Lord's in winter: Mick Hunt

Date released: 23 December 2009

Lord's in winter: Head Grounsman, Mick Hunt What happens at Lord's during the close season? Head Groundsman Mick Hunt tells his side of the story - including the 'nightmare' of that famous slope!

This is the second interview in our series 'Lord's in Winter'.

Mick Hunt has been part of the furniture at Lord's for as long as most people can remember - with over 40 years in the job.

Talking exclusively to Lords.org he tells us about the quirks of Lord's (including that famous slope); his brushes with the media and what he and his team get up to when there's no cricket on.

No cricket at a cricket ground

"There’s quite a bit to do. There’s only really a two/three week period when you can say there’s nothing you can do outside - so that’s when we creep inside and do a bit of inside work.

"If we can stay outside we do but we’ve got an indoor maintenance programme too - there’s things to be painted, machines to be tidied up, all our sheds. Our house-keeping’s not the best so our ‘spring cleaning’ starts in about January!

"Spiking in winter’s really important because there’s virtually no traffic on the outfield so the holes stay open. We spike in summer too but people walk on it, play on it, we roll machines out there and the holes get closed over again.

"Once there's frost - that’s no-go. Once there’s frost - keep off. What frost does is freeze the water in the leaf of the grass so it acts like an icicle - if you walk on it you break it.

Keep off the grass: Snow can be good for grass "Snow too, we keep off but snow’s actually quite good for grass so long as it doesn’t lay too long. If it lays too long you get a warm air pocket between the snow and the grass and that can cause disease.

"The season starts earlier and earlier so we have to start earlier too. The pre-season rolling, we used to start in March - now we’re starting in February.

"But we’re lucky. We have our Test Match Groundsmen’s meeting in around February or March and some of the poor guys haven’t done a thing as they’ve been underwater or still covered in snow! I’ve been lucky enough to have 50% of my pre-season rolling done by then.

"But conditions have to be right. Those are the pitches for the whole season. You get it wrong then and it’s wrong for the whole season. There’s no point rushing it.

"I spend a lot of time looking at the sky!"

'Unique' Lord's

"The slope - it’s a nightmare. If I could change one thing about Lord’s I’d like a nice, level square. I’d love to level it out.

Fine detail: The famous Lord's outfield "There was talk about it when we re-laid the outfield but when you’ve got an 8’6" drop from one side to the other to level it off, you’d probably have to dig up half of Lancashire to back-fill it!

"Or we’d have had to take away a lot. It’d be impossible really without demolishing half the ground - you’d have to lower it or raise it up.

"The slope though - with the watering. If I want to give pitch three a good watering then also four, five, six, seven and eight get a good watering as well!

"It looks very dated at times - two lads out there with a waterbutt, watering the pitch. People must think 'My God, surely Lord’s has got better irrigation equipment than that!' But it’s the only way to do it."

'Beer clouds'

And what of the new drainage system at Lord's - the envy of so many grounds that the ECB are helping to fund more grounds to install similar systems.

"The [drainage] system now - it’s gone from one extreme to the other. We get thunderstorms now and as soon as the rain stops, half an hour later it’s near enough start of play again.

"Most of the time when we get a downpour it’s not so much 45 minutes and we can restart play, it’s the players! Players need time to get themselves organised.

"The old clay profile system it was London clay. It was terrible. It’s just not porous. The only nice thing about it was it kept the outfield nice and green. Other than that, it was a devil.

"You got a period of rain and there were numerous occasions when you could call off a game first thing in the morning. You could come in at 8 o’clock in the morning and basically say that’s it for the day. The clay was like concrete.

"We didn’t just go belt and braces, we went belt, braces... string anything you could find! It’s a blessing and a curse.

Rain delay: This used to mean guaranteed beer! "There’s no more, what we used to call, ‘beer clouds’. You know, three in the afternoon you get a downpour and say ‘That’s it boys’ and we’d be in the pub by about five for a nice quiet beer. There’s none of that nowadays.

"It’s good. It’s certainly increased the amount of cricket we play here."

Pitch pressures

"In an ideal world we should have one pitch per match. That’s in an ideal world. Then you know you’re going to get cricket and a good pitch every time.

"But people want these ‘result pitches’ nowadays. At the same time you need two teams to perform. There was a couple of times here last season - without being too critical of Middlesex - there were games they should have won hand-over-fist and they didn’t. That was down to poor bowling, it was nothing to do with the pitch.

"But it always seems if there’s a low-scoring match, straightaway it’s the pitch. I mean you get good bowling and bad batting - I’ve seen that on hundreds of occasions!

