Message Board - Cricket: Purchase of new covers.
23 May 2007 by haslamm
We are going to purchase some new covers for our club.
Can anyone give me some advice or assessments on the ones that they have at their club and an indication of the cost?
23 May 2007 by jlawrence
depends on what sort of covers you're looking for.
Rollon covers: you're looking at somewhere around 5 or 6K
lie flats: anything from 1K upwards.
Take a look at http://www.pitchcare.com/shop/category/160 for more pricing.
One thing to seriously consider is how you're intending to put the covers on and off. If you're man handling them then how many people are available to do it - if it's only one person then the covers need to be light.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
23 May 2007 by jontaylor
I could be way off beam and this may well not apply in your case, but lots of people read this site...
I visit many clubs who believe they read RORO covers and spend thousands on them. IMHO the problem is that for many of these that eats up their funds and they under-invest on the square itself. With part-time groundsmen the covers then don't get used appropriately, or worse still they're destroyed by vandals.
Please assess where your funds would be best spent. Would you be better buying covers that will give you one or two extra days cricket on a poor track, or accept that you will lose the odd game and have 100% better surfaces to play on. A major town club near me is thinking of buying new covers whilst their square is slated by one and all - even their own committee!
I have only sheets, rarely used, and probably lose less than 10% of fixtures to weather (one so far his year on a day with 40mm of rain all afternoon!). I probably lose one game a year when the afternoon conditions would be fit if I had covers.
Rant over.
The ciderman rolls
23 May 2007 by Neil Dixon
Roll on / roll offs are far superior to flat sheets, but then they have a price tag with it.
I have just bought 2 flat covers from Tildenet, for less than £300 each, that do a perfectly good job in keeping the wicket dry, 1 man can remove and put them on with no problems.
I have a TTS flat cover, and again it serves the purpose.
What you need to consider with flat sheets is the removal of water when they are laid out, you really need 2 or 3 bodies or a waterhog machine so that when the cover is taken off, water does not spill on to the prepared surface.
23 May 2007 by atters
we use a damp proof membrane from a builders merchants. bit of a hassle to get on and off especially when its windy and it gets standing water that needs to be brushed off. needs replacing every 2 - 3 years.
cheap though..
23 May 2007 by Grassman2011
If it is roll ons that you require, try JMS cricket. About the £5,000 mark i believe. Used on several county grounds.
23 May 2007 by Alex Wilson
Battersby's from Heywood appartently do a light weight 25m x 12m flat sheet with eyeletts for under £200. Obvoiusly not top grade but may be serves a purpose in the right circumstances. Maybe if someone has used these sheets they could let us know what thet are like?
23 May 2007 by Andy Matthews
I use a flat cover that I ordered through Arco it's 30m long and 10m wide, I had it made to this size because the existing cover we had was only about 5m wide didn't let any light through and weighed a ton, the water always seemed to seep under as well, hence the extra width, the new cover is made of a material similar to the scafflex stuff it lets light through and has eyelets installed and I can move it on my own,Just, but most often I just hitch it to the tow bar on the car and tow it onto the wicket, as for the water on top Arco and other companies sell squeegees (god knows how you spell it) for about a fiver, you can then just push the water off. The big cover would cost around 1K but it's worth it as we don't get the seepage problems anymore.
I am experimenting with some 'A' frames as some of you will have seen on another post and Atters is waiting for the picts, sorry digital camera not working it will be Monday or Tuesday.
23 May 2007 by haslamm
What we are after is roll on roll off covers that can be handled by one person or two.
30 May 2007 by EDDIE G Last edited 30 May 2007
Hi do you have any one handy in your club? My winter project was to make a set of covers. I took photo's of different designs of other clubs covers and designed my round them. I can wheel them on and off myself and so far have work very well. The only draw back so far is, unless your square is flat and you get rain for hours it will run under. But in general I am very pleased. We have played 2 game so far that would have been called off last year. Will email photo's
31 May 2007 by jlawrence
Eddie, we have a similar problem with our main ground - ie the water can run under the covers.
