Summer Sports - Cricket
2-0-33-0
“I believe that, if the square looks good, then everyone thinks it plays good. Conversely, if a wicket looks bad, even if it is superb, players think it is rubbish and treat it as such”
Stumps out and the Union Jack flying proudly
burger but, since the fire, that has changed. We don’t get as many as we did before. Perhaps the economic climate is to blame as well.” “We have around sixty registered junior members, with a regular turnout of between thirty and forty, so we are fairly pleased with that. A lot of those are quite young and some certainly have the potential to be good cricketers.” Roy’s passion for all things cricket is admirable and this is evident when looking at the ground. “Presentation is really important to me,” he stresses. “I believe that, if it looks good, then everyone thinks it plays good. Conversely, if a wicket looks bad, even if it is superb, players think it is rubbish and treat it as such. If the outfield is nicely cut, again any failings are not highlighted.” “The problem is, I’m not getting any younger. My mate Roy is brilliant with maintenance of the machinery. He’s especially good at all things mechanical, but he is even older than me, so I’m going to need some help. There were a couple of players who showed an interest, but nothing has transpired yet. The problem is that most people think this is just a Friday evening job, and they don’t understand the work involved. When they do, it frightens them off!” “I hope to continue next year, but we
can’t do everything on our own,” he bemoans. “The club is certainly not in a position to employ anyone. I did think at
one time that, if a few local clubs ganged together, we could afford to employ a professional groundsman to ‘do the rounds’, but that will never happen, and probably isn’t very practical anyway.” At this point, you may be wondering
why Roy’s son Martyn doesn’t help out, but as he himself explains; “I can’t, due to illness, which showed up whilst I was playing. These days, juniors are not allowed to bowl too many overs but, back when I started, I was just bowling all the way through, so that probably didn’t help with the back problems I suffer from now. That was before they knew that juniors could ‘do too much’. So, now I can’t even play, let alone help dad out.” Roy continues; “Each year we spend
around £1,000 on loam, seed, fertiliser and weedkiller and, with a contractor carrying out this year’s end of season renovations, that’s an additional expense. Hopefully though, the club will see the benefits next season.”
And as for his working practices; “Last season, I didn’t do a lot of pre-season rolling due to the conditions not being right. I tend not to do very long ‘rolls’ anyway, preferring little and often. I try and schedule mine with the weather so I don’t have to water it, because we have to pay for all of our water, which doesn’t help our finances.” “We do have two big flat sheets but, again, we can’t handle them. You need eight people to move them. My other
Chris Schofield with Roy’s grandson Ben. Earlier in the day, Chris and few of the other ‘Legends’ had run a training session in which Ben took part. Ben joked with Chris that he could spot his wrong ’un. Chris retorted by telling Ben it was his ‘viper’ that he should watch for. Needless to say, Chris came on to bowl when Ben was batting and was LBW within “a very short period of time”
80 PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
The two Roys - Anderson and Cartledge - was it their birthday?
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