When groundsmanship gets covered in the mainstream media it isn't often the actual people who've worked on the surface who receive the attention. Other than a few 'superstar' groundsman, it can be a fairly anonymous job.

In most cases it's just the fruits of the labour which get talked about. And indeed most coverage, unfortunately, is when things haven't gone according to plan. A muddy pitch, a stale wicket, greens too fast or too slow - you know the sort of thing.

Occasionally turf professionals will get singled out for producing a cracking surface which has added to the sporting drama. But to be honest that doesn't happen all too often. As has been said by wiser people than I, a good sporting surface, like a good referee or umpire, goes almost unnoticed, quietly aiding the occasion.

So monitoring the press this past week for stories of turf professionals making the news, as is my want, there was an unusually high number of guys thrust into the national spotlight. A couple it has to be said, for quite unfortunate reasons.

Firstly, the positive though. It was delightful to read that a self-employed groundsman had scooped £1m on the lottery! Especially nice when the quotes coming from the lucky chap were of how much he enjoyed his job, the friends he'd made doing it and how he'll carry on working. It truly warmed the cockles so to speak!

Next up, and not so positive, was the on-going saga of the sacked Hull groundsmen. These guys have done themselves well so far in their endeavours to gain publicity for themselves - even getting Tweets of support from the Labour leader. This week though, the publicity took a less positive turn.

The Superstadium Management Company (SMC) who sacked the two guys, have now gone public with their defence - which you can read in full via the Hull Daily Mail here.

The SMC says the determined media campaign by the two former groundsmen has forced the company to outline its defence in this public manner.

A statement in the paper said, “Since their dismissal, Mr Harrison and Mr Cook have sought to gather as much media attention as possible and in our view, provided an inaccurate and misleading portrayal of the facts that led to their dismissals. They have appeared on television, radio, social media and they have their own crowdfunding page.

“During this media campaign, they have named individual employees who work for the company and made a number of misrepresentations regarding them and their involvement in the process."

It's most unfortunate that events have come to this. A very public display of in-fighting and claim and counter-claim. And I suspect, we haven't seen the end of it yet.

Finally, and again making depressing reading, was the case of the sacked Derbyshire Country Cricket club groundsman who was convicted last week for carrying out a 'revenge attack' for his dismissal at his old club.

Again making the national press, the story involved Chris Hallam, 33, who pleaded guilty to criminal damage and was handed eight weeks in prison, suspended for a year. Magistrates also forced him to pay £3,000 in compensation.

The vandalism at the county’s headquarters included the slashing of the covers with a knife and pouring liquid into the fuel tank of one of the super-sopper machines.

The damage came after Hallam was dismissed and a matter of hours before Derbyshire’s NatWest Blast victory over Worcestershire Royals on August 18.

A sad story all round. And certainly not how we want to see groundsmanship represented in the media.

I suppose lamenting the lack of positive attention for the profession in the media is always going to be frustrating. And of course, the vast majority of turf professionals didn’t get into the industry to become famous. They are far more concerned with the satisfaction of a job well done rather than fortune and glory.

Well, the fortune part would be OK . . .