Message Board - Cricket: Hollow tining - end of season
7 Jun 2010 by Adam Hills
All - would appreciate any info you can help provide.
I am looking into what benefits hollow tining brings, what method we should use and any professional companies who will do it for us. The reason we want to do it is that the ends of our wickets (the playing ends) are suffering from massive peaks and as such the wicket (from a side view) dips quite alarmingly in the middle. We really suffer when it rains as it all seems to collect on a length at one end. It's a big dip and when bowling, the last couple of strides before delivery see a bowler have to climb a hill practically.
So the idea is to hollow tine (probably over a few years) to try and reduce these peaks and flatten out the square.
Any advice?
7 Jun 2010 by Loammeister
Hi Adam
This is a regular bane of groundsmen's lives so has plenty of different shades of opinion, each of them appropriate in their own particular circumstances.
The idea of hollow tining is the most cost effective way in which you can approach the problem of raised ends or 'saddles'. If you are a member of the Country Cricket Groundsman's Association you will more than likely find that it is equipped with a Groundsman Aerator which can be hired at favourable rates. If you're not then contact your County Board and they will give you the detail you need. Once you have the machine and have been given instructions on its use then you can hollow core your wicket ends evenly across the square as one of the last measures you do at the end of the season. During the winter months you should get enough frosts to help break down the holes and with early rolling the height of your saddles is reduced over a period of several years.
An alternative on the diy route to this is to use a turf cutter where you can also accurately reduce the ends but here you can take off turn, reduce levels through 'turf cutting' soil, and then replacing truf if you choose. We find it better to simply reduce levels by stages of cutting, preparing a seed bed and seeding from scratch so that you get a new grass coverage which is integral to the new levels.
If you want the contractor method then there are GKB Combinators and Koro Field TopMakers which are tractor mounted which can reduce the saddles to an even level with the rest of your square and then be reseeded as before.
We have used each of these three methods with success and I'm sure many others will give you their tips on how best to succeed with these and similar options.
Good Luck
The light at the end of the tunnel is not a train
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