Jane Cable finds out about winter activities for The Rose Bowl's team of Ground Staff

It’s a nice image of a cricket ground in the winter, isn’t it? The hoar frost sparkles on the grass, and in a cozy shed somewhere, the ground staff put their feet up with a nice mug of tea – a well earned rest after their hectic summer.

It’s a nice image all right, but one which would no doubt have Head Groundsman Nigel Gray and his team at The Rose Bowl in fits of laughter. Naturally, life in the winter is a little slower, but nevertheless there is plenty of work to be done both on and off the cricket pitch.

Most County grounds have a staff of four or five, but at The Rose Bowl Nigel manages a team of ten. Five of these are mainly involved with the cricket, three are primarily golf green keepers, and the other two cover maintenance both indoors and out. There is a large acreage to cover, and Nigel’s team has to be very flexible.

The first of the out of season jobs was to scarify and reseed the squares which were not being re-laid. This was done in September, because the more chance the grass has to begin to grow before winter really sets in, the better. Between now and Christmas the squares will be spiked two or three times. Nigel explained to me that this is particularly important now that we don’t seem to have the same degree of frost as we used to.

There is work to be done on the outfield too, and at the end of the playing season it was power raked, the dead grass taken away, and the whole surface top dressed. The next job is to fertilise, and then it will be periodically trimmed with a mower to stop the grass becoming coarse.

The Rose Bowl has made quite an investment in equipment over the years, much of it shared between cricket and golf course, which means that work can be done when Nigel decides, rather than having to wait to hire in machinery. Of course, it doesn’t all run exactly according to his plans, because there is always the weather to contend with. While he has a certain amount of influence over his capital budgets, Nigel would be the first to admit that there is little he can do to prevent rain, or even snow, at just the wrong moment.

As well as the re-laying of two of the squares, the other major project for the ground staff this winter is to re-level the ground around the sprinkler heads in the pitch. At first, this didn’t seem to me to be much of a task, but when Nigel explained that there are over a hundred of them (64 on the main pitch, and 42 in the nursery ground) it suddenly seemed there was quite enough to do to keep his team away from their mugs of tea!

Finding the Right Pitch - Read Jane Cable's article about The Rose Bowl's new pitch.

Time for the snow plough before the mowers

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