"Then if you get a high-scoring match - it’s ‘Oh, it’s another boring pitch.’ I’ve seen some pretty poor bowling here as well. I think it’s an easy get out to blame it on the pitch."

"Going back over the years, if you look at why some of the pitches were draws - [Ian] Botham started the ball rolling saying it was boring pitches at Lord’s. It did get our back up a bit.

"There was a Test match here against India that was a draw but it never stopped raining. That was the time there was that monsoon. England were in no hurry.

"There was a case against Pakistan. Even the ‘Holy Grail’ Wisden said England were far too cautious with their declaration. Those things - that’s not the pitch’s fault.

"Against South Africa, England had two days to bowl South Africa out, but it never came. There are reasons there have been draws here.

"Then last year we get a result against Australia and a result against West Indies and people who were looking for blood have all disappeared now. There’s no-one saying 'Oh, sorry Mick, we got that one wrong.'

"It takes two to tango though - players and pitches. It’s tricky, people say the pitch should offer a little bit of help but you don’t want to get that wrong. I don’t think people would be too pleased if a Test match finished in two and a half days - those people with tickets for day three or four.

What about the pressures on groundsmen, from the money-men wanting Tests to last five days?

"I was once told we had a lot of sausages to sell! I think they were trying to tell me to keep it going!" Hunt says, chuckling - tongue firmly in cheek.

"I’ll be truthful - I’ve been fortunate, the Heads of Cricket I’ve had have been very good. I’m lucky with John Stephenson, John’s been very good, very supportive. Tony Dodemaide, John Jameson it was basically we do our own thing and that’s it.

"We get the odd whisper, you know, we’ll be looking at the pitch and they’ll say: 'Has your mower broken down Mick?' or 'You are going to take a bit more grass off there aren’t you?' - and I always say 'Of course I am! Yeah, no problem!'

"It’s Lord’s, it’s the Home of Cricket - the old saying is, you’re not ‘playing cricket’, you’re not playing fair. I get a lot of enjoyment when opposition captains come in and say: 'Terrific, it looks great, well done mate.'

Mick and his groundstaff go to work "They come here knowing it’s going to be on an even keel, the same for both sides. We haven’t left a bit of grass on wanting it to nip around a bit or left it damp, or bare at one end for the spinners and that.

"We get a lot of accolades and not just from the captains and coaches, just from the players who say nice things.

And the rumours the ECB were pressing for spin-friendly pitches for the Ashes?

"That’s just media stuff. I just got on and done my own thing. I got quite a few emails from people in the industry, from people in Australia or around the world, people who said: 'Mick, your Test wicket was fantastic.'

"I mean, first day England rattled up that great score and the Evening Standard had a dig. But first day, Australia, that was the worst bowling I’ve ever seen from an Australia side.

"England rattled up 300 odd and the Standard said, 'Typical boring, benign Lord’s wicket.' and that was the first session! The scribes were out, giving it to me.

"They didn’t look at the big picture. They didn’t look at the bowling, which was awful. I saw Shane Warne at lunchtime and I said to him: 'Shane, that was the worst...' and he cut me off he said: 'I know Mick, I couldn’t believe it.' They were dropping things, overthrows it was like a village side!

"The Aussie boys in the ground staff they were a bit embarrassed."

Did Hunt have to keep an eye on them, lest they try and help out thier side?

"No, they’re good lads. One of them, Adam, it was his second year here.

"I’m very patriotic, very, very patriotic - until it comes to cricket! At times I think it’s better if the opposition win. If we do win it’ll look like it was underhand, like I have favoured England so I go the opposite way at times!"

After so long in the job does Hunt ever envisage giving up - and what happens when he does?

"I’ve been here forty years. I don’t know when I’ll stop.

"Do I want to stop? Yes and no. There are times when you think I could do with a break - but I do enjoy the buzz. You miss it when it’s not about. You moan about it when it’s here but you miss it.

"I think at Lord’s you’ve got to promote within. It’s unique. The pitch available to match ratio. We haven’t got a very big square out there and then there’s the slope. Unless you’ve actually worked in this environment it’d be hard to bring someone from outside.

"We’ve had times where we’ve had four or five pitches on the go. One they’re playing on, one for the next game - all in various stages of preparation. At some grounds, they don’t have four matches in a month! We sometimes have that in the same week!

"Coming from outside and taking this job - it’d be a year before you were ready for it. I’d like to think it’d be someone from within. It’s a challenge."

Lord's in winter

Keep an eye out for more 'Lord's in winter' features later in the New Year - building up to the new season.