A Grand Day Out!
WHEN an opportunity to visit the SWALEC Stadium, for the first day of the first Test of summer 2011, presented itself, yours truly got the gig, partly as I live closest to Cardiff out of the Pitchcare team, and partly because I am a self-confessed ‘cricket nut’. The invitation was extended by Keith Exton, who is now in his third year as Head Groundsman. Having never been to the
SWALEC
vehicles, from coaches, double decker busses and trucks to executive cars and beyond. The external grounds are in immaculate condition and, as you might expect, everything feels ‘new’. Once inside the perimeter of the stadium, the same is true. Keith had told me, the day
before, that the Met office were forecasting heavy rain up until lunchtime, but suggested that, often, the rain shoots up the valleys and completely misses the stadium. This day it has decided to hit the whole of South Wales. Crossing the Severn Bridge and driving into Cardiff required wipers at double speed on occasions. I was to search out
Keith on arrival. That was not difficult, as he and a team of nine were out in the middle mopping up, even as more rain fell. This was at 10.15am, and the team had been out there since 7.00am! The outfield looked immaculate, even though the dry weather leading up to the Test had exposed evidence of the recent drainage work. There was no
prospect of play in the foreseeable future, but it was announced, a number of times,
before, it was another Test
ground I could tick of my list. The scale of the work Glamorgan County Cricket Club has undertaken to achieve Test status is remarkable. The ground has much to offer. For starters, access is a doddle, with motorway or dual carriageway almost right to the car park; and there is plenty to swallow up all manner of
that the umpires ‘would inspect again at ...’, ‘the toss would take place at ...’. ‘play would start at ...’. And, even though there were now breaks in the cloud, heavy showers kept sweeping across the ground. Every cover removal was greeted with applause and cheers, every one put back on, with boos. I had the urge to rush out and help, but Keith would have had little need for a graphic designer, who could probably only tell him that his covers weren’t quite parallel!
The ECB had laid on the usual
Peter Britton accepts an invitation to visit the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff for the first day of England’s summer campaign against Sri Lanka and India
extra curricular activities, including a question and answer session with Jeff Thomson, Mike Gatting, Gladstone Small and Alec Stewart, with Tommo getting serious flack about the demise of the Aussies ... beware the wounded beast! After the players and officials had taken an early lunch, the covers began to come off, the hover cover was shunted sideways off the match strip, and stump cameras and Hawkeye paraphernalia were hastily installed, with the toss set for 2.15pm, and a start of 2.45pm
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148