these Open Championship Clubs choose to relief grind - Pitchcare

Summer Sports - Cricket
trimming of five tall popular trees on one
side of our ground. These trees need to
be halved in height, as they are causing a
severe lack of sunlight which is helping to
produce some serious moss. As we know,
grass doesn’t grow in the shade but moss
does. I’ve obtained a good competitive
quote for this. This part of the outfield
needs some money spent on it in the form
of scarifying and reseeding, but there is
no point doing that until we do
something about the trees which, of
course, also make the leaves situation
much worse in autumn and winter.
Also heavy on my wish list is some
machinery which I do without, but is
really quite important. One is a sarrel
roller. I had a spiker reel on my old
Autorake but the reel has fallen apart.
Secondly, a pedestrian sprayer, I would
like to use more liquid fertilisers. So that’s
probably over a grand for the two. I’ll
probably have to keep wishing.
In the long term, I could do with a sit
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82 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012
on rotary with collector. Collecting leaves
up over two hectares with a 15 inch
Hayter does get a tad tiresome - a bit like
painting the Forth Bridge with a
toothbrush - and cutting the outfield in
the winter with a triple is virtually
impossible, because of the dampness and
worm casts.
I’m sure other clubs get by with less,
and some more, but that’s about where
I’m at for what I consider basic costs to
produce surfaces that meet the demands
of an ECB premier league.
This brings me on to the thorny issue of
funding.
Our first team currently play in division
one in the ECB Surrey Championship,
just below the Premier Division. Clubs in
the Premier Division get, I believe, £1,000
from the ECB. In Division One, we are
subjected to the same scrutiny and
requirements that are put on the Premier
Division by the ECB, but we receive no
such aforementioned financial help. It’s
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just a thought that higher demands are
placed on facilities if you play in the top
two divisions, so it doesn’t seem
unreasonable that you should receive the
same funding. £1,000 doesn’t go that far,
but it would help a bit.
The ECB has control of how we play
our weekend cricket. The argument made
is that we need a structured progression
throughout our leagues towards the aim
of producing county players through to
English Test players. However, county
cricket is littered with Kolpak and
overseas players; it’s not as bad as
professional football, but it’s getting that
way, and now club cricket is going the
same way.
How many players, for example,
playing ECB premier division cricket
actually pay a club subscription and or
match fee? Maybe it’s worse down south,
because not many down here do.
Thankfully, in my opinion, our club does
not go down that route. We couldn’t
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The Wharf, Rye Road, Newenden, Kent, TN18 5QG
Tel: 01797 252299 Fax: 01797 253115