The Inner Workings of a Cricket Club Groundsperson, is a insight in to the working of a club groundsperson, by a club groundsperson. They can come across a little spikey, but dig a little and its clear to see they have a passion and love for what they do and are really good eggs and a credit to grassroots sport.
Legend has described them as a strange and illusive creature capable of changing instantly from a friendly outward looking individual into something resembling that of a demented mongoose. Usually anyone, other than their Kin, straying into their territory without such an invite will be quickly dispatched to the four corners of whichever habitat they find themselves in.
Traditionally there are variations spread throughout the globe, some are sun worshipers and can be found mainly on cricket grounds or tennis courts, others, more winter friendly ones are to be seen on Football, Hockey or Rugby fields. However, this isn’t the only time they are seen in their natural habitat as each one will spend more of their lives on their respective turf, than they will in their own burrows with their families.
Indeed, when they are with their families you can actually hear them “tutting” to themselves while thinking of those who have the audacity to ruin their hard work by participating in sport on their turf. This “tutting” could be described as a form of language in itself, as when these like minded creatures are in the same room the level of tutting sometimes reaches shrilling proportions. If you listen very carefully you might be able to pick up other more subtle tones such as “bl334y batters digging holes on my wickets” or “replace the divots you muppet”. These quotes are usually grated with approving sniggers and laughter because these creatures are all cut from the same cloth.
While they can sometimes appear hostile from the outside, when around like-minded creatures they show their real character, warm, friendly and likeable they will willingly share knowledge and experience and the odd story on how “such and such who played for the County 3rd XI back in the day, scored 1 NOT OUT on one of my tracks” this will be greeted with aplomb by fellow groundies while trying to think of their own tails to tell.
This creature’s knowledge has in fact been accumulated over countless years using textbooks, hand-me-down tails, experimentation, and that interweb thingy, each coming up with solutions to problems that mere mortals couldn’t even imagine, many using tools that came from the Ark and budget totals that a teenager would laugh at on a night out!
In reality this ground/person manager creature is a miracle worker whose hours of dedication, countless knowledge, enthusiasm and skill will go mostly unnoticed and will almost definitely be undervalued, they are very special people who manage to give countless hours of enjoyment to others by doing the job they love, in all weathers and with little praise.
In reality this ground/person manager creature is a miracle worker whose hours of dedication, countless knowledge, enthusiasm and skill will go mostly unnoticed and will almost definitely be undervalued- KCS
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If you happen to be lucky enough to see one of these creatures in your club then perhaps you might say thank you for their efforts and maybe buy them a drink, just STAY OFF THEIR TURF WHEN NOT INVITED!!
KCS
Another observational humour type blog, from one of our community and isn’t it great when we can laugh especially at ourselves. The role we do is not always well understood, despite that its very rewarding and as KCS say’s a lot of miracle workers out there.
For more blogs direct from you our community take a look at our community hub of blogs – https://turfcareblog.com/community-bloggers/
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