Summer Sports - Cricket
worm casts, then you have worms. If starlings are feeding on the square, then you have a
“If you have What’s in the shed?
Allen National 68” belt driven triples x 2, one bought as a parts bank/tractor Ransomes Super Certes close mower
Atco Royale 28” cylinder with tandem seat for the square
1959 hand cranked Greens Griffen 2 cylinder Lister/Petter road roller
Edwardian 12 cwt hand roller Dolphin Super Sopper Sisis Combirake Sisis dragmat
Mountfield rotary mower John Deere rotary mower Stiga rotary mower Stihl hedgecutter Stihl brushcutter Stihl chainsaw Belle Cement Mixer Trulute 1.5m
Single wheel liquid line marker
Innumerable hand tools, brushes and lutes
Four spare engines 90’ x 15’ flat sheets x 3 Ladders
Platelayers bar/spike (6' long) Mig welder and argoshield gas
Access to a Pattison Spiker which is jointly owned
Scarifiers have to be hired in as required 52 PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014
coach in the twilight of his senior career. Unfortunately, he is not mechanically sympathetic! I bought him a rotary of his own and he dutifully cuts the edge bits and does hedges and corners where the triple can’t get to. This saves me a lot of time.” “Where the square is concerned, I start
leatherjacket or chafer problem coming”
prepping a match deck fourteen days in advance, and choose its position by taking the team who will use it first and the strength of their opposition into account. Up until June this year, I hadn’t watered for four years. Hoses and sprinklers are rarely deployed in our part of the world!” “The pitch is combi-raked, cut with the Ransomes Super Certes and rolled with my ‘too heavy’ 1959 Greens Griffen three wheel roadroller. I repeat this every other day as required, lowering the cut to match height two days before the game. I give a final cut and roll, then paint up on the morning of a match.” Presentation ranks highly; “just below surface and outfield performance,” Eddy says, almost demandingly. “I aim for even bounce and as much pace as possible, and try to get the outfield to run as fast as I can. I diagonally stripe alternate ways on the outfield, as this shows best from the pavilion. I cut the whole square on the morning of a match to give a clean new stripe. The boundary line is painted weekly - usually on Friday - and ‘has’ to be neat and straight.” End of season renovations start as soon as the league has finished and consist of double spiking the whole square, scarify at least four ways, seeding with a mixture of Battersbys 100% ryegrass, with the danger areas sown with Barenbrug Bar Extreme. “I add between six and ten bags of loam to each deck and aim to fill any low spots caused by the roller with a bit more. We use Boughton Kettering loam on the whole square which provides a decent, even surface, but still a controllable one in a high rainfall area. I find it a good compromise between Mendip, which is too slow for us, and Kaloam which can take too long to dry out on a wet afternoon.” “When I came here thirteen years ago,
there was no budget set aside for renovations and the square was a mess. Basically, renovations were a token affair. It took five years to get it ‘nearly right’
and ten to lose the historical stigma of ‘terrible surface here’ from visiting clubs. Hosting league finals has ensured renovations budgets are an ‘untouchable’ in the committee’s eyes, which is excellent.” Eddy’s experience is vital in
understanding what is happening on his surface. “I tend to know by growth rate and colour what is needed. Perhaps getting a metals and minerals analysis would be a good idea, but I’d have to trust the lab first!” he states. “The ground tells you most things. If you have worm casts, then you have worms. If starlings are feeding on the square, then you have a leatherjacket or chafer problem coming. If you have yellowish patches in the grass, then get some air in and feed a bit. I try and feed as little as possible and get the roots right down. I will take samples to check on root health and depth though, and act accordingly.” So, is there anything he wants to
improve? “Getting the square to its current standard and getting it respected by visitors has been very rewarding, so it follows that the outfield is next,” he states. “I want to get more air in, eradicate broadleaved weeds and pull the moss out. Don’t we all? It’s the thing that will take us to another level and raise match aggregate totals and the standard of batting and fielding. If a batsman gets value for a shot along the ground, then he’s not going to hit it in the air, is he? The outfield is too slow at present.” “I try to minimise any chemical application,” continues Eddy. “We are blessed with some superb wildlife in the area and I believe anything I apply is not going to improve their situation. I’m not an organic freak, I just try to keep everything in proportion. A good example is our car park. Because I haven’t applied three lots of glyphosate this year, the gravel is studded with loads of ground hugging weeds which are used by a large flock of linnets and goldfinches. I think that’s a balance. The cars can have the car park in season and the finches in the winter.” “Fairy ring is a major problem though,” bemoans Eddy. “Whatever I do seems to have little effect.” “Fortunately, I am not blighted by dogwalkers because we are fenced in. Fox
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