“I believe that the forming of relationships with the players, umpires, scorers and officials is vitally important”
Game on in front of the main school building
four wickets that are now under preparation. Covers are set out again, but two wickets are left uncovered, in the hope that the weather is kind, and allow them to dry a little overnight. Day 6: Sunshine and a drying wind to go with it… just what I was hoping for! Prep starts on the final two pitches, and work continues on the remaining four, consisting of further thinning of the sward, rolling, and careful management of the covers to control the drying. At this stage I’m thinking that, whilst we are making good progress, we are only four days from our first two games, yet there still seems to be so much work to do. Day 7: A warm and windy day - no sign of any rain. I get an early start as there is still an awful lot of work to do. As we now have six wickets at different stages of preparation, and also nine practice bays spread across two sets of nets, we seem to be here, there and everywhere, moving covers from one pitch to another, verticutting, brushing, cutting, rolling, and that’s just the pitches. Intensive work is also taking place on the squares and the outfields. Then there is the small matter of the league match that we have to set up for today, too! Looking at the pitches for the tournament, I am happy with how the ones for the first day’s play are shaping up.
Day 8: A good start to today – the sight of the newest addition to our fleet - an Imants Rotoknife, a machine I have had my eye on for a number of years - coming down our drive takes the weariness from my eyes and brings a beaming smile to my face. No time to play with it however, as there is still an awful lot of work to do. Efforts must be doubled.
Again, the boys are working very hard
across the site, and I’m busy on the squares, putting the final preparation into the first pitches to be used, and progressing with the other pitches. As it always seems to happen, disaster strikes at the most inopportune time, an incident which renders one of my assistants unable to continue working, and a trip to the hospital is the order of the day for him.
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To make matters worse, the one moment that I have not been looking forward to is upon us. Stump stickers! For anyone who has ever had to put these on stumps, you will know what I mean. I recall sitting up at 2.00am last year, on the eve of our first match, trying to put them on straight. Here we go again! Representatives from ICC Europe also
Josh Bowman, Mike Atherton and Christian Hawthorn
arrive for the ground inspection, which they seem happy with (that’s a relief!!), and our first guests start to arrive, in the shape of some coaches. Players start to arrive tomorrow, so we have a very busy day scheduled. It is a huge effort across many departments (transport, catering, accommodation, cleaning etc.). I head home as the sun sets - armed with stump stickers and new stumps - wondering what tomorrow will bring.
Day 9: The eve of the tournament is upon us, and we have, what must be, the hottest day of the year so far. Players, coaches and umpires start to arrive ‘en masse’ and there is a definite feeling of excitement in the air. There is an awful lot of ‘meeting and greeting’; many faces I recognise from last year, along with many new faces, and interesting people to meet. This is one part of the event that I really enjoy.
Once everyone is settled in, the players
are straight out on to the fields for practice drills, the nets are full, and our newly installed astroturf wicket is also in use. It really is a spectacle to see so many players spread across the fields. Coaches and players are also looking at the pitch, and the inevitable question is asked repeatedly “what’s it going to play like?” I always try to avoid answering this question, so I swerve it by talking about the weather!
I am busy finalising the pitch prep, and I’m delighted to say, the site is looking better than I could have hoped
for. Everything is put under cover for the evening, so it’s home time for me, albeit on the wrong side of sunset, yet the young players are still out in the nets, practice drills on the outfields, having a kick around with a rugby ball etc. One last job for the day - enhancing international relations by dropping a couple of coaches off at the local Chinese takeaway on my way home. I can honestly say that, as I leave the site, I am delighted that we have ‘stage 1’ complete, and I’m looking forward to the start of play tomorrow. The only thing left for this evening is food and Radox! Match day 1: Game on… or should I say both games on! Another beautiful day, and final pre match preparation takes place, tidying up of any loose ends, before the start of the matches. Today, we host Gibraltar v Spain on
KWC1, and Denmark v Belgium on KWC2. Everything seems to go well with the games, but I am concerned about the low scoring on KWC1. I question whether the pitch is playing poorly, or if it is just a case of good bowling, poor batting, or a combination of both. We have a fantastic game on KWC2, with Denmark racking up 302 runs on their way to victory. Following the matches, everything is cleaned up and put under cover again for tomorrow. Match day 2: Tough day today. Only one game today, to be played on KWC2. Heavy rain through the night and, as I arrive to work at 6.00am, the rain is heavy, and things aren’t looking good. Fortunately, everything is under cover, but work to the wicket is required to get
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