Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Leighton Buzzard Town Cricket Club
Dave Smith (Head Groundsman)
Profile
Dave first got involved with LBTCC when his son Andy started playing youth cricket. Dave played himself from a young age for various teams around the Hastings area of East Sussex and into his forties socially. When Dave moved to Leighton Buzzard he felt it would be nice to give a little back so started helping out firstly umpiring and then taking over Groundsman duties with Andy when unfortunately John passed away and Bill could no longer carry on.
Q&A
What does a typical week look like during the season?
There is no typical week during the season, everything depends on weather and games to be played. Constantly looking for windows to roll wickets which takes 30 to 40 minutes per strip, normally four per week with youth games. We also have a wicket in pre preparation (we work on starting prep 10 days before use) and all this in amongst cutting the outfield and infrastructure allying to the ground, re-mowing, cut wickets, tidying used wickets, watering and re marking wickets.
I also umpire on Saturday sometimes travelling back to the Club to prepare the wicket for a Sunday match. At the end of the season there is repair of the square, top dressing and keeping an eye for disease or animal damage. Removal of lying leaves, controlling grass growth and general maintenance.
We start preparing for the season in March when we roll the square in four directions and start lowering the outfield grass length to its playing height of 10 mm
Repairing as many damaged areas as possible.
Once we are in the playing season getting the covers on when rain is forecast and making sure these are taken off properly to prevent water getting on the strip.
All in all I (we) are kept busy and spend a considerable time actually at the ground