Durham Cricket Head Groundsman Vic Demain on preparing Emirates Riverside for cricket in 2020 and the challenges him and the team have faced this winter.
Vic and the rest of the Durham Cricket ground staff should be have been well underway with preparation for Sunday’s first home County Championship fixture against Nottinghamshire – but with ECB announcing that no professional cricket will be played in England and Wales before 28 May due to the coronavirus pandemic, work on the ground continues.
Another productive day at work! Grass is starting to kick on over on the nursery ground outfield. Could really do with some rain now just to get some moisture into the squares. Just keeping things in check & hoping we may see some cricket this year 🤞 pic.twitter.com/AAN40y2Vy1
— Mark Patterson (@thebignog) April 17, 2020
The final match of the 2019 season Durham took on Glamorgan, a match which was heavily interrupted by the weather.
Demain said: “At the tail end of September we held our final fixture of the season against Glamorgan and on day 2 it started to rain.
“That Glamorgan game was washed out and so it was time to get on and renovate the square.
“This involves removing all of the grass coverage, scarifying to remove all dead matter just below the surface, sweeping up, seeding, fertilizing and applying a thin layer of soil to cover the seed. For all of this process one requires dry weather conditions.
“We managed to complete our renovations by mid-October in less than ideal conditions, since then it didn’t stop raining.
“The new seed planted didn’t germinate as it sat in puddles for months and ultimately rotted. For grass to grow we need a ground temperature of 8 degrees and long daylight hours, something that cannot be found in December.
“In March the entire square was over seeded again, in an effort to address the situation.
“So, we reach April, the official start of the 2020 season with large patches of the square still with little grass coverage and what grass there is, is weed varieties.
“In some strange way Covid-19 has bought us a little time, as we have seen signs of germination. This will hopefully now come through and thicken up in time for a belated start to the new season.
“Yet because of the current restrictions, we are now on a limited staff and only able to maintain the grass.
“The nursery ground is looking very well at the moment partly due to the fact that it has never been used yet and renovation work in the autumn was carried out at a time favourable to growing grass.
“Whatever happens, my team will endeavour to provide the type of entertaining surfaces always enjoyed at Emirates Riverside.