Summer Sports - Cricket
was expecting the worst during the winter, which is the more ‘traditional’ period for a New Road flood! And so it transpired, with a partial flood on 26th November, and the first major flood, covering the whole ground, occurring on Christmas day! The water reached a depth of several feet and remained for a couple of weeks. No sooner had cleanup been completed, the river broke its banks again on 30th January and, once again, covered the whole ground.
This flood was accompanied by freezing temperatures, and you would have been more likely to see Torvill and Dean on the outfield than Tim and his groundstaff, as ice made any cleanup and restorative work impossible. It wasn’t until after the last of the floods - a partial one on 15th February - that Tim was able to get on the field of play. To assist him, he called in local sportsturf contractor Phil Day to power brush the silt deposits off the square and outfield. With the sward in a very weak state, this operation was not carried out too aggressively to avoid putting it under any additional stress.
Once the cleanup had been completed, the square was oversown with a DLF
Trifolium mix of 25% Ligala, 25% Fandango and 50% Sirtaky, and the outfield with DLF Trifolium Pro Master 45.
Tim calculated that, over the winter, the floodwater had covered the square for thirty-eight days and the outfield for sixty- two. With the Worcestershire coaching staff and players keen to undertake pre-season practice, the club erected a marquee at their second team training ground at Chester Road, Kidderminster, with Tim and his team dedicating time and resources to producing a block of practice wickets, using a combination of blowers and heaters to help dry out the surface. Overall, the marquee worked well and enabled the players to train at home, at a cost of around £10,000, a lot cheaper than having to invest in going abroad. The club also played two pre-season friendlies at Chester Road whilst New Road was being readied for the season. Worcestershire captain, Daryl Mitchell, could not speak highly enough of the job done by the county’s ground staff. “Tim Packwood and the lads have given us great facilities to play on. We have to say a big thank you to them.”
“The condition of the outfield at Chester Road was tremendous, given the weather everyone has had. The wickets were true and the nets were great.” “I know a few other counties have used
marquees like the one we had, but ours was the best I’ve seen. It was amazing to be able to play, when you think that it was still snowing outside.” Like many other county groundsmen,
Tim is always looking at ways to improve his working methods and has been watching, with interest, the trials that Keith Exton at Glamorgan undertook with LED lights under his hover cover, as he saw this as a viable option to aid grass recovery after floods and during the winter months.
So, with the ECB currently conducting trials on the LED lights at Loughborough University, in an effort to formulate the findings, Tim, Keith and Gary Barwell at Edgbaston are currently trialing an alternative patented Co2 growing system from SeeGrow Developments Ltd. Tim first saw it in operation at the Millennium Stadium where head groundsman, Lee Evans, was using the system to stimulate grass growth on heavy wear areas, especially in and around the
Seven from the Severn!
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