Shipton Cricket Club - A beautiful setting, but ...

Groundsman, Ed Robinson, explains how things are progressing and suggests that cricket will be possible this year, thanks to the efforts of the few and sound advice from the Pitchcare message board
In late February 2014, after the particularly wet winter with heavy rain and winds decimating our 'machine shed' at our cricket ground, we decided that enough was enough! The old club was in the very small hamlet of Dowdeswell in the Cotswolds, and had a fairly rich history of village cricket. In the 1990s, however, the cricket stopped being played and the pavilion was torn down and the field left to grow. In around 2007, the club was reformed and started playing cricket there again although, with no facilities at all, it was never going to get very far. As groundsman for Dowdeswell for the last two seasons, it had been an uphill struggle to prepare a track each week, so it was decided that we should look for an alternative ground, which had some facilities available to use.
So, after seven years of banging heads against walls and getting nowhere, the main playing members took up an offer from another local village to restart the cricket club in Shipton Oliffe.

The club won the Cheltenham Challenge Cup in 1924, and has always had a proud history of village cricket.
More recently, the Cotswolds has been the target of second home owners, and some believe this has unfortunately led to a lack of young players coming up through the ranks and creating the strength a club requires to succeed and grow. Unfortunately, village cricket has slowly been on a downward slope, with many clubs being unable to raise a midweek team for friendly fixtures, and only the larger, more established clubs are flourishing.

The Cotswold Classic Car Club started using the pavilion last year and, after the Parish Council organised for it to be rewired, the Car Club did a lot of the work required to get it up to a decent standard again, replacing lots of the rotten wooden shutters, doing various small bits of plumbing and building maintenance and giving it a good paint job! We are working together to improve the other buildings and facilities at the club as the benefits will be there to be enjoyed by all.

This, in turn, led to the field falling into a state of disrepair. The grass was not cut for over a year, and resembled a meadow. Mr Mike Evans, of the adjacent Shipton Golf Course, then took over the mowing duties, slowly working the land back so it was at least suitable for recreational use. With his help, experience and advice we are now slowly working the ground back to a suitable state for cricket.

A message was posted on the Pitchcare message board, entitled "Where to Start?!", and all of the responses from other board members were extremely helpful, encouraging, with different ideas and techniques offered on how to do things. All were gratefully received.
I am not a professional groundsman by any means - far from it! I studied agriculture at Hartpury College and have always loved working outside and being hands on with whatever I do. I am now an electrician; however, it is always nice to get down to the cricket field and do bits and bobs, and preparing the square and outfield in the summer gives me a great sense of achievement and satisfaction. It would be nice to get another young lad to come and give me a hand; someone who finds it as interesting and satisfying as I do.

Next on the list was the outfield, and the first task was to remove and keep the soil from the molehills, which would then be used to fill in rabbit holes and any mole runs that might collapse. Our Club Captain, James Richardson, will be supplying a compact tractor with front mounted topper and rear mounted harrow to try and get rid of some of the thatch, and level out some of the undulations. This will be followed by a hydraulic brush to clear up the remains, and give us a level to start regular cutting with our gang mowers.
Due to the fact that the club is effectively brand new, we have next to no money to spend, so we have applied to various local authority funding schemes, such as the Gloucestershire Playing Fields Association, to try and aid the set-up of the club, and the regeneration of the field. We have also sent sponsorship letters to around eighty businesses and individuals, all of whom the club members have an association with, or who are involved with Shipton Oliffe in some way. We are hoping that, in this way, along with fundraising events such as a car boot sale, we can raise enough money to get the club up and running.

In terms of machinery, groundsmen, brothers and club vice chairmen, Ed and Charlie Robinson, have acquired various machinery and kit over the years. This includes an Atco Club 20inch mower, with the 10 blade cylinder, to mow wickets. There is also an Atco Royale 24inch, with slinky seat, that is used for the square. For the outfield, we found a very cheap Mountfield Triple-M gang mower on eBay which performed brilliantly last summer at our old club. We also have a set of Dennis trailed gangs, which are currently being sharpened by Dennis expert, Keith Carter, near Swindon.

The club is made up of a core of nine people who form the committee and are all enthusiastic playing members. We have a few other people who have informed us that they are keen to get involved when the season starts, so our pool of players is around the twenty to twenty-five mark.

We hope to keep you updated as the season progresses.
Follow us on Twitter, @shiptoncc, or see our website www.shiptoncricket.co.uk