Summer Sports - Cricket
A deluge on 8th June 2016 ...
Steve Loveridge is a regular visitor between April and July and takes care of all total and selective herbicide applications
... but fixtures went ahead as planned
showing a more modern day perforated plastic pipe system being laid above the original drainage as part of a full size football pitch construction. It’s fair to say Mother Nature rarely wins here. I’ve witnessed a storm where 30mm of rain fell in the space of forty‐five minutes at 4:35pm. The ground was flooded up to 100mm in some parts yet the crown green bowls fixtures went ahead as scheduled at 7:00pm and, the following day, our 2nd XI cricket fixture against Yorkshire CCC started on time. It’s approaching eight years since a bowls fixture was cancelled here due to rain. On both the square and the outfield worms are a problem. Until its revocation, we were still using carbendazim. The industry is continually changing and you can no longer depend on a bottle to rid the various pests and diseases. I’ve got brewery magazines from the 1950s showing that lead arsenate was used here for both worms and leatherjackets. It’s almost certain that chlordane was relied on before its ban in 1992. Who knows what the future holds in that respect but, for now, we depend entirely on more cultural methods. We don’t always get what we want in terms of machinery, but there’s still a huge advantage in that we are the official county owned outground and benefit from their equipment. An Iseki tractor is due for delivery this month and that will, quite literally, increase the manpower and be a godsend for moving sheets, covers, sightscreens and materials.
106 I PC APRIL/MAY 2018
The Limagrain CS6 biodiversity mix yielded improved results in 2017
The head groundsman at Edgbaston Stadium, Gary Barwell, arranges for any spraying to be undertaken by Steve Loveridge of Complete Weed Control and end of season vertidraining of the cricket square and outfield by Keith Exton. End of season renovations are completed in‐house, starting with three scarification passes with a Graden GS04, each of which are cleaned up using a Sisis Auto‐Rotorake Mk4. Overseeding is completed with a Blec Uni‐Seeder in two to three directions. The square is topdressed by hand with four to
“
five tonnes of loam matching that of the original construction. Finally a granular 8:12:8 pre‐seeder feed is applied. Gary selects any granular nutrition and this autumn opted for ICL’s Sierraform GT K‐Step 6:0:27. The outfield receives one slow release feed a year. In 2017, this was in the form of a 15:0:25, giving a twenty to twenty‐ four week temperature controlled release pattern.
It’s fair to say
Mother Nature rarely wins here. I’ve witnessed a storm where 30mm of rain fell in the space of 45 minutes at 4:35pm yet the crown green bowls fixtures went ahead at 7.00pm
Any thatch or rootzone removed during renovations do not go to waste, be that from the cricket square or bowling greens. Sections of the ground remain undeveloped and this includes part of the footprint from the original sports and social club. In 2016, we decided to trial a wildflower mixture on what was effectively crushed building demolition material. We opted for Limagrain’s CS6 Biodiversity mixture, but the annuals, bi‐annuals and perennials struggled due to the absence of any soil or organic matter. Come the end of season renovation in 2016, we recycled what was removed from the cricket and bowls scarification and this produced much improved results in 2017. Last year we went one step further and utilised the 51 tonnes of soil excavated for the new cricket wickets, spreading it over the wildflower area. Fingers are crossed for even better results in 2018. The wildflower area may only be temporary, but is our contribution to biodiversity. After all, we are surrounded by land owned by the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust, including the nearby
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