Valance way cricket pitch is ready!

As I said last night in the blog - later in the day and into dusk and under the cover of darkness I kept cutting trying to get the pitch ready over the weekend. This morning in the light I had another look and then thought "Sod it - let's do this thing"! It was a lovely day and the grass was dry and easily cut. So over a couple of sessions starting at 10.30 this morning (The first image) I cut the final bit. After lunch my two boys and one of the "Valance way" cricket boys put the finishing touches to it - raking away the excess grass and then getting the mower on it and giving it it's first mowing. There's a few weeds and I may even consider getting some weed killer and getting rid of the weeds as they cause lumps in the surface and grow very rapidly. The surface itself is quite rough and lumpy, but I went over it a bit with the shears this evening and it's the grass that causes most of the lumpiness. Once it's cut very close to the earth it's not too bad. So that's it - done. I just hope the groundsman keeps the rest of the field relatively short. As I said he did make a start on it on Friday, so hopefully some time next week he'll come back and do the rest and not be too bothered by the fact that I've cut a wicket!!!