Educational Establishments
GETTING Personal...
Mark Field - from milking cows to cricket wickets - don’t panic!
Who are you? Mark Field, born on a dairy farm in Australia and moved to the UK in 1997.
Family Status? Married to Sara, with one daughter, Claudia, and three sons, Callum, Ryan and Glenn.
Who’s your hero and why? My oldest brother who passed away twenty- five years ago - because he was so good to me.
What would you change about yourself? Be calmer (that’s what the wife says).
What’s your guilty pleasure? Doughnuts and cake.
What do you drop everything for? The weather forecast on the television.
What has been the highlight of your career so far? Being able to work at Lord’s for the 2013 Ashes test. Glass half full or half empty? Full, the other half is air. Climate change - fact or fiction? Fact, fact, fact. What’s your favourite season? Summer.
What are your pet peeves? People who only do half a job or finish on the dot and leave a job unfinished.
If you could go anywhere right now where would it be? Canada. What is the best part of your job? Cricket/Summer. ... and the worst? Winter, when it is wet and miserable.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To work at a first class cricket ground full time.
Who wouldn’t you like to be? Someone with no common sense.
Favourite record, and why? Anything by The Foo Fighters, because they are good!
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? My wife.
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Travel.
If you were to describe yourself as a musical instrument, what would you be and why? A bass drum. What is the best advice you have ever been given? Think.
What is your favourite smell? My wife’s Tommy perfume (when she is wearing it, of course).
What do you do in your spare time? Landscape and garden at home.
What is the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? “Can’t you just cut another one out?” - when it’s been too wet to play on a cricket pitch.
What is your favourite piece of kit? Verti-Drain and Twitter, you can lean a lot from other turfies.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Me, myself and I.
What talent would you like to have? Another language or two.
What law/ legislation would you like to see introduced? No stupid people.
72 I PC APRIL/MAY 2014
sports; cricket, rugby, hockey and athletics. The field is large enough to accommodate two cricket squares (1st and 2nd team), first team rugby and, in the summer, provides enough space between the two squares to facilitate an eight lane, 400m running track. The second playing field provides four
grass rugby pitches, one large, sand dressed artificial pitch and four artificial tennis courts. Mark regularly cleans and brushes the artificial pitches to maintain a clean and consistent surface. This year, the school has taken on
William Barter as an apprentice to help Mark cope with the demands of the site. For the previous two years, he had been working on his own after his son, Callum, left to join the greenkeeping team at the nearby The Grove. “He is doing extremely well,” says Mark proudly. “He started as an apprentice with me on a one year government paid scheme and was then recommended by his Oaklands College course tutor to their Course Manager, Phil Chiverton. Over the years, Mark has built up a
decent portfolio of machinery to help him cope with the workload. Recently, he managed to acquire a couple of new mowers - a Dennis FT510 and a Dennis FT610 - to help prepare the cricket squares. “But it’s always a juggling act with the budget,” stresses Mark, “as, last year, I had to do my own renovations to save money, especially as we had spent a lot of it on the new Verti-Drain!”. When budgets do allow, Mark calls in local contractor, AT Bone, to assist him. His cricket pitches are maintained using Surrey Loams Ltd GOSTD 125 loam which, after such a wet winter, “has suddenly dried out very quickly” due to a dramatic improvement in the weather. “For the first twenty days of March it was constantly dry and warm, with temperatures well into double figures. This has meant that the cricket tables were showing signs of cracking and probably in need of some irrigation to aid preparations for the first pitches to
played on in April, when the school starts its cricket season.” When working on his own, Mark
would often find himself working between sixty and seventy hours a week to cope with the workload, especially during term change overs and at the height of the grass cutting season. He regularly starts work at 5.00am to ensure he can get most of the mowing done before the children arrive for school. However, he is hoping that these early starts may be a thing of the past now he has got an apprentice to help him.
The majority of the site is cut using a
Trimax Procut S3 rotary mower; remaining areas are cut with an array of pedestrian mowers and strimmers to suit requirements. Mowing is generally carried out once a
week. However, there are times when Mark will mow some areas twice a week to keep on top of grass growth. Rugby pitches are kept at a height of 50mm, whilst cricket outfields and the athletic tracks are maintained between 30- 35mm. Fertilising is kept to a minimum, usually a couple of feeds in spring and summer, followed by an autumn feed to help the pitches through the winter months.
Linemarking is carried out with a spray jet linemarker, using string lines to maintain straight lines. These are generally overmarked weekly, with the most time consuming job being the setting and initial marking out the eight lane 400 metre running track. The cricket squares are maintained at
a height of 15mm, with a seven day preparation regime. This involves reducing the cut gradually to a playing height of 3-4mm. In that time, Mark will scarify, clean out, mow and mark out the pitches for play.With a heavy fixture list, he always tries to get as many matches as he can from each prepared strip. The school has several artificial cricket practice nets which help reduce the
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