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Another busy winter for the Somerset Grounds Team
When the domestic season ends, the real work begins for County Cricket’s Ground Staff.
We caught up with SCCC Head Groundsperson, Nick Pepper to see what him and his team have been up to since the final ball of the season was bowled.
“Since the last game we’ve been carrying out the normal renovation work that you would expect on the square,” he explained. “There was three-way scarification on the outfield plus we seeded and top dressed with 90 tonnes of sand. More sand will gradually go on in the New Year. We’ve been verti-draining and pro-coring the field to help keep infiltration rates quite high throughout the winter and to encourage deeper rooting.
“We’ve also reconstructed one of the match pitches with a new loam that’s currently being developed at Loughborough. It’s something that could eventually be used more widely, but we won’t know the results of that until 2026 at the earliest.
“People often ask why so much sand is used over the winter and it’s all to do with the pore space in the soil. We’ve got quite heavy clay and silt beneath the outfield, so by getting medium coarse sand deep into the profile, you can create pockets of space for water to infiltrate and percolate through quicker to the primary drains. Last year we had secondary drainage put in which increases the rate at which the water come down through from the surface, but it still hits that layer of clay and silt. That’s why the water still holds in areas on the surface before eventually draining away. It certainly goes through quicker than it did, and the additional sand will help to continue to improve the drainage.
“Sand also helps with the rooting of the grass. You can get much deeper roots with a sand-based profile because the roots can work their way down, which they can’t do with a more compacted profile. With a clay profile there is much more lateral movement in the roots which means that the roots can’t go as deep. The deeper the roots, the stronger the outfield becomes.”
How has the poor weather this winter impacted on Nick and his team?
“The weather has certainly affected the renovation work because we literally had to stop what we were doing about halfway through the top dressing. We got 45 tonnes on and it was then underwater for a day. That meant we had to wait until it was fit to get the next load on. With the climate in the UK, it’s never a simple process. I’ve never known two seasons as wet as the last two. It’s been a bit of a nightmare for prep times. Fortunately, we didn’t lose many matchdays to the weather, but it felt like it was always raining when we wanted to go out with the rollers.”
How would Nick sum up his first full season in the role?
“It was a bit of an eye opener, but I really enjoyed it. You’re find yourself thinking about it literally 24/7 and worrying about things like whether a cover has blown off or something like that.
“As a Club we came so close to achieving so much and we take a huge amount of pride in how many games we were able to win at home this year. The fact that we were able to produce result wickets in Championship cricket was great. In white ball cricket we were seeing scores in excess of 180 in the Vitality Blast and in the Metro Bank One Day Cup we were regularly seeing scores up around the 340-mark with successful run chases. That’s something that the team have worked really hard to produce.
“We will strive to achieve more next year, and the last 12 months have given me a chance to learn a little bit more about the square in terms of certain things, so we are looking forward to next year already.”
Nick is full of praise for his team.
“We’ve got a great group, and we’ve formed a really good team. Everyone really stepped up this year and Nick and Macauley have taken over the responsibility for the preparation of the net pitches and they’ve had good feedback from the players and coaches from Somerset and the visiting teams too. That’s a real positive that they can take away from 2024.
“Kev, my Senior Grounds Person, has really stepped up too and I can really trust him and all the others on the team. They’ve all been here longer than me and they know what this Club expects from them on a matchday.
“The team at Taunton Vale have also worked really hard all season to deliver a large amount of cricket up there, and I’ve been really impressed with what they’ve achieved. Mark Loveridge managed the squares and the team really well and it’s been a genuinely collaborative effort all round.”
