How to Prepare a Foothole Mix on a Cricket Pitch, take you step by step of how to prepare a mix prior to infilling of foothole during a change of innings or prior to a match. There is also a video to accompany the blog.
Aims of a Foothole Mix
The aim of a foothole mix is to relevel the bowler’s area back to pre-match/pre innings levels to keep the bowler’s area consistent for the bowlers. When to fill them comes down to the groundsperson’s loam type and judgement and available time and resources between innings, but as l mentioned below l d only do during lunch or at the start of the day ahead of play.
How long will they hold
Doing a day or two before a match for some with limited time may suit, the only thing l would say this extra time can make the footholes dry excessively during hot periods and can mean it won’t last as long during play.
Standard of the bowler can increase/decrease the need for footholes repair. Bowlers, such spinners will create a deep round foothole, why pace bowlers will create a more oval shaped foothole.
Preparation of Foothole Mix?
Moisture levels of bagged loam usually come in a dry granulated form, but it’s also not rare to have a few bags per pallet that are damper. Damp but not wet loam can be ideal for making up foothole mixes as they naturally bind from the off. These bags are less ideal for topdressing, as can be tricky to evenly spread, so identifying these bags can help you know what you got and what you’re going to use them for.
Different loams, react differently to adding moisture to them and can be stickier than others so the water requirements and mixing can vary, but the outcome should be the same.
Storage of mix, if it’s a hot day keep the mix out of direct heat as you find the mix will overly dry out and your need to re add moisture. I use a rung out damp rag and place it over the top of the mix on hotter days, along with shading as l like to always have a mix pre-prepared.
Technique and Testing of Mix
- Half fix a bucket of loam with loam, overfilling the bucket your struggle to evenly distribute the moisture and the loam mix evenly.
- Using an old squash bottle with a hole pierced in the top, filled with water then gently add moisture to the mix and stir using a garden trowel, keep adding moisture (gradually) and mixing gently till the hole mix is even in moisture.
- The final mix should be moist to touch but not wet or overly sticky. You should be able to bind gently in the palm of your hand and it should hold its shape.
- Upon gentle pressure the binded mix should fall in half, but should not overly crumble and if you got it right you should be left with two halves. It’s a really tricky one to explain, so please see the video below….
- If the soil overly crumbles and doesn’t bind, you need to add additional moisture gently to the mix till it does.
Common issues
Cracking, can occur, if tamped too hard or the mix is not prepared correctly. I would not also suggest adding grass clippings, as they won’t help the binding process. Don’t fill days before as the footholes, more likely to dry out excessively.
Mix comes out upon tamping down, the mix isn’t even in terms of moisture and possibly has a dry pocket of loam in the mix. Build up aggression of tamping and between tamping, use the heel to firm around the edges, I start the firming down process first by foot.
Tools and equipment Requirements
A Bucket
Hand troll/fork or even a sheet pin/peg
Empty juice bottle, with a hole in the lid
Old cloth/rag wetted
How to do a Foothole
How to Repair Footholes is a blog by one of our community.
Brian
