By Vic Demain
April 15 2013

Vic ex Uxbridge groundsmen describes his experience on his debut at Trent Bridge against us.  There are some interesting comparisons of the nature of the two roles.

It felt very strange having to welcome Middlesex CCC players’ staff and supporters as “opponents”, having for the past 5 years played their part time “host”.

Both sides came in for practice the day before the game, this is very normal and the players were great, very chatty and all wanting inside information on the pitch, which was never offered. This is just as well because none of the groundstaff had a clue what was going to happen. What we did know was that following the recent weather, it was never going to be baked to any depth, although the top appeared very dry.

Match day arrived with all the usual tension of the first day of a new season, Middx won a toss and following a bright Notts CCC start, a few friends were questioning the decision to bowl first. However, Toby R-J soon changed all that and Notts were bowled out leaving MCCC an irritating 2 overs.

Day 1 had been reasonably warm resulting in a touch of sunburn to the bald spot. Day 2 was however completely different, freezing and gloomy. Like Notts, the Middx openers started well, before a mini collapse, which was addressed by Simmo and Bergie, resulting in a very important 1^st innings lead.

Day 3 was the clincher as thanks to Dex, Notts were rolled over, or would have been but for Adams and Fletcher.

As often happens Adams went first ball on day 4 to close the innings and Middx raced to the victory target.

Finally I had witnessed the team winning a Championship match, although it was tinged with regret as it was against my new employers.

So what are the differences between a Test ground and a club outground? Let’s start with the floodlights which made play possible certainly for 2 days, the brilliant sand construction outfield, which drains so quickly, a hover cover which allows the complete square to be covered in 3 minutes rather than messing around with 7 different bits of sheeting and of course the overall attention to detail that having 5 members of staff looking after just the grass allows. No boards, bins, scaffolds, marquees, chairs, barriers, pulling cars from the car park and then my favourite picking up other people’s rubbish.

It was brilliant to have MCCC as first visitors, even though the result was wrong, I wish everyone a great season and if Notts don’t win the league, then I hope Middx do. Thanks to the players, staff and fans who took the trouble to come over and have a chat. Isn’t it brilliant that we are watching cricket again?

I do hope the Uxbridge Festival goes well, but imagine my thoughts will probably be elsewhere at that time.