Summer Sports - Cricket “ “ 98 I PC APRIL/MAY 2018
When I was fourteen or so, my maths teacher, who was the local cricket club groundsman, wanted a non-player to give him a hand for a few hours a week, so I took him up
White‐out three weeks before 2018’s first match
Kent, then just two days away is, not surprisingly, called off on Karl’s advice and to his relief. He has a spring in his step and a smile on his face anyway, because it’s just three days since Ireland clinched the Grand Slam at Twickenham.
When I asked him about being unique amongst first class head groundsmen, he said: “I’m an invader, the only one at the moment.”
Cricket in Ireland is very club‐based. There’s very little school cricket. You learn about everything to do with the game from being involved in a club. That’s exactly how Karl got his love for it, though oddly, in his case, it did actually stem from school life. “When I was fourteen or so, my maths teacher, who was the local cricket club groundsman, wanted a non‐player to give him a hand for a few hours a week, so I took him up.”
On camera ‐ the mid‐square strip ahead of last season’s England South Africa ODI
“What started as a good way of earning a bit of pocket money, gave me the bug for cricket, and the beginnings of a passion for producing pitches. I ended up being a player too, though nothing more than an okay second teamer.“
Having these big names using my pitch gave me an even bigger appetite for cricket groundsmanship. It had become much more testing and rewarding
The Clontarf Club is in the leafy northern suburbs of Dublin and has always been at the forefront of cricket in Ireland, winning trophies and attracting good players the norm. It had given Karl a handy weekend and summer job for four or five years too, and a taste for a future career.
The groundsman at Clontarf retired and
Karl readily ‘filled his boots’. Presentation of the playing area had always been important, but it was getting more so, and the role had moved on from being part‐time to a seven‐ month full time job. The then Irish Cricket Union (now Cricket Ireland) helped him with contacts to get work in Australia and South Africa during the winter months here. His career was well underway.
Clontarf had hosted county games and the then Benson and Hedges Cup matches involving the Irish national side. For Karl, being involved in this higher level of the game opened his eyes to an even higher level of groundsmanship.
“I remember the first big win over a
county. It was Middlesex, with the likes of Gatting and Ramprakash playing,” said Karl. “Having these big names using my pitch gave me an even bigger appetite for cricket groundsmanship. It had become much more testing and rewarding. I was lucky. In the right place at the right time, you could say.” In 1999, when Clontarf hosted a Cricket World Cup game between West Indies and Bangladesh, it was Karl’s real ‘eureka moment’.
“Sky cameras, crowds of people on banks of temporary seating. It was a whole new big match experience,” he recalls. “I knew then I had to get into the county cricket scene proper, but I dared to dream of Test and international level.”
After plugging away looking for opportunities, one came at New Road Worcester. He spent a rewarding year at the county ground as a member of the grounds staff, and the River Severn flooded the playing area no less than three times whilst he was there ‐ a test for any aspiring professional.
In 2008, the post of deputy at the Ageas Bowl came up and he got it, working under Nigel Gray. When Nigel retired in 2015, Karl took up the reins. This season is his third in charge.
When Karl came to the Ageas Bowl it was still the Rose Bowl, and in the early stages of redevelopment aimed at making it a viable international and Test arena. There wasn’t the impressive 4‐star Hilton hotel with its many ‘rooms with a view’, and two of the main stands hadn’t been built. In his ten years here, he’s seen rapid growth into one of the country’s leading cricket venues. He remembers the first Ageas Bowl Test ‐ England and Sri Lanka ‐ in 2011, and the disappointment of dealing with four wet days. Including Karl, the Ageas Bowl has a full‐ time ground staff of seven. The team’s work routine is straightforward and democratic. Everyone works Monday to Friday 8.00am to 5.00pm, whilst evenings and weekends are a matter of fair and equal rotation, as required. “We try and make sure everybody does the same number of days and weekends each month,” he said. “A couple of the chaps play
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