possible.” In addition to this machine, his fleet includes a mix of new and second-hand equipment, including a T120 New Holland tractor (Graham’s “pride and joy”), SISIS and Ransomes cylinder mowers, a Ransomes ride-on and a New Holland rotary mower. “Some are beginning to show their age
now, and we’ll soon have to start thinking about replacements, but they have served me well,” he reflects. Graham’s knack of looking after his second-hand machines is such that he has managed to keep some of his oldest items in full working order far longer than the manufacturers might have intended. “When the top guy from New Holland was down on site last year, he commented that our tractors were among some of the best second-hand examples he had ever seen, which is great to hear, but maybe I’m guilty of hanging on to my prized possessions for too long.” If they’re still doing the job though, why not.
Alongside Graham is a team of three
groundsmen who, between them, have clocked up more than a century of turfcare know-how. Longest-serving among them is sixty-five year-old Roger King, who greeted me holding a wheelbarrow full of tree cuttings when I arrived, and is in his forty-eighth year of service, outlasting all other staff at the school.
Graham’s brother, Stewart, the deputy head groundsman, has already notched up twenty years, while the baby of team, twenty-nine year-old Adam Watkins, joined the school six years ago from
Radley College.
Between them they “divvy up the work,” says Graham, each chipping in on the “less desirable” aspects of the job. “At this time of year, our focus is on giving the pitches a light roll and keeping the mowing to a minimum, only doing what’s necessary,” Graham explains. “Preparation for the new cricket season starts to take on a central role to bring the four squares up to standard.” The team maintains seven good quality strips on the main square, while the Colts and 1st XI squares are widely admired, Graham adds. Summer Fields has a long and proud
cricketing history - Gubby Allen, Charles Lyttelton - 10th Viscount Cobham, and Johnny Barclay, president of the MCC last year, are numbered among Old Summerfieldians. But, only recently did the school learn that it actually invented The Ashes - in the person of a sporting journalist called Reginald Brooks. In summer 1863, Reginald, and his
brother Cecil, were sent by their father to learn Classics from Gertrude Maclaren and to receive physical training from Archie. The following year, five more young pupils joined, creating Summerfield, as the school was then called. Reggie, a talented cricketer himself, later became a journalist and he was approaching 30 when he wrote the obituary that has passed into cricket folklore: “In affectionate remembrance of English cricket, which died at the Oval on 29th August 1882 deeply lamented by
a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. RIP. The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.”
The school’s archivist has persuaded
Oxford University Press to include its Dictionary of Quotations by Subject - though sadly unattributed.
As my interview with Graham draws on, it becomes clear that he has passions and interests that are not the preserve of your stereotypical groundsman. He begins to talk excitedly about
motorcycles and reveals that he often cruises into work astride one of his three prized possessions - a Harley Davidson, Triumph Bonneville or an American spec Bonneville.
He’s a classical music buff too. “Beethoven’s my favourite,” he says. “I enjoy listening to his music when I’m going about my daily duties on the grounds. I acquired a taste for his works early on from my musician uncle, who first introduced me to the music of the man many regard as the greatest ever composer.” Mozart lovers may well have something to say about that view. The arts are similarly well represented at the school, with a thriving music department that ensures the boys are equally as culturally enriched as they are academically.
The importance of sport and sporting
excellence has, in all its years, never been in doubt though.
The start of the summer term will mark the completion of the school’s latest improvements, that will see a further development and improvement
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