SUMMER SPORTS


Halesowen Cricket Club


A whole lot of Patchwork


With the help of a strong squad, Dave Harvey and ALS Contracts, ambitious Gary ‘Patch’ Patchett, 57, hopes to contribute to a swift promotion for Halesowen Cricket Club


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he Club is currently in Division 1 of the Birmingham League and this, as a consequence of the recent reorganisation of the League structure, means they’re in the top twenty-four clubs in the Greater West Midlands area, alongside Himley, Bridgnorth and others.


Gary commented: “Our ground has recently been voted third in the division for pitches in play and second for outfield quality and I think, with the right pitch in place, which is what we’re working towards at the moment, we can help to take this club even further.”


“This year, we’ve had our renovations done with outside contracting help for the


first time in five years. I knew there were benefits, but I had no idea that the operation would be so smooth.”


“In March 2017, ALS Contracts brought down an Amazone Profihopper and Bobcat digger. We had 120 tonnes of sand delivered from Bathgate Silica Sand, and what happened afterwards was like a scene out of Thunderbirds.”


“They got the artic in place, the two machines came off it, then they proceeded to spread three or four tonnes at a time ... a couple of hours later, it looked like a beach out there. It was fantastic.”


“We had a big problem with bobble in the outfield and I didn’t want to get the surface flat by just rolling it. Instead, I wanted to


avoid compression, so concentrated on building it up in lighter areas, rather than reducing it in heavier spots.”


“So, we did a lot of work with a twelve-tine pedestrian spiker, which takes about twenty- five hours to cover the whole outfield but, thankfully, I got it done in about four days.” “We spiked down to about six inches, overseeded with Maxwell’s LM3 (which I find to be a good allround outfield seed), then laid the sand down. I’ve got a chain mat that I tow with a compact tractor, which worked the sand into the tine holes.”


“We got some good growth for the first month of the season, but we were getting maybe the odd puff of sand dust when the ball struck the ground. But then, after the


PC October/November 2018


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