Summer Sports - Cricket
The new ground’s timbered pavilion
The first used pitch of the Armadillos 2018 season
residence, Club Chairman Phil Davy says that it has been carried out by a series of local groundsmen with occasional professional advice from the Sussex Groundsmen’s Association. Currently, the Sheffield Park square is being managed by Chris Vacher, who looks after a number of local club pitches, including Newick and Maresfield. Andy Jesson has getting on for 500 acres of grounds all told to keep in prime condition. He has a team of eight full‐time professionals and over forty volunteers to ensure that the legacy of Capability Brown lives on and the amenity areas are always first class. As far as the cricket ground surrounds are concerned, regular cut and drop tidying of these areas using a New Holland MC35 with a Port Agric front‐deck is the routine.
Andy had originally been a fine turf man back in the early eighties working on Manchester City Council’s bowling greens and golf courses. In 1986, he switched to his passion, arboriculture, which eventually brought him to Sheffield Park in 2002 as Garden and Park Manager.
The gardens and grounds in his charge are an outdoor flagship attraction for the National Trust and get over 300,000 visitors
each year. Andy says the aim is always to be at the forefront of greener land care and, for this, a number of strict rules are followed. “We are irrigation‐free, pesticide‐free, and fertiliser‐free,” he said. “Our lakes discharge into the River Ouse and we try to demonstrate to the public that we are responsible custodians of the whole property. All trees and shrubs here grow and thrive by the most natural means possible. We only cut grass in the gardens to an inch and a half to ensure greenness.”
“We said to the Armadillos at the outset that we would give them exemptions should they need it, but fertilisers and dressings are kept to a bare minimum.”
Grass care at Sheffield Park is for Andy a complete contrast to his earlier life keeping fine turf playing surfaces trim and doing their job.
He uses general mixtures for parkland and gardens grass areas trying, where appropriate, to encourage wildflower growth. For this reason, in some areas he holds back cutting until about the second week in July, followed by rake off. The grassed parkland areas are a full restoration project aimed at uplifting it from the highly fertilised farmland
it was when in private ownership. This is just one of several ongoing restoration programmes designed to rescue and maintain the heritage landscape of the whole estate. Sustainability is very much the watchword. “Grass here is meant to sit with the trees and shrubs, and be part of the landscape,” he said.
The restored cricket ground is as much a part of the Sheffield Park experience for visitors as anywhere else here. It’s being enjoyed every day, not just on match days. The project has clearly been an enormous success. The Third Earl would undoubtedly approve.
Victorian cricket splendour at Sheffield Park. In the centre are the Third Earl and the Prince of Wales.
The wonderful early summer colour at Sheffield Park 46 I PC JUNE/JULY 2018
The glorious distant view of the Sheffield Park House from the boundary
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