CRICKET
T
he Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence at Canterbury is one of a handful of county cricket venues that have an aura about them, steeped in the game’s history,
and where you want to be, either playing or watching the game. Adrian Llong has been on the ground staff there for six years, with a spell in charge of Kent’s outground, The County Ground, Beckenham. This will be his second season as head groundsman at Canterbury. He was good enough to break off from duties out in the middle for a phone chat about life in lockdown. This year it is 150 years since the formation of Kent County Cricket Club. It is a special year for the club, one of celebration. How have things changed since February when everyone must have been brimming with optimism and readiness? There was
then a definite buzz about the coming months, Adrian recalls.
“The whole grounds team here was in full
flow. After really testing weather, we had been really pleased with how our preparation work had gone.”
“Pre-season had been a challenge to us,
that’s for sure. There were some parts of the ground that lay wet throughout the winter and spring, despite our excellent drainage system.”
“The wet conditions meant we had a constant battle with leatherjackets on the outfield too. They decimated the grass in certain patches.” “We’d had to use the flat sheet covers in February, far earlier than usual, in order to have pitches ready to use for pre-season, but surfaces were looking really good. Then someone ‘switched the lights out’ and life,
let alone cricket, was put on hold,” he says. Kent County Cricket Club had initially furloughed the majority of its non-playing staff and this was followed on April 9th with the furloughing of all its playing staff, with the exception of captain Sam Billings, who has been helping with the club’s community work, and Joe Denly, who has a central contract with England. These decisions followed extensive discussions between first class counties, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA). The situation has been reviewed since then but, as things stand, there is to be no cricket of any kind until July 1st at the earliest.
In an official statement in early April, Director of Cricket Paul Downton said: “Cricket is, of course, of secondary
Cloudy skies and lights, but play and a good crowd at Canterbury for a Division One County Championship game last season
PC June/July 2020 79
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