Summer Sports - Cricket
It is vital that we have enough wickets of sufficient quality to get through a busy First Class fixture schedule without falling foul of pitch penalties, whilst also meeting the needs of the Coach/Captain combo, Sky TV etc!
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encouraging. All work has been done in house, firstly because these wickets need to be my progeny and no-one else’s - I know what I want and I want it doing my way. Secondly, the high cost of relaying wickets is at least halved if I use my own labour. At Hove, we use Surrey Loams Ltd’s GOSTD Super Natural loam, both for topdressing and for the construction of pitches. This is a wonderful material (with very good parity between batches) in that it potentially produces very hard, very fast pitches. However, it does need skilful looking after and appropriate equipment. At the other grounds we use: Ongar, Surrey and Boughton County since each square is different and has different needs. Our outfield is made out of the indigenous
soil, which has a clay content of around 29% and a silt content of 51%. When the soil is in a dry, well structured state it drains very well, but if we destructure the soil, for example by driving on it in the wrong conditions, by hosting concerts in wet weather or, more usually, by having to use the blotter for long periods of time, then drainage becomes slow. We have no pipe drainage whatsoever other than some which I installed three years ago in the 10m around the square.
What end of season renovations do you plan to undertake?
We carry out a thorough scarification of the square and nets, with approximately five to
quarter-finals and semi-finals should the club progress that far. This doesn’t sound like a lot of cricket but, by comparison, I used to look after a Premier League ground with over 100 adult fixtures per year on one square and very poor machinery provision - and it was a doddle compared to this! We also have numerous practice days to
prepare for. For the 1st XI, I need sixteen fresh pitches to see me through the season. Since we only have eleven available at most - and one of these is out of action this year due to it being relaid - it is clear that mid- season renovations are vital to success. I inherited a tired old square at Hove; approximately 145 years old with severe
layering problems. Since 2009, we have undertaken a relaying programme, however, on such a small square, this is a painful process since wickets that have been dug up cannot be used the following season at the very least and, for the sake of prudence, we plan for them to be out of action for the following two seasons. It is vital that we have enough wickets of
sufficient quality to get through a busy First Class fixture schedule without falling foul of pitch penalties, whilst also meeting the needs of the Coach/Captain combo, Sky TV etc!
To date, we have relaid all but three of the First Class wickets and progress is very
Relaid wicket - nearly done! PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014
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