Educational Establishments
The grounds team (l-r): Jack Bolsover; Guy Gooding; Sam Wiles; Clive Bird; Stuart Palmer, Head Groundsman, (sitting on tractor), Stephen Burdett; Richard Jones and John Weatherington
“ John Crawley 64 I PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016
We have slower spin nets at one end, the middle lanes are medium pace and, at the other end they’re quick; so we can manoeuvre kids about. We have a big link with the Northamptonshire Premier League club and their cricketers always look forward to using them
inter-school three-week long festivals of cricket, which certainly creates an interesting dynamic for the groundcare team,” he adds. “They are still busy renovating the cricket
squares when it’s time to prepare for football and rugby as the autumn term starts.”
Although the summer concert has been
shelved, a bustling Speech Day involves erecting a 100m marquee to hold 2,000 guests for prize-giving presentations, converting for the evening revelry, music and fireworks of the Leavers’ Ball in the grounds - all adding further workload in preparing for and dismantling the infrastructure for a highlight of the school year. Even with a team of some twenty-two
grounds and gardening professionals, the maintenance is increasingly round the clock and round the year as the take-up of the school’s provision mounts. The machinery shed is suitably large to
accommodate the extensive fleet. Only half of it is devoted to housing tractors and mowers however. “In the other half are welfare areas and workshop facilities,” says Richard. “One of our groundsmen is a qualified
mechanic, which is very handy. Historically, we had to send away machinery for maintenance, but we are striving to make the process more self-sustaining as downtime for specialist kit can cause problems.
“We mainly purchase equipment -
preferring to capitalise items then depreciating them under a planned maintenance programme.” As estates bursar, Richard must view the big picture on the costs of maintaining such a diverse spread of facility - both sport and non-sport. Head groundsman Stuart Palmer and head gardener Mark Bird report to department head Nick Tebbs, who in turn reports to Richard. The strategy for cricket is to create
surfaces allowing an even more intensive fixtures calendar under what is an inclusive agenda. “We pride ourselves on our cricket,” states Richard. “The development of facilities is about presenting the opportunity for everyone to excel.” Extensive on-site medical, physiotherapy and sports analysis support helps treat and tune pupils in that bid.”
The clay underlying much of the estate
The new ten-lane cricket net facility. John Crawley features in a YouTube video discussing its benefits (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erlwyQQIRLQ)
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