Cricket club's playing surface gets thumbs up from the experts

The lush playing surface at Elford Cricket Club is to come under intense scrutiny as a team made up entirely of professional greenkeepers take to the field.

A team from The Belfry will be taking time out from caring for its three golf courses to play cricket matches at the village club in the outskirts of Tamworth

Mick Wright, from the gardening department at The Belfry, said the team played friendlies throughout the season against local clubs.

"The Belfry has a football team and the greenkeeping and gardening fraternity decided to get together about four years ago to form a cricket team," he said.

"There are about 35 in the greenkeeping and gardening department so we have plenty of players to choose from and the games are really enjoyable.

"This is a great time of year because the weather is generally beautiful while we are working on the golf courses and then we get together for our matches - and the pitch at Elford is always in good condition.

"The sun hasn't been shining quite as much this year and our first game at Elford against a local side finished in a draw.

"We reached 100-1 with Kyle Cleaver top-scoring with 27 and Chris Mills knocking 25 before they retired since our rules say players should retire at 25.

"Jamie Brookes reached 24 before he was out and then rain stopped play!

"Our next game is against Tamworth Castle XI on July 2 so hopefully we will be able to complete the game."

And they will be walking out to the crease for that match using new equipment sponsored by their kind-hearted bosses.

Mr Wright added: "We are extremely grateful to The Belfry for sponsoring our equipment of bats, pads, balls and stumps.

"Operations director Nigel Gray came along to one of our games and made the decision after seeing us play!"

Article sourced from -This is Tamworth