CRICKET Getting Personal
John Dodds - he’d have liked to be a popstar. Not many people know that!
Who are you? John Dodds, Head Groundsman at Scarborough Cricket Club.
Family status? Married.
Who’s your hero and why? Mike Corley, former Scarborough groundsman and TCCB Deputy Pitches Consultant who sadly passed away in 2003. He created my
interest in being a groundsman.
What’s been the highlight of your grounds career so far? Laying and preparing pitches in Toronto, Canada in 2000.
If your younger self saw you now, what would they think? You’ve done okay.
Which famous people wind you up? Footballers.
What job would you love, other than your own? I would have liked to be a popstar. Brexit or Remain? Brexit.
What is your favourite film? The Italian Job (the original one). What scares you? Getting old.
What would your autobiography be called… and who would play you in the film? My Sporting Life in Yorkshire, Michael Caine.
What is your favourite sport? Cricket.
What would you cast into Room 101? Plastic wrapping.
Which historical time and place would you most like to visit? The Victorian era.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To travel the world.
Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? Ben Stokes, Sir Ian Botham and Dame Judy Dench.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Don’t take life too seriously.
What’s your favourite smell? Freshly cut grass.
What’s the daftest work-related question you have ever been asked? How do you get the grass greener in one stripe than the other?
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Dennis FT 610.
What is the single most useful thing you could tell a 16-year-old groundsperson? Listen to experienced people and never be afraid to try things.
What talent would you like to have? To be able to sell myself better.
98 PC October/November 2019
also has a set of flat sheets which cover the whole square should heavy rain be forecast, but he much prefers the mobile covers for their ease of use. John is kept busy when the season is in full swing. “We have Scarborough Seniors who have three sides, county matches, junior cricket (all age groups), and we host all the local cup finals and a lot of junior representative cricket; and the girl's cricket has started to get stronger in recent years. We have no specific girls team at the minute, but that is developing well.” “On average, we will host around one hundred and twenty games a season, along with training sessions between April and September.” “The season has got longer over the years; one of the last games we have is a county second XI game. With the county season being extended, the seconds games marry up with the first XI to keep them match fit, so their last game is at the
end of September, which is a friendly. This means we are one of a few club grounds that are still open.” Steve talks me through the maintenance of the outfield and the pitches. “I will scarify the outfield hard, at least once or twice, using the tractor-mounted Sisis TM1000 Rotorake, which I run without the box on. With the amount of debris that comes out, I have a sweeper collector to clean up the surface. It is then ‘shockwaved’ or verti-drained by an outside contractor, and then I will apply a granular fertiliser. I generally only use a few bags of seed to overseed any high wear areas, but last year, with the extreme temperatures, we found ourselves having to overseed the whole of the outfield with forty bags of a straight ryegrass mix; the same as I use on the square.” “As a rule, I will cut the outfield at 14mm with the Toro Reelmaster, depending on the weather and growth. This varies from one to four
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