After reporting on the blog last night that I now needed it to rain, the good news is that over night it's been mild and raining and therefore the seed has had a good soaking to get it on its way. The forecast over the next week looks as though it's improved since yesterdy as well, with the week remaining relatively mild and wet for the week, which is absolutely perfect for establishing some initial growth. What it does look like though is that the if we want to play on it though we really need to wait a fair bit of time before doing so as we need to allow the grass to establish itself and that I think takes a lot longer. Ideally the roots of the new growth need to be very well established in order that they survive when the grass on the surface is damaged, enabling new growth to come through from the root system. I think we're being optimistic with this goal, because I can see that once some nice growth is established on the surface and it's been cut we'll be gagging to get on it and use it.
I noticed today that even though I gave it a good roll yestrday, the grass that is already there which normally seems to suffer from rolling, seems to have bounced back in less than 12 hours and looks as though it hasn't been rolled. This wicket so far compared to the other one on the big field has been rolled 4 or 5 times more and is likely to see more rolling action all through the spring and maybe the summer - perhaps every weekend prior to using it?
I'm now thinking about the other end and how I can improve the bowlers end as the surface is possibly more even and flat than it was last summer, but it still isn't ideal. There's very little grass on it and it's likely not to grow this summer, as it gets dustier what I may try and do is rake the uneven surface and make it flat maybe preparing it for an attempt to establish a good covering of grass over Sept and October.
No nets last night, instead went and watched Derren Browns show Enigma. Clever stuff, but my God are those people that get up on stage for real? Some of it is corny, like the trick where he's got the muppet up on stage and he's showing you that he can make him rigid or floppy and the climax is that Browns two henchmen then lift the bloke up and place him in between 2 chairs, his feet resting on one chair and his neck the other. I can do that! I got home and did it myself and I'm 50 and do very little in the way of core strength training! But still a good show.
Wicket news
Loads of rain yesterday, it rained almost all day and it was heavy, so if this grass doesn't sprout in the next 2 weeks we'll go for a bare earth wicket. Keith over at Great Berry Space was asking about my birthday bash. He was asking when I was going to be getting over to Great Berry Open Space to roll it ready for the summer. At the minute I'm so impressed with the wicket over at the Paddock, I'm certainly not inclined to leave the roller over at the Pavillion so that I can focus on rolling that instead of the paddock. Over the Easter break I'll go over there and have a look to see what the prospects look like for having a wicket on there. If I thought that Keith could get a few blokes and kids over there in the evenings having a knock about I'd be far more inclined to follow it up, I'll have to see if I can get over to the Pavillion with him for a beer and see how it pans out.
Later in week
The rain continues and the temperature has dipped once again to an un-seasonal 7 or 8 degrees during the day. Up North and in Ireland they've been having bad snow - a foot in a day and it's now heading our way on an anti-cyclonic weather either today or tomorrow. Fortunately there's going to be some influence from the Atlantic and it'll drag slightly warmer air in off the ocean nulifying the snow and it's not expecting to snow on us, so we'll just get more rain.
Dave Ashwell
I've just heard that my mate Dave Ashwell who I've known since he was 15 has just died aged 48 on Sunday, having struggled to over-come cancer. The funeral is this coming Thursday at 11.30 in Surrey, so if you're one of our mates and you've not heard yet, get in touch and I'll let you know the details.
