28 Aug 2010 by roon
I got a shock yesterday afternoon as I was about to re-mark the creases for todays' match. The pitch had lengthened by two inches. Out of curiosity, I last checked the length about four weeks ago and it was spot on.
A couple of years ago I found that it had lengthened by an inch after about two months but I put that down to not enough pre-season rolling before marking out and my match preps "stretching" the pitch.
We have had a week of incessant rain, but that would not cause this much movement would it?
The only reason I checked yesterday was that the old stump holes were at the front of the bowlers' crease instead of at the back.
Once the season starts, I do not normally roll up to the stumps (just the popping crease), but I did stump to stump with the hand roller yesterday. Would this cause it?
28 Aug 2010 by Anthony Asquith
The dynamic and reactive nature of clay soils can be seen in nature (Look at Gilgai formation with vertisols in hotter countries) although because the chemical and structural differences of dominant clays are quite large and different compared to ones in warmer climates, you would not see this as much because the dominant clays in cricket loams in the UK are less reactive allround. However, soils with amounts of 2.1 dominated phylosillicate clays will respond to shrinking and Swelling as drying and wetting cycles occur although I should not imagine you would see it to the extent of what you are but it very much depends on the minerology of the soil, the amount of hydration (which relates to the former) - and to much lesser extents, the volume of clay in the pitch.
AA
2 inches? Who gives a ferk?
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
Always roll right through past the stumps, never stop at the creases.
29 Aug 2010 by roon
I'm more curious than bothered, Barry. If it stretched two inches every week, it would end up 25 feet long! (I'm joking, but you know what I mean).
As AA suggests, it was probably due to the soil consistency affected by the weather soaking and drying - though not much drying took place until Thursday night.
From now on, Bath, I will.
Thanks.
29 Aug 2010 by roon
I know. 23 YARDS. My brain must be soaked as well.
Used to have a mate who rolled over the popping crease and 5 foot marks then transfered them to the rest of the deck! Looks good.
Maybe your tape has shrunk with all this wet weather we have been having up to last week!!!
Don't talk to me about Contractors Wonka, I am one myself......
Show me a cricket pitch/square that doesn't shrink/swell with the varying conditions - I doubt such a thing exists.
I've seen it on my tracks and 3 inches of movement over the season isn't unusual - one of the reasons I detest putting a white line across the entire square.
I also don't permanently mark the corners of my squares - If those marks are in the correct position from one year to the next I'll be stunned. So if I'm going to have to get the tapes out anyway to check the permanent markers surely I might as well just 'square' it every year anyway.
Barry we play off 22yds not 22yds 2 inch nor 21yds 10inch, end of story. One thing I hate is incorrect markings, and I wouldn't like someone to be able to get a tape out and find mine to be wrong.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
jl
if you dont put a permanent mark on your corners how do you know where to put the strings in when marking a new wicket.
When squaring up at the beginning of the season I'll put marks in where the tracks are (or will be) but these marks aren't permanent, they're simply painted in. What I don't have (and never will out of choice) is permanent (ie one's which never move) marks (studs, carrots or whatever) for where my square corners are nor where my tracks are.
OK, it means I spend hours every year setting out the squares at the beginning of the season, but as I believe you'd need to do that anyway I'm not losing anything.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
5 Sep 2010 by roon
I re-mark at the beginning of the season completely from scratch. I would have thought that is a must. I dont bother with pre-set markers because we have mat (UGH!) I can use as a datum.
I would expect movement over several months of winter, but not in a single month in summer, although - as I said - it was excessively wet for over a week.
Your point, JL, is something that I have wondered about. If I mark the whole crease line across the square (not a big one) will the last one used be correct by the end of the season?
In my opinion, while I like it to be accurate, the square would also look weird with old faded creases out of line with newer ones. I have the unfortunate abilty to see the slightest misalignment. Hence I take an eternity setting up the stumps.
My original point was that is this an indication that I still do not do enough pre-season rolling?
I have four permanent corner markers made from 1 foot lengths of scaff tube. I check them in March and September with a 3/4/5 and cross diagonals over my 15 deck square. There is some winter movement and I have to realign the markers every 3 or four years. For mowing purposes I paint dot every 10' at the start of the season but always run a brickline from corner marker to corner marker before laying down the crease marker and painting up. Prior to this, I measure carefully the correct distance from square corner to middle stump, say eg 15, 35 or 65 feet, before unfolding my crease marker onto the brick line on the middle stump point. I always measure from the same end of the square.
I achieve an accuracy of +/- 15mm which is good enough for the panel umpires who have examined it and measured it on occasions.
I have more problems with the optical illusions caused the the slight saddle at each end when you look down the track. The camber can make the creases look wonky.
As an aside, all my size ten boots are EXACTLY 12" long which is a useful thing to know if you leave the tape in the machine shed.
This thread reminds me of a story I was told by a man who'd been in the Royal Engineers doing national service. They were on exercises recovering tanks that had been deliberately put into places where they were stuck (ponds, ditches, on their side etc) on a peat moss (Otterburn? Epynt? I forget). Using a huge rig and winches and cables they happily wound away on one tank pulling in yards of cable. Their rig stayed where it was and so did the tank, yet the cable kept on coming. After several minutes they realised they were compressing the peat bog in between the two points and not extracting the tank.
roon, I don't personally think the preseason rolling will make a massive amount of difference.
The difference comes if one time it was wet and the next measurement taken when it wasn't.
I do get faded lines at one end of the square - one end is always marked in line. I choose to live with it. No one has ever commented on the various faded lines which I find odd but not surprising....
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
Years ago we used a theodolyte to measure and painted two marks on each of the four concrete walls round the ground. So, unless the wall has moved.............
Sorry Phil, cant resist but how is the lovely Kirsty?
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