I thought it was about time that I got back online and started up my blog again. Its been a while since I last blogged, and a lot has changed. I'm about to start my third season as Deputy Grounds Manager at The Rose Bowl, home of Hampshire County Cricket Club. It seems like only yesterday and not 3 years since I was saying goodbye to friends and family at my leaving party at Clontarf Cricket Club to start my new life at Worcester!
Its been a whirlwind time since my move across the pond. After a brief but enjoyable stint at New Road, including a flood, I got an offer to come down south to the Rose Bowl which was too good to turn down. The club had plans for extensive ground and stadium development,and with Test cricket coming this year it was a place I had always aimed to end up in. The development work has started, albeit slower than desired due to the economic downturn. We have two fantastic new stands that house 5000 people, a £650,000 free-draining new outfield that was laid 15 months ago, and the hotel that will house corporate boxes and media facilities at the northern end of the ground should be starting construction soon. Its an exciting place to be!
So couple all of that with our first Test Match that we are hosting in July its a busy time ahead. Putting all of that to one side there is still the 'bread and butter' county cricket season to prepare for. The season starts earlier and earlier over here. Our first 'friendly' fixture is on the 30th of March, with our first 4 day Championship fixture 9 days later! So whilst the players spend 3 weeks in the West Indies for their pre-season, we get to sit on a roller in icy cold temperatures trying to get some pitches firm. Who said life isn't fair!!!!
In preparation for all that the first pitches were cut out today, the 4th of March! We've been covering the squares for the last week to enable us to work on them. The problem this week hasn't been rain but frost! With the season approaching quickly we can't afford to let the cold nights eat into our working day. We have 5 squares here, the main square has 20 pitches, the nursery ground has 16 pitches, and 3 net blocks that cover about 280 feet wide so theres a lot of preseason rolling to do!!! We've cut out and started to prepare 5 pitches across 3 squares for practice and pre-season matches against Surrey and Middlesex. The players will be keen to get outside as soon as they get back from the West Indies no matter what the weather as they hate being stuck indoors!!
Anyway all this talk is making me cold, so lets move on. My plans are to update the blog as regular as I can with news, views and pictures. As I've said its a hectic year ahead with an England vs Sri Lanka Test match, an England vs India ODI and plenty of other cricket including our defence of the Twenty20 Cup with a team of current and ex-international stars like South African players Imran Tahir and Neil McKenzie, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, England players Michael Lumb, Michael Carberry, Dominic Cork and Simon Jones, and England A players aplenty!. Hopefully we will be fighting for trophys on all fronts this year.....lets hope we can get the pitch right!! :-)
Thats all for now folks. Feel free to leave a comment or just say hi, its always good to hear from home.
Follow me on Twitter for more regular comments and pictures @Karl_McDermott
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