Summer Sports - Cricket
GETTING Personal...
Andy Ward - Cyprus, Silk purse and Cameron Diaz!
Who are you? Andy Ward, Head Groundsman at Leicestershire CCC since 2010, I joined the club in 1985 on a training scheme.
Family status? Married with 2 daughters aged 17 and 12.
Who’s your hero and why? I don’t really have a hero as such, but I admire all the other Head Groundsmen on the County circuit, a wealth of knowledge and experience of preparing pitches in variable weather conditions and with a heavy fixture schedule to boot.
What would you change about yourself? Id like my hair to grow back.
What’s your guilty pleasure? Action figures, my loft is full of them. I used to be a secret nerd but I guess the secret’s out now.
What do you drop everything for? My family.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Winning the ECB 1 day pitch award in the 2013 season.
Glass half full or half empty? Half empty. Climate change - fact or fiction? Fact.
What’s your favourite season? Autumn, everything put to bed and catch up on some well earned rest.
What are your pet peeves? Slow over rates and being told how to do my job by people with no groundsmanship experience.
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? Having a beer in Cheers bar in Protaras Cyprus.
What’s the best part of your job? Working outdoors in the sunshine.
… and the worst? Showery days and covers. If it’s going to rain then it needs to rain properly.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To retire and spend months away on holiday with the wife.
Favourite record, and why? Green Day, American Idiot, not a weak track on the whole album.
Who wouldn’t you like to be? The rest of the Premier League when Leicester City takes its rightful place there next season.
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Call the Travel Agents.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? You can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? If the wife is busy then Cameron Diaz.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? Bring the retirement age down to 60; people have to work far too long and hard in this country.
82 I PC JUNE/JULY 2014 The Auto-roller has been a huge improvement on the previous machine
excess snowfall and frosts, not just out of season, but during the season as well. Preparing pitches in England is often a challenging task as we have such variable weather, that’s why I like to have a thirteen day pitch preparation regime, even in the height of summer - better to be on the safe side! So, if the pitch looks like it’s getting ready too early, I just sheet it down with a Stuart Canvas Pro-tech sheet and hold back the drying process.”
“The work done by cricket groundsmen in this country is undertaken in the most adverse weather conditions anywhere. Our season starts in early April, so the squad like to practice outside from mid-March onwards, which means we are covering from mid-February to give the pitches enough time to dry. That time of year we encounter frosts and snow; I don’t imagine any other
cricket playing country in the world have to prepare pitches in the conditions we do here in this country. Cricket is supposed to be a summer sport, not a winter sport! Years ago, the players wouldn’t report back for training until April 1st. Nowadays, they expect to be out playing matches by then.”
To help combat this, they have plenty of covers and numerous ground sheets. Covering has come on a long way since Andy started back in 1985. Back then, it was heavy vinyl ground sheets which weighed a tonne but, thankfully, the new lightweight sheets are far easier to handle and kinder on the muscles and joints. As well as the Pro-tech ground sheets, they also use county grade standard sheets, all far more user friendly than the sheets of years ago. “I always like to remind any new member of groundstaff of this as they have it so easy now. At
Battling adverse weather conditions
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