June and July are renowned as busy months in the grounds industry calendar, with many summer events planned and several major tournaments scheduled to take place. Notably the The Championships at Wimbledon that starts on 28th June and finishes on 10th July.
No doubt Neil and his team are busy preparing the courts for this year’s competition. I found a clip of Neil being interviewed in 2016 where he spoke about the management and maintenance required to maintain all the courts at Wimbledon. It’s a fascinating insight into the hard work he and his staff do throughout the year in preparation of this prestigious event.
Preceding Wimbledon there are several other tennis venues including The Hurlingham Club, Eastbourne and Edgebaston Priory that will hosting tournaments in June and July.
Marking out tennis courts at The Hurlingham Club
Likewise all the county cricket turf professionals are busy preparing their grounds for summer competitive matches. The staff at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, Headingley in Leeds, Edgbaston in Birmingham, Ageas Bowl in Southampton, Old Trafford in Manchester, and the Kia Oval and Lord’s in in London are preparing for international matches against New Zealand, India and South Africa.
Vic Domain at Durham preparing a pitch for play
Also, Karl at Lord’s announced on Twitter recently that the first T20 match was being played at the Home Of Cricket on a hybrid stitched pitch.
These new hybrid pitches are becoming popular with clubs up and down the country. SIS Pitches are the company that installed the pitch at Lord’s following a programme of trials at Loughborough University. These pitches can now be found at many of the county grounds, with several pitches and net areas installed.
Hybrid cricket pitches are in use at Surrey, Lord’s, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Glamorgan, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Durham, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and at Loughborough University.
Also, up and down the country grassroots cricket clubs are also in full swing with most clubs grounds staff and volunteers preparing and re-paring their pitches for a wrath of senior and junior cricket matches.
Dorridge & Knowle CC
As for schools, again they readying pitches for a plethora of summer sports that include cricket, athletics, softball, rounders and tennis.
On the rugby front, professional and amateur Rugby League clubs are currently in full flow with matches being played throughout the summer months - whereas, hopefully most Rugby Union clubs should have or are completing their end of season renovations. While on the subject of rugby, The RFU are running a series of Honda Rugby Grounds Connected events for the North, Midlands, South West and London & South East.
Rugby School
These events will include demos of grounds equipment, educational sessions, an expert Q&A panel and interaction with local grounds teams. I myself, in the capacity of a Volunteer Pitch Advisor (VPA), will be in attendance at the Midlands venue, Broadstreet RFC. on the 28th June. Jim Buttar, head groundsman at Twickenham, will be the keynote speaker at all four events.
Machrihannish GC
On the fine turf front, both bowls and golf clubs will be concentrating on general play and organised matches. The recent spell of wet weather has promoted some much-needed grass growth to help with recovery from play. As for major golf tournaments The 150th Open Championship will be held this year at the home of golf, St Andrews, on the 10th-17th July 2022.
Scotland is a fantastic destination to play golf there are some stunning golf courses to be played and the scenery at most of them is stunning. I was lucky enough on my recent travels to visit a few that included St Andrews, Gleneagles and Machrihannish GC.
Shrewsbury Quarry
As for parks and gardens, June signals the start of the summer bedding and floral displays at their colourful best, with displays lasting until late August. Shrewsbury’s Quarry always puts on a great display of summer bedding that brings in a lot of visitors during the summer months.
And finally, I just want to mention The Sports & Grounds Expo returns to the Three Counties Showground on the 6th and 7th of July 2022.
It's a totally outdoor event that organisers say has been designed to be inclusive of everyone who shares an interest in the sports and grounds maintenance industry. It's free to attend and visitors are able to get hands on with equipment as each exhibitor has the opportunity to have a demo area located beside their stand.
Perhaps I’ll see you there?
