About






Copmanthorpe is a village 5 mile south of York, with a population of around 4000. The Cricket Club is based at the Recreation Centre which has an area of around 6 acres in the heart of the village. 

There is a large car park with a Club House and Sports Hall. Other User Groups are the Football Club which uses two pitches either side of the cricket square. a Tennis Club with 3 tarmac courts, a Bowls Club with County standard facilities and a Netball Club.

The Recreation Centre employs a contractor, STS, to repair the grass after the football season as well as vertidraing, fertilizing and weed killing throughout the year. The Rec maintains  a Ransomes Highway 213 for cutting the grass, but a member of the Cricket Club, Roy, cuts the grass up to three times a week.

The Cricket Club is responsible for maintaining the square, preparing and repairing the pitches using their own equipment which they have to purchase and repair through club funds. Through support from the Parish we now have an extensive range of equipment, mostly second hand.

In addition to help from Roy, John rolls each pitch and puts the creases in and with help from Joel, I maintain the square and prepare and repair the pitches. I have had no training for this and have learnt through watching and talking to other groundsmen, reading and trial and error.

The square was never laid as a cricket square so over the years it has been a constant battle to prepare pitches of the standard we are hoping for. Through top dressing with many tons of loam, mainly Ongar, we are starting to get the surface we want, but it will never be as good as a properly laid square.

This blog is a day to day account of the trials and tribulations, successes and failures in a year of the life of an amateur groundsman.