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The Ageas Bowl's Head Groundsman talks about his move, pitch maintenance during lockdown and Winston, his red haired cocker spaniel
Yesterday should have been the final day of Hampshire’s season-opening County Championship match against Kent at the The Ageas Bowl. However, Wednesday saw just one man and his dog on the outfield.
The man is groundsman Simon Lee, who joined Hampshire from Somerset during the winter, and the dog is his 17-month-old red haired cocker spaniel Winston.
“He’s come to work with me every day since I got him,” Lee 37, said. “He’s a bit of a lunatic but he breaks up the silence a little bit.”
Multi-award-winning Lee – who arrived at the The Ageas Bowl having won back-to-back ECB Groundsman of the Year awards for one-day cricket - has taken over from Nigel Gray at the home of Hampshire Cricket after having been associated with Somerset for 20 years, where he worked his way up from apprentice to head groundsman at Taunton – the role he held for the past decade.
“I’m a Somerset boy so it was a massive decision to make,” Lee said. “I could have happily stayed as there was no particular reason to leave.
“But opportunities like this don’t come around very often, especially with such a big venue and the chance to improve an international ground.”
Like Lee, Nathan Lyon - who’ll no longer be joining Hampshire in 2020 - was due to make his County Championship debut for Hampshire this week.
“We were going to have Nathan Lyon, so we were going to play on decent decks because we thought he was probably the best spinner in the country so he would get the most out of it,” Lee admitted.
“You've got to score bonus points with batting as well as bowling and winning games. So you need to be able to play on good decks to get the runs to help you get those bonus points in the Championship to be up at the top of the table.
“You have to back yourself to bat on some wickets, and it wouldn't have just been Nathan Lyon and our spinners to consider, we have a decent seam attack who are capable of taking 20 wickets.
The current situation and required lockdown has allowed Simon to have time to learn about the The Ageas Bowl’s unique quirks, catch up after a wet winter, and put his own spin on the square.
“For me starting afresh, it has been difficult because I haven’t been able to do much work on the ground to get used to the place and understand how it works because of the rain," Lee, who has been ably assisted by deputy Tom Cowley during quarantine, said.
“We’ve basically just been cutting grass for the past few weeks because everything grows so quickly now – which is taking about a day a pitch.
“We have reseeded all the squares over the past month. This is a really good opportunity to improve the surfaces.
“There is not usually much time to let cricket squares grow and be natural. Usually, you are straight out of winter into seven months of games.
“We can improve the surfaces by thickening up the grass on the surface and getting better root depth and growth which can hold the soil together more and give us more pace and bounce.
“The one thing I haven’t done so far is preparing a pitch! That’s the only thing I’m really in the dark about – do the things I did at Taunton react the same here?”
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