Since my last post on Tuesday night I have had to cancel three games Thursday's T20, Fridays Leeds Met Ladies and Fridays Under 11and we are in what my Mother used to call "Flaming June". What going on with our weather? I spend more time looking up the forecast than working at the moment.
Wednesdays Leeds Met quarter final took place when Northumberland were the opposition. The Met boys won that which mean I have a Semi final to stage next Wednesday when either Leeds University or Loughborough will be the visitors.
A few shots from Wednesdays Met Game we had a shower in the morning after that it managed to stay fair for the rest of the day.
Thursday I went over to York to collect a Paladin I had bought at York sales or should I say my friend Jonathan Latham bought it on my behalf. When I arrived home he was gutted that I had forgot to take some photos of his place.
Sorry Jon! by way of an apology here his a link to his blog that he started shortly after this one.
We had over 24 hours of rain between Thursday a Friday here in Leeds and as I cant pull the big sheet on by my self and no one from the second team contacted me to help the pitch for Saturday remained uncovered. This is a pain for me because a wet pitch will take indentations and will almost for certain have to be taken out of play, instead lasting a little longer for "Micky Mouse Games" .
This is how wet the ground was just after the rain stopped on Friday lunch time. So out with the
"Magic Sponge" and mop up. I then -against my better judgement- cut two pitches out after lifting the height of cut so as not to scalp the surface, followed by rolling.
What a mess they look but what could I do? Rolled mud, after this I cut the square and turned parts of it very dark -what am I doing? I was thinking, yet if I didn't then there would be no chance of playing so I had no option but to have a go. I then came off the square with the hope that the warm breeze would help to dry thing out a little.
I then cut the outfield with the little gang mowers attached to the tractor, I was almost done when it came a sharp shower so at about 6-45 I called it a day leaving the final two strips uncut in one direction -they had been cut at right angles but not in line if you can understand what I mean.
Not the best job in the world but the very best I could achieve under the circumstances.
I will go down in the morning and finish off.
No more rain for a while now please!
Hodgy
There is a old saying which I am sure you have mentioned before and it goes " The art of groundsmanship is knowing when to do nothing at all", in these trying weather conditions I have recited this more than ever before!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous
ReplyDeleteYou are of course right with the saying however earlier this season I did just that "nothing at all" when I and the club got a lot of critical abuse of social media. At the end of the day all the guys want is to play cricket and it is my job to do the best I can and thats what I did. The seconds played the Follifoot scored about 187 and we knocked them off. The boys reported that although the pitch didnt look good it played slow and low but was consistant and didnt take chunks out. They were happy so I enjoyed my Saturday night pint or three.
Hodgy