Science or Alchemy?

In the recently announced Groundsman of the Year Awards, Nigel Gray, Head Groundsman at The Rose Bowl was awarded a commendation for his one day pitches.  The awards are based on the umpire reports for the season which include marks for grass cover, dryness, seam movement, pace and consistency of bounce and turn.

Nigel found out he had earned the commendation when a letter from the ECB landed on his desk late last week. “It was timed to arrive alongside the pitches’ marks table. As far as the table’s concerned we’re obviously quite high up in the one day listing – our mark puts us in the top four or five. We were somewhere in the middle last year so it’s an improvement.”

The Oval is the pitch to beat, because Head Groundsman Bill Gordon won the title for the sixth year running. “They certainly get results there” Nigel commented. “Unfortunately  Surrey were on the wrong end of most of them! Fair play to the groundsman though – he’s got to be doing something right. The Oval has a very well established square; it’s solid and it has good pace. Pace is a big thing and that’s something everyone’s striving for.”

As we had won the commendation for our one day pitches I was curious about the differences in preparing for one day and four day games. “In terms of length of preparation – not a lot. In a one day pitch you’re looking for as true, as flat and as good a surface as you can get for batting, whereas with a four day game you’re looking for a more varied surface where, at least in the earlier stages of the game, there’s more in it for the bowlers. You don’t really want bowlers dominating a one day game simply due to the pitch. Excessive turn or seam movement is not ideal for one day cricket.”

But there has been no time for Nigel and his team to rest on their laurels. Already this autumn two more pitches have been re-laid and they have settled down well with some good grass cover on them. They will be ready for use during the 2010 season, while the two pitches re-laid in 2007 will be ready next year. I wondered whether Nigel knows whether they will be better one day or four day pitches as he is re-laying them. “It really has nothing to do with the structure of the pitch – it’s much more to do with preparation and the final surface appearance. A one-day pitch generally has a lot less green grass on it, whereas a bit of greenness and seam movement provided early on in a four day game is acceptable. A Twenty20, or indeed a one day game, can be ruined by too many wickets falling early on and it’s unfair if this happens because the pitch is doing more than it ought to.

“Our next target here is to try to get a bit more pace into the square generally. A bit of pace helps the batsmen hit through the ball and it makes run scoring off bad balls easier. It also makes a good ball harder to score off so it’s a weapon for the bowler who bowls well.” But how on earth do you put pace into what is fundamentally a bit of grass? “A lot of it is consolidating it, getting it firm. We’ve been playing First Class cricket here since 2001 so I think we’ve got it firm now so it’s a case of experimenting with the moisture levels in each particular pitch and monitoring them as you prepare them. Historically it used to be get the pitch dry and it would be hard and fast, but the scientific wisdom has changed a little bit now and a little bit of moisture in the pitch is considered not a bad thing. It’s a question of finding out what the correct moisture levels are for any particular ground. While you can measure things it’s really just pushing the boundaries a little bit further and playing with the preparation techniques to see what works best.”

It was also recently announced that The Rose Bowl will receive an ECB grant of a maximum of £600,000 to improve pitch drainage. The work will be carried out after the 2009 season and it sounds quite complicated. “As soon as the season’s over we’ll get on with it because it’s going to be something like an eight week project. The scheme is basically to remove the top two inches of the outfield, sand slit into the soil to connect with our current land drains then replace the top soil with a freer draining material with a relatively high sand content. That should allow the water to percolate through from the whole playing area. It shouldn’t have to move very far to get to the sand slits, into the drains, and out through the bottom of the profile. Once that’s done we need to incorporate a new irrigation system, because if we improve the drainage we then have to make sure it’s kept properly irrigated because otherwise we end up with a hard, dry pitch that won’t be to anyone’s advantage either.”

The idea of the project is obviously for more cricket to be played. Last year in particular it was immensely frustrating for Nigel and his team to spend hours mopping the outfield only to find that a light shower prevented play just before the teams took to the field. And equally frustrating for the players and spectators having to watch it all happen. “Even if it rains over a long period of time, the water will just filter through rather than forming ponds, so there won’t be the same requirement to mop it up. Play will start much quicker – it won’t be the same as last year, when so often everyone’s time went down the drain – quite literally!”

 

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