Climate change delivers a googly
Shifting patterns of weather continue to play havoc with sporting provision across the UK. Head groundsman at Durham Cricket, Vic Demain, tells us about the challenges.

Excessive rainfall this year has caused the square and outfield to flood.
Becoming the latest victim of this year’s record rainfall, a waterlogged square and outfield at the Chester-le-Street ground and poor germination on the square this spring, prompted Vic to act in a bid to avoid a repeat next season.
“We carried out end of season renovation last year, as we had always done,” Vic explains, “scarifying, clearing out and reseeding as usual.” “But it never stopped raining all winter. The seed rotted, leaving no growth in spring and very little growth of existing grass. Weed grasses such as Poa did, however, and they are not good for cricket because they tend to grow in clumps and also don’t produce the roots which hold a cricket pitch together.”
“Also, we encountered a massive ingress of algae, due to the wet conditions, which again is a massive problem when producing pitches. All of this resulted in us delivering pitches which were inconsistent in grass coverage and, on a couple of occasions, practically no grass coverage at all. The essential pre-season rolling period had also been missed due to conditions making it unsuitable to get a roller onto the square, resulting in the pitches never being consolidated properly.”

International umpire Richard Kettleborough, was in charge for the first Championship game of 2024, which was called off without a ball bowled.
Then, a second dose of disaster struck. “The coldest, longest spring. We planted again in March/April time, but it was so cold, the soil temperature failed to rise to the 8C required for germination. So, the seed lay dormant. Also, as the weather was beginning to get drier, the algae started to crack off, resulting in an unstable playing surface. Only by mid-June did we start to see the grass growing.”
Starting the season on the back foot was not ideal. “The pitches were poor,” Vic recalls, and this in an era of unprecedented pressure on playing surfaces. “There’s far more games and training now – all on the same number of surfaces. Something has to give, and it’s standards sadly.”
The recent 100 competition, and Tier 1 women’s cricket entering the calendar this year (2025), will only serve to aggravate the groundstaff’s plight. Fixture pressure in the professional game is not Vic’s only worry.
“Our outgrounds stage recreational cricket, these are grounds owned by local recreational clubs. They can be hosting up to four games a week. Also, if the Chester playing surfaces are recovering, and we need to take a second XI to an outground, that’ll cost the club a great deal of money.”

Vic (pictured above) broke with tradition at the end of the 2024 season in an effort to counter climate change impact on his 24 strips. “We finished on 30 September – after the England/Australia One Day International on the 24th, and a four-day fixture after that - two weeks later than many other clubs, and that makes a massive difference to germination.”
“We didn’t scarify at all but seeded with our usual J Premier Wicket 100% ryegrass mix and topdressed with the same quantity of Ongar sand loam as usual, although I was tempted to go with a lighter grade. If we see masses of grass next spring, that’ll allow us to start the season on the right foot. We can always thin out and take grass off, but we can’t add it on.”
Durham installed drainage to their outfield between 2009 and 2012, with four inches of sand laid over the local heavy clay. “The system is working, and we bring in machines to cut channels and punch holes in the outfield, when necessary, but the problem is if the level of the river Wear, which runs alongside the ground, rises sufficiently to cover the drain outlet from the outfield, then drainage off the turf isn’t possible.”
“We’ve been lucky not to have suffered more extensive flooding, although we did lose an entire four-day game last season.”

Storm in a teacup
The recent outcry across the sector over comments made about groundcare by presenters of a rugby league podcast has left lingering questions about how the status of groundcare professionals can shift on to a more positive footing among the general population.
Vic was clear about the problem and how to resolve it. “We have to improve the public perception of groundspeople. One way to help achieve this is to raise their profile,” he explains.
“The general public seem to see groundspeople as grumpy old men who hate people walking on their hallowed turf, and that annoys me as it’s a view we have brought on ourselves to some degree.”
“I saw that podcast as three youngsters having a bit of a laugh, then their comments were taken too seriously and out of context. The attitude of ‘how dare anyone criticise us’ has to change. We shouldn’t let such comments get under our skin.”
When climate change brings challenges to playability, the grounds team’s turfcare choices will always bring one or two dissenting voices, but it’s best to ride the comments. Vic, a longstanding member of the Grounds Management Association, points out: “Groundspeople are soft targets for ribbing, about taking our work too seriously,” says Vic, but this has to change. “We all love our grounds, of course, but in cricket, if batsmen and bowlers want to scratch about on the pitch, that’s up to them.”

“The aim is not to turn out the head teacher’s presentational lawn. My job is to create a safe surface for sport to allow cricketers to play to their full ability.”
“We also have to have a higher opinion of the worth of what we do. I was approached recently by the club’s commentary team about speaking during live streaming of a game on the state of the pitch before the match.”
“I thought, ‘Why would online listeners and viewers be interested in that?’ but the 10-minute talk I gave brought great feedback, much to my surprise, and told me that people are interested in what groundspeople do. I really enjoyed doing it, after being scared stiff at first.”
Vic has earned himself a regular commentary slot, part of a growing trend among the 18 top-flight cricket clubs in the domestic game, seeking expert opinion and input from groundstaff, he believes.
The idea of a grounds manager as a media personality may be an unfamiliar one, but presents a key way for those on the ground, literally, to rub shoulders with the great and the good of radio, television and new media such as podcasts. It’s all about schmoozing.
Vic questions the value of presenters asking non-experts about pitch quality. “Why should we listen to what ex-players say about the pitch, but you often see them on TV making such statements? Unqualified people do speak out, but surely the groundsperson knows best what things are put in place before a match.

The Saltex Managing Up presentation saw Vic sitting on a panel of grounds professionals and consultants exploring how communications skills presented one of the keys to practitioners gaining more influence at management level.
“Speaking with people is such an important part of our role,” he voiced, “above us or below us (in rank). Yes, it can be terrifying but the more you do it, the easier it becomes to gear your delivery to your audience.”
Soft skills are what are sorely needed, the panel concluded. “When I started at Durham as head groundsman ten seasons ago, I had no experience, no support, no training in these skills. We have to ensure those rising up the ranks receive that kind of training,” Vic told the audience.
Traditionally, few grounds professionals were required to present, but “times have changed”, Vic says. “We can all be trained to make pitches, but how many of the team know how to present budgets?”
“There are endless courses on what makes grass tick; perhaps there should be a stand alone course covering social and media skills for managers to train them in teaching their teams to be able to communicate more effectively at all levels.”
“Managers don’t need to know everything, and part of being a good one is to give team members roles that they take responsibility for, and that includes soft skills.”