At the edge where it runs under the skirts are held down by metal bars - works ok but some still gets under. What we do is put some heavy blankets behind the skirts to soak up whatever gets through - this seems to be working quite well.
JT: I know where you're coming from and yes a club must ensure that the cost of covers won't impair the ability to invest in the surface.
I personally think covers are one of the most important pieces of kit in the groundsman armoury. In our league where there are teams from all over Devon losing even just one game because of the weather can (and has in the past) cost us promotion.
Making your own covers is possible - they're not exactly complex items. Effectively you're just taking Andy's A frames a step further and putting wheels on them.
For roro covers try speaking to Stuart Canvas (01925 814525). I've no experience with their covers, but they were the only people who were able to supply me a repair kit for ours so I'd recommend speaking to them.
Whether covers can be handled by one or two people mostly depends on your ground - if there's even a slight slope roro's can be very difficult to move around. You can push (or pull) them around with the outfield mower.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
31 May 2007 by jarvoski
i along with 3 more groundsmen go round to all our member clubs as pitch inspectors for the north staffs & south cheshire ECB premier league, we see all kinds of covers, the majority of clubs with wheeled covers, go for the JMS covers, because of their simplicity and easiness to push on & off. One man can easily push them, the cost is around £5500 for three, but some clubs purchase 4 to save covering the bowlers run ups with sheets, they are an excellent firm to deal with, they even come & make them up on your ground.
31 May 2007 by jarvoski
i along with 3 more groundsmen go round to all our member clubs as pitch inspectors for the north staffs & south cheshire ECB premier league, we see all kinds of covers, the majority of clubs with wheeled covers, go for the JMS covers, because of their simplicity and easiness to push on & off. One man can easily push them, the cost is around £5500 for three, but some clubs purchase 4 to save covering the bowlers run ups with sheets, they are an excellent firm to deal with, they even come & make them up on your ground.
1 Jun 2007 by Rizla
Neil
how long would you leave your Tildenet covers on your wicket ? just the night before a game , or longer
had a look at TTS a bit pricey for us ,
and what size did you go for .
Thanks
William
Fat old Sun
2 Jun 2007 by mario
I use JMS covers. Have had them for the past 6 seasons without a problem.
As alluded to in a previous post, I too have a square which allows water to run off diagonally with the effect that any prolonged or heavy rain will run under the wheeled covers.
When I purchased side sheets two seasons ago I asked JMS to incorporate a sleeve along three sides of the sheet in order that I could install some land drainage pipe (25 metres of 80mm diameter for £21.00 B&Q).
The photo shows the pipe working as a dam preventing the water from getting underneath the covers.
Also note at the ends of the sheet there are what I refer to as elephants trunks (the very white bits) effectively a cone of sheeting material which allows the water to escape off the sheet via these trunks and onto, in this case, the run-up sheet, which then runs onto the sheet on the bottom side of the covers and so on until it reaches the last sheet where the trunks have hoses attached which then directs water either onto a good draining part of the outfield or into my main drain.
I know no boundaries.
2 Jun 2007 by mario
Here is a shot with everything on.
3 x JMS wheeled covers.
4 side sheets each 25m x 10 m with water booms on three sides.
Only two of the sheets have a land drainage hose installed along their long edges. The one which tucks under the covers on the "high side" and the lowest edge of the last sheet to keep water on it which then is directed off via hoses.
The white run-up sheets are 10m x 10m with the extension sheets (the green ones) being 5m x 5m.
I know no boundaries.
2 Jun 2007 by Neil Dixon
Hi William,
Last week they were left on from Saturday evening unitl Tuesday morning ( we get an extra day after the bank holiday) and there was no disease at all, despite the wet / warm conditions.
We initally bought 1 of them purely to cover one of the wickets being used for the boys sports lessons, ( they will train during the week on the previous weekends wicket, so we cant cover both), but it is working so well we have purchased a 2nd sheet and are about to order another.
They do sweat a bit, and trying to move the sheet when covered in water can be tricky, but they DO keep the surface dry, so well worth it, they are not heavy either, ours are about 3.5 m wide and 25m long
2 Jun 2007 by Rizla
thanks for info Neil. 
Fat old Sun
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