Marshalling his troops - Pitchcare

“In a sector like ours, it
has be a labour of love
to put the hours in and,
for many youngsters, I
don’t feel the passion
is there”
touch.
Vic is a man who likes to go
back to basics, advocating the
benefits of the hands-on
approach. “I’m a big fan of
hand-scarifying, and we also
brush and rake manually each
day,” he explains. “It’s a
practice used widely at
Lord’s, and something that’s
not done enough these days.
The younger groundsmen
prefer to use ride on mowers
instead of getting down on
their hands and knees,” he
says stridently.
Benefitting from one
assistant over the summer, Vic
must knuckle down for the
rest of the year to complete
the necessary tasks himself.
Despite that, he relishes the
challenge and recognises his
need to ensure standards
always remain high - “the
long hours are a part of the
job you just have to accept.”
Still fired with enthusiasm
as he turns fifty, Vic fears for
the prospects of an ‘ageing’
industry. “I have real worries
about the future and the role
of the full-time groundsman
at this level. I don’t see
youngsters coming into the
job in the numbers that they
need to be. We are expected
to work 12 to 14-hour days
for little financial reward, and
that’s something that just
doesn’t appeal to younger
people now,” he states.
Such a trend could cause a
snowball effect, and he fears
that standards will fall if there
are moves to a contractor-led
industry. “In a sector like
ours, it has be a labour of
love to put the hours in and,
for many youngsters, I don’t
feel the passion is there. Not
enough is being done to
really address the issue.”
The future of the
groundsman is a subject close
to Vic’s heart, and one he’s
become increasingly more
active in over the last few
years, believing that
disillusionment over
workload, or their career
futures, can set in all too
easily. “We’re looking over
our shoulders more now than
ever, so we can’t afford to get
complacent. Top men like
Phil Frost at Somerset, Mike
Garnham at Kent and
Lawrence Gosling at Sussex
have lost their jobs
controversially, prompting
the onset of the First Class
Groundsman’s Conference,”
he explains.
February saw the first
meeting convened when,
high on the agenda, were
issues such as how to protect
groundsmen from being
chopped unceremoniously
after long years of service.
Talks of union membership
were rife, Vic reports, with
UNITE, among others, aired
as possibilities, whilst talks
surfaced of involvement with
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