Groundsmen's Forum at Stirling

A Groundsmen's Forum will be held at New Williamfield, Stirling County Cricket Club, on Tuesday 30th March. Cricket Scotland is delighted to have Chris Wood and Len Smith as guest speakers.

Chris Wood is the ECB Pitches Consultant who has, in the last few years, been actively involved in the resurrection of New Road County ground, Worcester, from a 'flood plain', after severe flooding caused by the River Severn breaking its banks, back into an ECB county standard cricket outfield and square. More recently he has been involved in the new-generation outfields at Lords and other English County grounds, which amongst other design features, can absorb 35mm of rain each hour.

Len Smith was until recently, after some 27 years, the head groundsman for Glamorgan County Cricket Club. He is now the Intstitute of Groundsmanship Regional Advisor for Wales and the South-West of England. Len oversaw the improvements to the Sophia Gardens cricket facilities to ECB category A status. This resulted in England playing Australia in an Ashes Test match 'at home' in Wales. Len was the last of the county groundsman to have had responsibility for staging matches at a ground where part of the outfield was an English League Football pitch.

In the first part of the Forum, Chris and Len will give details on two issues of relevance to Club cricket... the latest thinking, backed up by a research project, on match pitch rolling regimes, and the pros and cons of 'glueing' pitches for, say, junior/2ndX1 matches. Len will also give details of the reasoning, and trials and tribulations, behind his formation of the East Wales and the West Wales Associations of Cricket
Groundsmen.

After these presentations, there will be a Q&A session when Chris and Len will use all their, almost unique, experience to answers questions from the floor.

The doors will be open at New Williamfield at 7.00pm for tea/coffee and biscuits (no doubt the bar will also be open) with the Forum starting at 7.30pm prompt, with a closing time of around 9.30.


Jim McFadyen, Cricket Scotland Director of Facilities