Summer Sports - Cricket


hold the year’s opening First XI game, as well as another match. On the 5th, the water was only about six inches away from that sheet, and we knew then that it would deepen. We made the decision to remove the sheet.” “In the past, we’ve left it on to try to prevent the silt settling beneath it. What happens, though, is that the sheet lifts due to the large amounts of water and the silt just settles underneath it anyway.”


“Luckily, the water somehow remained on the primary wicket for only about four days, whilst other parts of the field took longer to recover.”


Tim’s management advice


“We’ve just had to brush that due to the lower levels of silt than in the average year, but this is what usually constitutes a lot of our time.”


“There was just the initial game of the season which had to be amended. The


“ 50 I PC JUNE/JULY 2018


players had been in Abu Dhabi and had hardly played since arriving back,”


“What should have been an inter‐squad game was changed to a friendly, two‐day match against Gloucestershire CCC.” “Because of the encroaching water, we phoned Gloucs and asked them whether we could move it to their ground, which they agreed to do for one day. Ironically, we travelled down to Bristol and it rained, so they never bowled a ball!”


“Around day four, there’s nothing we can do while the surface water is still prominent. We used the facilities at Royal Grammar School, Worcester instead, where Sean Lloyd and his team are always very helpful and accommodating.”


“You’re now into the period where their groundstaff are meanwhile trying to prepare for coming matches at the school, so the most useful thing we can do is to help them with their work.”


“Our main priority when arriving back onto a now‐accessible ground is to wash the shed. The water went ankle‐deep, but we still had to hose it down and disinfect it, because you can’t be sure what’s washed up from all the places the water has travelled.”


“You’re tempted then to walk out onto the field and assess the damage. Our experience of other floods, however, has taught us that the longer you can leave it before you head out there, the better the results.” “You have to let it dry out. You do feel under some pressure to help it out, especially so close to the season. But, you can’t give into that, because it won’t help.” “As summer draws in, you’d usually work on anything from a 14‐day to 16‐day preparation window on a First Class pitch. But, because we are on this flood plain, we need to work to a three‐week window.” “We stayed off the field this year until the Wednesday. At that point, when the field is


Because of the encroaching water, we phoned Gloucs and asked them whether we could move it to their ground, which they agreed to do for one day. Ironically, we travelled down to Bristol and it rained, so they never bowled a ball!


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