Summer Sports - Cricket L
ancashire is renowned for its love of cricket with well over 500 clubs playing in the various county leagues. As always the success of any club is down to the
commitment of dedicated members, especially those who look after the grounds and prepare the pitches for play. Paul Tatton and Esmond Howarth are two such groundsmen who, between them, can call on years of experience. They are responsible for the grounds at four clubs; Paul at Westhoughton and Haydock, and Esmond at Wigan and Orrell, where their primary objective is to provide safe and consistent tracks for demanding Lancastrians. Both men have played the game to a good standard, so know what is required from a players’ perspective.
In addition to his work as a
groundsman, Paul is also one of three ECB Pitch Advisors for the county and, at the weekend, can be found standing as an umpire. He even helps out with coaching, so is a well known figure in the leagues.
He started taking an interest in
groundsmanship at the age of eighteen when he helped out at Farnworth CC. He played as a professional for a number of clubs, including Read CC, Atherton CC and the Walker Institute CC. During his playing career he represented the county at all age levels and playing for Lancashire seconds. I caught up with Paul at Westhoughton, a club I had previously visited almost three years ago when I went to report on their new ground, the St George’s Oval. This came about after supermarket chain, Sainsburys, bought the old ground for the site of a new superstore in the town. The new ground and clubhouse cost £2 million; a far cry from the £30.12s. 5d they had to shell out for their ground in 1875! The work was undertaken by John Mallinson (Ormskirk) Ltd., with Pete Marron, the former Old Trafford head groundsman, overseeing the construction of the square. The ground is protected by a 6ft high perimeter fence and, whilst an expensive item in itself, was added to, to the tune of £25,000, when Great Crested Newts
were found on the site. The extra cost was to comply with planning regulations, conducting a survey and building a ‘newt run’ to a nearby pond. The club run three senior mens sides
and provide a number of junior teams from under nines to under seventeen. Total membership hovers at around 1,000, providing an important social life for the town. They also have a thriving ladies rounders section, utilising spare ground away from the outfield. The club run five teams using two rounders courts. The square is built on a gravel raft and has a perimeter drain and trap facilities. It was constructed using 100mm of Boughton Club Kettering loam, which was upgraded to Boughton County during renovations.
The outfield has a primary drainage system, installed at three metre centres, to ensure the ground can drain at a rate of thirteen litres per second, helping to reduce the number of games lost to rain. Existing soil was ameliorated with 50mm of sand to improve the surface drainage capabilities of the outfield. Paul was keen to show me how well the
square had come on since my last visit, emphasising how he had levelled out some of the uneven dips and undulations with a vigorous end of season maintenance over the last three years. The work entailed a thorough scarification, aeration and the application of over six tonnes (twelve bags per strip) of Boughton County loam during each renovation. Paul has also been trialing a New Zealand Perennial ryegrass (Colosseum) to oversow the square and has been pleased with the results as it tends to thrive better during colder spells.
The square is maintained at 9mm during the growing season and reduced to a match height of 3mm via a ten to fourteen day preparation programme. Pre-season rolling begins with the cylinder mowers, gradually building up the weight until he can get his Poweroll on, starting with it unballasted at around one tonne and then, once filled with water, at a maximum of two tonnes. Paul uses the Pythagoras theory to set up his square and pitches and then uses a marking frame which, once placed on
Westhoughton’s new clubhouse and ground cost £2 million
Paul Tatton - a fan of Pythagoras APRIL/MAY 2013 PC 99
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