Summer Sports - Cricket
groundsman one day, when the ‘Old Goat’ is put out to the long grass”
“We’re hoping that Usman will take over as head
“2012 committee” is targeting local businesses, whilst the new season has dawned on a fresh acquisition - a £2,000 digital scoreboard, courtesy of housing association North East Homes. ”They have tenants locally, and part of the deal is that they can come here to play cricket. An opening day for the scoreboard is planned and we’ll invite them down then for a game,” Harwood explains. An innovative example of how a
grassroots sports club can serve an important community function, and be rewarded for it in a way that helps raise the profile of cricket, build loyalty, boost participation and create extra clubhouse revenue.
Back to that heavy roller. “West Indians
grow up on hard wickets that create bounce, so we like to create similar pitches here,” says Harwood. “We prefer a harder deck, and play cross-bat rather than straight bat cricket.” Thirty to forty hours of the two-tonner on the ten wickets at Leeds helped deliver that kind of surface, ready for the first game on 21 April. But the quantity of cricket played at the
ground requires a programme of rotation, he adds. “The square is used almost every day - Saturdays and Sundays by the seniors, and during the week by juniors. The grounds team are kept fully occupied.” As you might expect, it’s almost as multi- cultural as the 100 plus membership. Head groundsman, Alth Weeks, has worked on the ground for fifteen years and is now in his sixties. “The old goat is still going strong,” chuckles Harwood. I’d requested an interview with Alth, but he had politely declined my invitation, perhaps being a tad too bashful to tell readers about the sterling work he and his assistants undertake for the love of their sport. But, “old goat”? How would that wash? “It’s a Caribbean term,” Harwood reassures me. Well, he had said that they speak “the lingo” at LCCC. If the assistants had been given pet names, I was spared them. Fellow West Indian, Lenny Randall, who’d trained on the job there, and young Pakistani prospect Usman Mahmood, the 26-year old apprentice, offered committed support to Alth, I was informed. “We’re hoping that Usman will take over as head groundsman one day,” Harwood
54 PC APRIL/MAY 2012
says. Presumably when the “Old Goat” is put out to the long grass. With its first and second senior teams in division two and three respectively of the Central Yorkshire League, Leeds hosts plenty of competitive play. That, and the battery of junior fixtures adds up to a fair degree of wear and tear on the strips, which is why the rotation is so important. “If we plan it right, we can bring the strips that are used at the start of season back into play for the final few weeks.” This season is a critical one for Leeds.
“The pressure is really on our first team to gain promotion to division one,” says Harwood, “because we couldn’t have two teams in the same division if our second eleven moved up - they were runners-up last season.” More work for the grounds team, I suspect. I asked about the run-up to the season and the dry spell. “There’s been plenty of mild weather and grass growth despite the lack of rain. We started cutting in February and no cracks have developed, so the wickets are in the kind of condition we like. With the kind of resources we have here, I think the team does a great job. The square is inspected three times a season, and we have to reach standards consistent with us being in the Central Yorkshire League.”
Once the last game is played at the end of September, Leeds bring in local sportsground contractor, Fergusons, to “put the square to bed for the winter”, which costs them between £1,400 and £1,500, Harwood says. However, they’ll have to rely on the volunteer workforce to ameliorate the outfield which, according to Harwood, is not particularly flat. “Topsoil needs to be applied to level it out. The council played a straight bat when we approached them to fund the improvements, saying they had no money and had been forced to lay off staff to cut costs.” A familiar refrain across Britain, I suspect.
But, amid national austerity, there’s much for LCCC to celebrate - a new generation of players, steadily improving provision, opportunities to swell spectator numbers, proactive moves to link with schools and the local community and measured success with sourcing funding. A mini model of success, surely.
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 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156