Summer Sports - Cricket
Stuart Kerrison and Keith Exton listen intently
Chelmsford, Stuart is also responsible for two outgrounds, currently Lower Castle Park in Colchester and Garons Park in Southend. What I found interesting was a factor I had not thought about much regarding outgrounds - what a big financial risk it is. This is because it costs many thousands of pounds just to get to the point before a ball is bowled. In today’s litigious world, Health and Safety issues, crowd control, seating and catering, all have to be organised and scrutinised to the nth degree. The day arrives and it hisses down; result, thousands of pounds are lost. In Vic’s case at Uxbridge, this can mean vital monies lost to his club’s coffers, plus money lost by Middlesex.
In Stuart’s case, the county club loses out on a large part of their annual turnover. This risk factor could play a large part in whether counties continue with outgrounds for, although every effort is made to provide for inclement weather, it can, in no way, be as assured as the provisions made at the County ground. Both Stuart and Vic entertained in their own individual ways, Stuart’s littered with humour and his vast wealth of knowledge gained in over twenty-five years at county level, Vic’s passion shone through, as always. Next came a demonstration of deep spiking on the Essex square, performed by Keith Exton, Head Groundsman at Glamorgan CCC, using the tractor mounted Wiedenmann deep spiker. A somewhat nervous Stuart watched as Keith expertly started to spike down, with a close patterned set of pencil tines, over
Stuart’s beloved and lovely looking square; a process he had not had performed before.
However, Stuarts
apprehension was soon relieved as Keith expertly worked his way across the square with no heaving problems at all, spiking down six or seven inches on a square that, because of the very dry weather we’ve had down south in October and November, must have been pretty hard.
Also going on was some spiking on the outfield. What I particularly liked was the chance to see some actual work being carried out on the ground rather than just going for a walk on the outfield. Then we enjoyed a lovely buffet lunch, all at the expense - as was the whole day - of our sponsors. More networking, moaning about players, committees, umpires, birds, dog walkers and just about everyone else who wasn’t a groundsman! The afternoon session began with Andy Mackay, Head Groundsman at Sussex CCC, presenting on the role of the first class groundsman. Andy explained his entry route via the club game into the county scene. He then went on to give a frank and detailed explanation of how he tries to make working at Sussex, for his staff, as decent as he can regarding working conditions and hours worked. Andy admitted he would
like the pay for his staff to be better, but that he tried hard to make the working conditions as good as possible, and ensured decent time off is allowed for even in the season, as he considers a good life/work balance a vital part of a modern employer’s responsibility.
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DECEMBER/JANUARY 2012 PC 95
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