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