As a new cricket season dawns, Wauchope’s Rod Lyon says he plans to continue his education in the fine art of pitch preparation.
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Lyon will continue that education in turf wicket preparation in Sydney next week.
The well-known cricket-lover is a renowned bowler and is also the longtime Andrews Park curator.
Lyon will head to the two day course at Blacktown to attend the course which will be hosted by Sports Turf Accreditation.
Once complete, Lyon says he will be accredited four turf wicket preparation.
“This will be my third course over the last five or so years,” Lyon said.
“The first course I attended was with the legendary Les Burdett, the curator at the Adelaide Oval up until about 2010.
“Les made the job really easy to follow and had some excellent tips on how to get the job done.
“These course are fascinating for me personally and I certainly learn more and more each time.”
Particularly, Lyon says he is looking forward to learning more about soils used in pitches.
However, the course itself covers a variety of tasks involved in the preparation of turf wickets including, watering requirements and techniques, marking out, wicket preparation, wicket covers, options and processes, renovation techniques and tips and tricks of the trade.
With the local cricket season to start in early October, Lyon says he is still unsure if he will get the gig at the Andrews Park.
However, he was philosophical about the outcome.
“I have put my name forward to do the curator’s job here at Andrews Park again this year. It’s really up to the club now to decide on who they want to do the job,” he said.
A veteran player, Lyon has spent seasons playing with the Wauchope club, Comboyne and Beechwood.
“I suppose I’ve been back here with Wauchope for about 15 years or so,” he added.
Wauchope Cricket Club’s Matt Day said the club would be looking to field teams in the first grade, seconds, thirds and fourth grades.
“One of those sides – and probably our third grade side – will be a development team,” Day said.
“That is the model we have used … we like to bring those junior players into the senior ranks to introduce them into the higher level.
”It is probably a bit too early to tell how we are shaping up for player strength.
“We did host our first training sessions for the year on Saturday and will continue that for the next five weeks.
“The Saturday training is held at 2pm at Andrews Park and we would encourage anyone to come down and have a hit and have a chat to us about the upcoming season.”
For more information on the Wauchope Cricket Club contact 0439 841 077.