One of the most contentious in Leinster cricket is the length of outfields on club grounds. The Grounds Committee is emphasiising this issue over the next few months, communicating with all clubs and groundsmen, with the hope that there will be improvements during the 2017 season.
It shoud be said that this is not just an issue with parks grounds, and can be very much down to how a ground is perceived. Players may feel that the grass on a normally short outfield is long, whereas they may feel that the grass on a normally long outfield was short. Confused? It is easy to be, and many people may not know the length of grass that is ideal.
There may well be people reading this now who think this is a ridiculous question - grass should be as short as possible. But as a groundsman will tell you, it is not as easy as that. Very short grass can lead to the leaves being more susceptible to disease and damage, and the time of year and the weather will make a groundsmen alter the length of the grass.
But there are some general tips that can be given. Our top outfields will be cut to somewhere between 10mm and 15mm, with the emphasis being towards the bottom of that range. The very maximum that an outfield should be cut to is 30mm, but ideally Cricket Leinster would like to see outfields no longer than 25mm.
With this in mind, the Grounds Committee is aiming to include grass length on the grounds report that umpires fill in, so that Cricket Leinster can more accurately address the problem.
Sometimes it may even be the case that clubs are unaware of the length of grass that their mowers cut. If groundsmen or clubs need any help or advice on outfield mowing, there is always plenty advice available from the Leinster Cricket Groundsman's Association (leinstercga@gmail.com) or the Grounds Committee (guysatchwell@hotmail.com)