Grounds Management Courses

The Grounds Management Association Cricket Toolkit

The essential guide to cricket grounds maintenance: https://resources.thegma.org.uk/cricket/cricket-home

SHORT COURSES

The short in-formal courses are designed as an introduction for volunteer/recreational grounds-staff to provide essential practical skills for a range of cricket maintenance tasks, enabling the grounds-staff to learn and develop the skills required to prepare and maintain a cricket playing surface.

Course content has been designed to help the individual in developing their practical turf care skills, enabling them to produce quality cricket playing surfaces in a more sustainable way.

The courses are designed to be no longer than two hours in length and are be delivered in the evenings or weekends and are broken down into sections of the different aspects of preparing and maintaining cricket grounds.

All courses are delivered by County Pitch Advisors with support from the Grounds Management Association’s Regional Pitch Advisor.

Pre-Season Maintenance Short Course

Date: Sunday 16th March

Time: 10:30 - 12:30

Venue: Cublington CC

Registration: https://forms.office.com/e/7gzPWycL8g

Participants will learn about:

• Checking and removing any debris from square
• Mowing and reducing the height of cut
• Planning for the season and setting out the square
• Additional renovation (minor repairs)
• Pre-season rolling
• Getting the outfield ready
• Checking ground equipment

Pitch Preparation Short Course

Date: Tuesday 6th May

Time: 18:00 – 20:00

Venue: High Wycombe CC

Registration: https://forms.office.com/e/HBeUzxkswn

Participants will learn about:

• Pitch preparation considerations
• Mower type and cutting heights
• Wetting the pitch and drying a pitch
• Brushing, raking and mowing
• Rolling
• Marking out the pitch

Pitch Recovery Short Course

Date: Wednesday 4th June

Time: 18:00 – 20:00

Venue: Newport Pagnell CC

Registration: https://forms.office.com/e/JnSmbezLG4

Participants will learn about:

• Cleaning the pitch up
• Materials and equipment required
• Preparing a seedbed for the pitch
• Applying loam, seed, fertiliser and levelling
• Post repair care
• Repairing a foot hole to re-use a pitch and during longer games

Pitch Renovations Short Course

Date: Thursday 24th July

Time: 19:00 – 21:00

Venue: Winchmore Hill CC

Registration: https://forms.office.com/e/7ZrH4Vxfhi

Participants will learn about:

• Preparing the square for renovation
• Materials and equipment required
• Thatch removal and scarification
• Preparing a seed bed
• Applying loam, seed and fertiliser
• Winter maintenance
• Mowing (topping)
• Drag brushing
• Surveillance for weeds, pests, diseases

ONLINE COURSES

Level 1 Cricket Grounds Maintenance

The Grounds Management Association (GMA) have a range of training courses that are suitable for both the professional and grass roots volunteer. The new online Level 1 modules cover a range of sports and allow you to gain an awareness and general understanding of the tasks involved in maintaining playing surfaces

Click here to apply

Level 2 Cricket Surfaces Course (Applied Turf Culture)

The online Level 2 modules for cricket surfaces will allow you to understand how technical aspects of turf maintenance can influence overall pitch quality, helping to create a suitable annual maintenance plan for your playing surface

Click here to apply

Level 3 Cricket Surfaces Course (Advanced Turf Culture)

The online Level 3 course for Cricket surfaces will allow you to understand about the advanced technical aspects of turf maintenance and management, and how they may form an integral part of a detailed work programme. This course will allow you to get the most from your surface in terms of quality standards and ultimately, carrying capacity.

Click here to apply

Oxfordshire Cricket

Our friends at Oxfordshire Cricket are hosting the same grounds management courses the day before/after the ones in Buckinghamshire. If you are unable to attend our courses, or it is more convenient to attend the ones in Oxfordshire, you can see all the details of these below:

If you are interested in booking onto any or all of these courses then please click here to book and confirm your place.