Game-changer: Hybrid wickets transform Bradfield Fellowship

In a county bursting with dramatic landscapes, Bradfield Village Fellowship Cricket Club sits within one of South Yorkshire’s  most picturesque spots.

Established in 1902 and sited in the beautiful Peak District National Park village of Low Bradfield on the outskirts of Sheffield, the club plays on the Ibbotson Memorial Field, a private area in the village centre hosting cricket, bowls, tennis and a community hall.

“There isn’t a better place to play and/or watch cricket,” the club website states proudly.

Sheltered from the Peak District’s windswept limestone reaches nearby, the volunteer-run facility is stacked with cricket fixtures – so much so that club secretary and groundsman Mick Bocking (ably assisted by fellow longstanding volunteer Nick Cutts) and the committee had to ring the changes on how they could deliver so much cricket sustainably season by season.

Mick (pictured below) knows Bradfield Fellowship inside out – “I’ve been here since 1992, when I was team captain,” he tells me, “and have seen the fixtures list grow to the point where we’re usually running up to two matches a day at weekends and 50 games over the season.”

The club currently plays in division four of the South Yorkshire Premier League but that comes nowhere near telling the whole story of the Fellowship’s popularity. The future of the game is bright indeed - “Our 120 juniors include those in the AllStars U5s and Dynamo U7s ECB development programme,”

Mick reports, “plus an U9s team and three U11s, U15s and U18s.

“Then there are our two Saturday sides and a Sunday team, with the Yorkshire over-60s coming down here too.”

There are nets and junior coaching too – seniors Thursday evenings from 6.30, juniors on Fridays, 6 to 8 and AllStars and Dynamos on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

By the 2020s, Bradfield Fellowship’s pitches were straining under the weight of thousands of footfalls every season, and the challenge of keeping them match ready with a small though passionate band of volunteers.

“Several Premier League clubs, Ackworth and Doncaster for example, had invested in hybrid pitches to help them handle wear and tear, so we decided to look into installing them here,” Mick explains.

“They seemed a sensible solution and we applied for grant funding from Sport England and were successful.” In the 2024/25 off season, the club approached manufacturer SIS Pitches to add two hybrid pitches to its existing six strips. “The grant covered most of the £16,000 cost,” Mick recalls. “We paid £3,500.”

And the rest, as they say, is history. “The wickets first saw action last season, with twelve senior games played on the hybrids, including junior and senior Saturday afternoon games and the over-60s.”

The hybrid pitches feature 2 X 2 cm stitching spacing, at 80 mm depth, Mick reports. “Hybrids are laid as a full system from the sub-base up then reinforced with synthetic fibres that are integrated into the rootzone of the natural grass. The system comprises 95% natural grass, 5% polymer.”

The impact of the hybrids has proved transformative, says Paul Clarke, one of Bradfield’s junior co-ordinators. “All U15 and U18 home games are played on the hybrids, which is a great asset for players. Most grounds stage these fixtures on synthetic wickets, so visiting teams look forward to playing here and we receive plenty of favourable comments from them.”

“During the season, we have activity here every day, it’s that busy,” Paul explains. “The hybrid pitches offer more opportunity to play and develop on a proper playing surface.”

Proving his point, he adds: “My son Will, who is 16, is a fast bowler in the first team. He and three other U18s played here at the weekend (end of May) and each took wickets. We do try to push juniors into seniors cricket whenever we can.”

Mick points out another benefit of the hybrid strips: “We can now use two standard pitches on the square for seniors outdoor nets practice and training because the hybrids can take so much more cricket, freeing up existing wickets. Quite simply, we can fulfil more fixtures than before, and that’s important, given the growth of the girls’ and women’s game. They play both hard and softball on the main square now.”

On a roll... Nick Cutts (left) and Mick Bocking handle the club’s groundcare.

Helping Mick and Nick with grounds maintenance is a band of local volunteers they recruit regularly for all manner of tasks.

On “Opening-up Day” at the end of March/early April, up to thirty volunteers arrive to prepare the ground for the season. “I issue a request on social media and that gets the level of response we need,” says Mick. “Parents and their kids turn up to help around the ground on everything from moving site screens and covers to mowing the outfield and boundary maintenance work, with Nick and I preparing the pitches.”

“Then we ask them to come in again for end of season (EOS) renovations, including scarifying, applying new loam, fertilising and mowing.”

Helping them with those tasks is an assortment of used machinery, including Atco and Allett pedestrian petrol mowers for the square, a Ransomes ride-on for the outfield, Fox Verticutter and a newly acquired Autoroller (“The old one packed up”).

Do the hybrid pitches require any special treatment, I ask Mick. “No, just the same maintenance as our other strips. Because of the pitch perforations however, they do need lots more watering.”

It’s fitting to end by including an added benefit Bradfield Fellowship bring for aspiring young cricketers. “During the season, we hold regular cricket festival days for U9 boys, girls and mixed teams (by early June, they’d already staged three)” Mick explains. “I prepare three wickets in the outfield, all marked out for them, which they really enjoy playing on because it gives them a sense of playing in a proper fixture.”

Paul concludes: “They love it. At other grounds, they’d only have coned-out areas to play on, rather than dedicated pitches.”

Next-generation stitching technology for cricket surfaces

“Machines we released last year are made specifically for cricket wickets, making the install much more seamless, and (improving) the quality of the install that the machines are delivering,” SIS told Pitchcare.

Its latest Bio X™ Fiber hasn’t been tested in clay yet, “but there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work for outfields.

Dedicated machines for cricket have superceded larger units designed for football and rugby pitches. SIS’s new Spin-X machine, for example, completes installation in three runs totalling 2.5 hrs instead of four with its predecessor - saving time and costs, the company states.

“Our new machines are lighter than the older range, meaning less compaction on fresh new surfaces and less stress on the grass plant. The Spin-X is lighter still, and a smaller machine impacts the surface even less.”

“Machines can stitch at any depth between 45 mm and 180 mm, and spacings of the fibre can be altered to better suit the client.”

Stitching depths of 45, 80, 110, 145 and 180 mm are all possible, although 80 mm is the depth SIS installs on cricket pitches. (180 mm is the standard depth for football and rugby installs).

Spacings can be 2x1, 2x1.5, 2x2, 2x3. 2x1 - “2 X 1 will probably never be used for cricket but 2x1.5 for example was installed at Celtic stadium and Crystal Palace stadium last year. It’s difficult to say at the moment on performance levels with 2x1.5 compared to 2x2 (the former has 25% more stitching) as it has only been in use for one season.”

SIS is working with cricket’s governing body the ECB, which is in its second pilot season testing hybrids in the county championship 4-day competition. “Longer term, we hope red ball international test cricket is given the go-ahead to use hybrid pitches - there’s definitely more awareness and demand internationally.”

Bio-X™ provides a more responsible end-of-life solution. Unlike traditional hybrid systems that leave persistent synthetic fibers in the ground, Bio-X™ is designed to break down naturally or be industrially composted, reducing environmental impact and simplifying future pitch installation.