Our Principal Consultant, Noel MacKenzie, has a significant 5 year’s of practical experience with both the hand’s-on preparation and maintenance of cricket pitches and a further 28+ years consulting on their construction and maintenance, whatever the loam construction involved.
The skill of growing and conditioning the turf whilst preparing soil in such a way as to create the playing conditions is to be admired in all groundstaff and with his insight Noel can increase success in that process.
Noel prepared pitches on numerous sites within the Guildford area during his Groundsman and Head Groundsman years up County Standard at the Woodbridge Road Ground in Guildford and later at Cranleigh School where visiting Surrey and MCC matches were be played.
On the consultancy front Noel has been very active advising at many different sites, a few of which include:
Marylebone Cricket Club (Lord’s)
Uxbridge Cricket Club
The BBC Club
The Hurlingham Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Merchant Taylors School and Old Boys
Metropolitan Police Clubs
The BA Concorde Club
Southgate Cricket Club
Lensbury Club
Home Park (Windsor)
Radley College
St George’s College
Spencer CC
National Physics Laboratory
Regents Park
Enfield Cricket Club
South Hampstead Cricket Club
Teddington Cricket Club
St Pauls School
Whitgift School
Ardingly College
Old Millhillians Cricket Club
Legal and General Assurance Cricket Club
University College School
Shepherds Bush CC/Virgin Active
The Pegasus Club
Hampstead Cricket Club
Glaxo Sports and Social Club
Chestfield Cricket Club
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St. Thomas’
Lloyds Register of Shipping Cricket Club
Barclays Bank Sports Club
The Cuaco Club
Baglan Cricket Club
Lensbury Club
Windsor Cricket Club/Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council
The consultancy service we offer is unique because few advisors have the hands-on experience combined with the academic training and consulting experience that Noel MacKenzie is able to offer. The support offered may be day-to-day maintenance advice and management planning or extend up to full-scale cricket ground development and construction.
Some example sites where Noel has undertaken full cricket table reconstruction including: Feasibility Study, Specifying, Construction oversight and final grow-in include: Merchant Taylor’s School, Home Park, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (Windsor CC), St. Johns School, Putteridgebury and Luton Regional sites(Luton Borough Council) and Hackney Council (Hackney Marsh).
If you would like to discuss your requirements please contact us or call Noel MacKenzie on 07739 505862.
The Cricket Pitch Site Visit
Noel MacKenzie will assess your table and outfield for turf and soil quality, resources and technical issues in order to support a club and their grounds maintenance team to achieve optimum results. Key areas of appraisal are:
- Sward species composition, its condition and health.
- Assessment of playing characteristics (smoothness, uniformity, consistency and pace).
- Analysis of turf management issues, opportunities and areas to develop as well as strengths..
- Investigation of soil condition and rootzone health including measurements of hardness.
- Integrated Pest and Disease Management.
- Resource appraisal and optimisation of renovation works, seed selection, techniques, etc.
- Soil testing for nutrition and/or physical characteristics, infiltration rates, etc.
The inspection generally takes around 30-60 mins (for qualitative assessments, longer for quantitative assessments) and with further discussion communicating the issues facing the turf manager and club’s representatives the whole process takes about an hour or so. A report is written to confirm findings and record the advice given and this is written individually, is completely commercially independent and certainly not copied off the internet.
One site visit per annum is normally sufficient and telephone and email support is provided for any follow up queries, although occasionally a club may request a further visit for particular difficulties.
Visits may focus on ball behaviour and turf quality issues or may extent to reconstruction, strip and re-surface operations or drainage and/or irrigation issues. Whichever it is you can be confident that we have the experience and knowledge to provide a professional service appropriate to your club and the aspirations and standards it desires.
With Sports Turf Consulting Ltd. you’ll invest in a professional independent Sports Turf Agronomist with a strong track record achieving improvement in sports turf surfaces. Your pitch is your most important asset and part of your product that forms the backbone not only of member experience but also club reputation so surely it is worthy of the best inputs starting with a professional assessment and independent maintenance advice.
We will be pleased to field your enquiries and you can be confident in receiving high quality assessment and advisory information and support from an independent professional sports turf Agronomist with over 33 years of experience and the unique experience of also having prepared cricket pitches to a high club and county standard himself.
