Budgeting for
CLUB CRICKET
Maintenance of any sport surface needs to be paid for, that's simply a fact of life. But exactly what is it that you should be paying for and what are the actual priorities as far as club cricket goes? JON LAWRENCE, Grounds Manager at Weston-super-Mare Cricket Club looks at the basic costs involved
W
hilst every cricket groundsman would probably like to have a county standard square that
often isn’t a practical ambition. Local ground conditions (what’s in the soil etc.) and budgetary restrictions will greatly influence the standard of surface that can be produced. Regardless of the standard of cricket played, the basic maintenance is exactly the same:
Autumn: renovations, this is what will define the standard of your surface for the coming year.
Late Autumn/early winter: aeration.
Winter: cutting regular (as required) to encourage tillering and develop a dense sward.
Spring: pre-season rolling.
Summer: track preparation for actual use.
Everything we do to a cricket ground is 68
designed so that we get the best possible results in the summer months, but it is what is done outside of the summer months that will have the biggest bearing on how good a playing surface we produce. You won’t produce a good playing surface without the correct resources. At the most basic those resources are: seed, topdressing (loam) and machinery. Seed and topdressing need to be bought, machinery needs to be maintained. There often seems to be many discussions/comments on how much it costs to maintain a cricket ground. So here are (roughly) my budget requirements for any given year.
Loam:
Six to eight bags per track at approximately £4 per bag. I’ll go through some 216 bags (27 tracks in total) during renovations, and I reckon to use around two. bags per track during
the season (for end repairs etc) which means that I need 270 bags of loam.
Seed:
The recommended sowing rate for the majority of Dwarf Rye grasses is 35g/m2
When carrying out my renovations I'll sow at 70g/m2
as I believe 35g/m2 too sparse a sward. At 70g/m2 I’ll use
4.7kg of seed per track which means that I need a total of 126kg of seed. In spring I’ll overseed again, this time at 35g/m2 which means I need some 63kg for spring. During the summer months I’ll use around another two bags (40kg) when carrying out repairs. That means I need a total of 230kg of seed each year - rounded up that means 12 x 20kg bags.
Fertiliser:
I only apply fertiliser to my squares, the outfield I pretty much allow to take care of itself. I don’t box off clippings on the outfield. Exactly what fertiliser you need could vary with the makeup of your
gives .
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