Message Board - Cricket: Worst pitch?

We've played today on a track that can't have seen any water all year. It was cr@p, and layers were pealing away with a root break at about 10mm down. It was so bad that it actually favoured batsmen, any ball on target flying anywhere but near the stumps. We got 205 and bowled opo out for 125
Last Sunday we played on a similar track, no water and no repairs since last season. Our quick was digging chunks out of the track every ball. So bad I took 3-30 with dibbly dobly darts!
We won both games, so I'm not complaining from a result pov, but how bad do things have to be???? Niether game could be described as cricket.
What's the worst track you've played on?

well speaking of village cricket the 2nd team played at haslingfiled in cambridge and i must say the pitch looked like it was prepared the morning before the game, didnt look like it had a drop of water on it all year, stalks were still on the pitch but cut, bounce was poor not getting thigh height on many occassions.

to be honest just looked and played poor. i understand most clubs have volunteers but even if you gave someone who knew what they were doing a little bit of money then i m sure everyone will benefit. our village is lucky as we have one guy who does the cricket pitch on a voluntry basis and is a cracking pitch most of the time and same with the football (i do that) and as much as we moan at times we throughly love it.

back to the game abington 2nds got think was 150-160 and haslingfield 89 all out

Now i do understand sunlover. I was wondering how Grace Road got flooded.

I've played on a few shockers this year. The way they played I'm almost 100% certain I'd find a fair bit of thatch in the top. Add that to them being incredibly dry and when someone hits the seam it's liable to pop up a heck of a long way - don't hit the seam and the ball rolls.

Hi guys, haven't been on for a while...Glad to see you're all well & still full of humour. Lost my sense of humour the weekend before last : Couldn't play the game that Sat, but got a text from our Skipper saying that the opposition had complained that the track was too "fast" and "bouncy".....Worried that "fast" meant "Skidding through", and "bouncy" meant "popping", I nipped out of the wedding reception to find out whether they'd somehow used the wrong track or if i'd made a complete cockup. Turns out that our new pace man ( He says 87mph, we say 80mph ) was bowling genuine bouncers & the opposition's star batsmen couldn't get their heads our of the way. Spent 6 years getting to grips with the pace & bounce issues with that ground ( Formerly known as Compton "Moss"/ Compton "Thatch" cricket club ), and finally getting somewhere near the mark, only to hear complaints, as a result of the ineptitude of a couple of prima donna batsmen....THAT pissed me off! We closed up at 235-1.....!!

roflmao @ Tim.
you can't win. I'm sure he'd rather face true bouncers than balls that pop over his head off a length.
I produced what looked to me like an aweful track last Sat. 1sts were asked to bat and scored over 300 for the first time ever on one of my tracks.
for once I actually got to speak with the umpires and they reported a bit of variable bounce, much improved over last year and there can't be a huge amount wrong with a track that sees 500 runs and 16 wickets.
I probably still got a fairly low score for it - I'd expect around 13/14 - but I'm more interested in the comments from the umpires than the actual mark. Saw numerous members of both teams and not a single complaint form any of them. Things are going in the right direction and will be better again next season.

interesting question for you all. how and why can a track play consistenlty fairly low all game except when a laggy is bowling - it then bounced like there was no tomorrow ?

To slag off another cricket clubs pitch is not on!
How do you know what problems they have, maybe they only have limited funds, no groundsman, only lads doing there best.No water? etc etc.
We had a match that scored 587 runs for 16 down?
The umpires report stated, underprepared pitch. Looked a bit green.Maybe i put a bit too much water on it?
Good job i wasnt there when this was stated.
But well into 2nd part of season now, wont be my problem anymore ?

Oldzimmer,
I think it is on.
Our league has ground inspection criteria and entrance requirements. For years our club was refused entry to the league because our village hall changing rooms had no showers, even though the bit across the boundary line always passed easily. Our new showers are used by less than 5% of players over the season, but the field is used by all.
During this dry spell I have played on a number of what I believe to be unsafe tracks - which were unsafe due to no irrigation. Half volleys hitting you in the chest and half trackers hitting you on the boot are, I believe, indicators of a poor track. One or two bad bounces an innings will always happen - two or three an over is too bad.
One track had three levels - the (paid I think) groundsman had apparently run a roller either side of the track, but not up the middle. The ground in the unrolled middle 4' was up to 1cm higher than that on either side! The fact that the rolled section was so much lower is an indication of the weakness of the ground in the playing zone. That track fell apart as we played. In the second innings our bowlers had to choose ends based on which area was fit to land on and the batmens' area finished up with an oval about 3' x 1.5' where 1cm of surface had been completely removed (due to a black layer root break). The game should not have been allowed to take place - but I've never experienced a game called off for the pitch being too dry, only too wet.
In recent games three of our teams' bats have been broken - two out of three when driving at length balls which grubbed and smashed the toe of the bat. The cost of replacing those bats will be considerably higher than it would have been for the host clubs to get some irrigation sorted (one even had a water point next to the square).