Earning his Spurs - Pitchcare

Horsham Festival week heralds peak attendances at the
picturesque ground - more than 4,000 a day typically
roll up to line the boundary and throng the clubhouse
and a thriving junior section, with ages
from under 9s to under 16s. Clearly this
is no sleepy hollow of cricket.
With the likes of renowned cricketing
writer and TMS broadcaster, Christopher
Martin Jenkins, as members, the club’s
performance at all levels no doubt comes
under constant scrutiny.
That’s not the whole story though, and
Horsham Cricket & Sports Club can
boast more than 1,000 members across
cricket, hockey, squash and tennis
sections, with players in those groups
competing at county, national and
international level.
Horsham Lawn Tennis Club,
meanwhile, is a long-established and
thriving arm that appeals to all
standards, from social and family play to
competitive leagues.
Founded in the late 19th century, it
grew considerably after the Second
World War under the presidency of Col
WJ Legg OBE and his successor as
Wimbledon Referee, Capt Mike Gibson.
In the early 1970s the constituent
sports and social sections came together
to create a parent club to oversee the
running of the whole club.
Horsham Festival week heralds peak
attendances at the picturesque ground -
more than 4,000 a day typically roll up to
line the boundary and throng the
clubhouse.
This year sees Sussex play Derbyshire
on 18-21 August and Somerset on the
22nd. And there’s Ladies Day on the
25th, when Horsham hosts Glamorgan
for a 40-over Division 1 floodlit match.
The Festival typifies the function of the
club as somewhere that has something to
offer everyone, as a community and
family-orientated hub bringing positive
elements to Horsham by encouraging
development in sports from a young age.
The ground hit the headlines a few
years ago for all the wrong reasons,
however, when it lost its slot as
an outground for county
first-team games. “The
club was between
groundsmen then,”
Roger explains.
“It was at the
beginning of
May, a key time in
the cricketing
year, and the
contractor brought
in to look after
things took it into
his head to scarify
the surface in two
different directions,
with disastrous
consequences. Sussex
went back to Hove and
the club sued the
contractor.”
By 2006 though,
everything was back to
normal and
Horsham was
restored
to its
rightful place, alongside Arundel, as a
Sussex outground.
Roger runs groundsmanship at the
club under contract and is now in his
fifth year in charge. As boss of Southern
Sportsground Services - the business he
has headed for twenty years, assisted by
his two sons Ben and Ollie - he is
on site four and half days a
week and Saturday
mornings. When not
at Horsham, he’s
busy looking
after Purley,
Sutton and
Cheam cricket
clubs, as well as
East Grinstead
and the Old
Whitgiftians
ground near
Croydon.
Not content
with those tasks
however, Roger
also works as an
ECB pitch adviser
for Surrey, so time
management for the
63-year old is
obviously one of
his key skill sets.
Sussex