Two Weeks Since Any Action

Today Sunday the 29th of April is two full weeks since we played our first game at Kirkstall C Cit was a preseason friendly against Leeds Met University and that's it. One training session has been possible but that was only on the outfield the grass pitches have been unfit.

I have sheeted and the water ran under despite our sheet covering 4 pitches, so I take them off just as they are drying out a little we put them back on -thinking that is the right thing to do- then we get disease and draw moisture up and rain runs under again, so I take them off and start the process all over again.

Our League sent out an Email on Friday with a very strong suggestion -in red type face- that all the matches would be called off and rearranged for the end of the season but then failed to implement the plan.

We called the game off at Kirkstall as preparation had been not been possible, however to add to the problem the opposition insisted on travelling -which they are fully entitled to do according to the rules- this caused problems and upset.

Tomorrow Monday it will be two weeks and a day since the square was cut it has never been as long Summer or Winter since I have been groundsman here.

When the Sun Shines the World is a Happier Place.

Hodgy

April 2012

Cricket

 This is a game called Cricket some times played in the summertime in England. 

Still Very Wet

Despite it not raining today I still had standing water on the square this evening. We actually saw some sun today however the forecast is for heavy rain tomorrow then sunny spells and heavy showers for rest of week.

Got down to ground mid morning to meet a couple of people but everywhere was still very very wet.

So I mowed the net area surrounds thinking I would mow the pitches with the Mastiff but they were too wet for that, so I used the rotary on them too.

Nets in bright late afternoon sunlight.

 Senior training was called off due to wet outfield.

The square has not been cut for eight full days now and is getting very long as the fertiliser applied a couple of weeks ago is still active.

 Some drying of the square had taken place over the day so myself, Jos1st -team Skipper- and his brother Andy -Cricket Chair- had a discussion as to what the best way forward would be, to try get the 1st teams weekend game on. We decided to cover the used pitch I had thinking that with little preparation time likely to be available, that would be the pitch to try play on. Prior to Saturday I have Leeds Met on Friday who will have to use that same pitch if they are able to play at all and the juniors on Friday night.

Its a nightmare!

Hodgy



Another Wet Monday

Had to go collect some brush frames from galvanises this morning which wasn't such a pain as it was raining and I couldn't work on ground. Phil from Brushes North West came along to collect them and deliver me a brush for a Sisis Lawnman that I have a club interested in.

The blackbird collecting the worms, that the wet weather is bringing to the surface -enjoy!

I should have a Leeds Met University game Tuesday along with club training at night followed by another Uni game on Wednesday sadly they have been cancelled due to the awful weather. So now I have a Uni game on Friday followed by a Junior match.

No wind to blow the rain away.

It stopped raining at about 1-00 pm so Andy Siddall Cricket Chairman and I took the sheets off only to find fungal disease starting up and water that had run under both of them. I decided not to re cover as that would have encouraged more disease and held the moisture in. The only way they will dry now is if it stops raining. With standing water on the square there was little to be done there so I fit the 6 foot brush to the back of the tractor and brushed the outfield to drop the water from the grass and disperse the worm casts.

I fit the gang mowers to the tractor and cut the outfield as it was a week since I had been able to do it and I like to do it at least twice at this time of year. It was spitting a little when I was doing the job but nothing to stop me.

Then just as I had finished the heavens opened and flooded the place again, which put paid to Junior training for  tonight.

The forecast for the rest of the week is not much better -difficult times for all groundsmen.

Hodgy



Upperthong! Yes Upperthong!

Upperthong a little village on the tops above Holmfirth in fact 950 feet above sea level. Is where I was delivering loam, seed and fertiliser to this afternoon it is always windy up there but today it was still and hissing it down.

Upperthong is a club formed not much more than a dozen years ago, now staging over 100 fixtures a season -a real Cricketing success.

The paddy fields of Kirkstall before I set off to Upperthong.

Some Cricket leagues have cancelled all matches this weekend but not the Aire Wharfe. Sometimes I think to encourage Cricket to be played more flexibility should be applied. How can groundsman especially part time ones have prepared a Cricket pitch this week? Impossible, so the games that take place will hardly be cricket but a game played in the hope of steeling a march on clubs who don't play.

After an exec meeting that ended at 11-15pm I am off to bed now.

Good night.

Hodgy

Rain Rain and more Rain

Today it rained just about all day, so I took the chance to sort out collections and deliveries of fertiliser and other groundsman's requisites.

I have done my best by sheeting but I fear it will have run under. I am also concerned that I may be getting disease under the white sheet as it has been on already for two days I will only know when I dare take it off.

These two photos were taken this morning -Wednesday.

Standing water at the bottom end of the ground, within an hour of the rain stopping this will be gone due to our drainage system -which was installed a few years ago now with an ECB grant- is very efficient and has saved many a game.

 

By the time the afternoon came a pair of ducks arrived. It is amazing because I never see them until it rains that hard the outfield floods and then they appear as if from the ether.

This weather is making preparations very difficult -nigh impossible- it is a stressful time for groundsmen but we just have to deal with it as we cant control it.

Off to bed.

"John-Boy please let it be fair in the morning Nigh Night"

Hodgy

 

IOG/ECB Foundation Course for Cricket Groundsmen Spring

Tuesday I staged the IOG/ECB Cricket Foundation Course at the ground it was very wet but I had covered the pitch we were to work on.

 Ian Mather -Brewster -IOG- and myself arranged the course so that we could spend maximum time out on the ground. Ian went through the introduction and the theory first , giving time for the rain to clear. On a fine day I would have all the machinery and equipment out by the time the candidates arrived but despite me being on site at 7-00am that was not possible it rained until about 11-00 am.

 

Then the sun came out.

As the course is a practical hands on one, here I can bee seen giving operational instruction to one of the candidates.

A couple of the guys mowing the pitch.

Simultaneous raking and mowing- or is that synchronised???

Clippings on the left "rakings" on the right, look at the colour difference. We have to rake out all this rubbish or it will absorb ball energy, making for a slow and more than likely low pitch. Raking  is one of the most important parts of pitch preparation and is one that is often over looked at club level.

You must rake out your pitches!

I made sure we left plenty of grass on as it is early in the season so it will add a little protection to the soft surface, also this is to be the under 11/13  twenty one yard pitch and as such will be cut out from April till the end of July.

Marking out with frame and strings to make sure every thing lines up and is to size.

Demonstration of filling the bowlers foot holes.

Yet another batch of informed and inspired groundsmen pass through the gates of Kirkstall Educational Cricket Club

Thanks to the IOG ( Ian Mather-Brewster) and the Local Cricket Board.

See you in August for the Autumn and Winter Module.

A long  hard worthwhile day starting at 7-00am and finishing at around 9-00 pm after a short club meeting.

No sleeping aids required.

Hodgy