Summer Sports - Cricket


Sky cameras, crowds of people on banks of temporary seating. It was a whole new big match experience. I knew then I had to get into the county cricket scene proper, but I dared to dream of Test and international level


” The Ageas Bowl Hampshire’s


England’s one-day cricket captain is an Irishman, but Eoin Morgan is not the only one from the Republic making a mark in the game. Neville Johnson went to the Ageas Bowl, one of the new breed of cricket stadia, to meet Karl McDermott, the only Irish head groundsman in first class cricket


shamrock ‘invader’ T


he Ageas Bowl (formerly the Rose Bowl) has been the home of Hampshire County Cricket Club since 2001. Only three weeks before the start of the 2018 season it looks in pretty good nick yet, only twenty‐four hours earlier, the lush green expanse of outfield was white, suffering the effects of a second visit from the so‐called Beast from the East. Like most of the country, the Ageas Bowl was hit in March by two separate and disruptive snow events. The second of these was barely over, and there was still evidence of winter debris when I visited.


The bout of snow and ice a couple of weeks earlier had apparently caused the outfield to become quite yellowish after thawing. This


time, a more rapid thaw had left the grass looking pretty good, to the relief of Head Groundsman Karl McDermott. His team had scraped the snow off the covers and a bit of early spring sun and a slightly warmer wind saw off the outfield blanket.


“It has been so wet and, more recently, cold, since Christmas that we’ve struggled to get work done,” said Karl.


Winter’s late double whammy meant it had been the worst ever pre‐season build up at the Ageas Bowl. Karl said he had never known the profile to be as soft as it was this year. He was banking on a lengthy dry spell as the days ticked by to the opening fixture.


A walk across the ground showed just how soft, even soggy, it was. A first friendly against


PC APRIL/MAY 2018 I 97


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164