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[uknsaunders]

Seen people given 2s or 3s out of 6, for the pitch, because 'One kept low'...

Use be the problem with playing at Marlow. The deck was so good that as soon you played elsewhere and couldn't flat track bully it, the grumbling started. The number of times our top order batsman would talk themselves out on a perfectly good deck because something odd happened occasionally, was silly. Then the Marlow deck would have an off day when it got wet or too dry and the skipper would be searching for the groundsman to give him a bollocking. The number of green tops I've seen do absolutely nothing is not funny!

[Manormanic]

Hillingdon Manor has a path going through it too. Really high standards in the TVCL these days.

errr, no it doesn't.  It has one that goes in front of the sightscreen at one end, if the idiots putting it out have not put the screen inside the boundary is all!

[Warneymonster]

Why?

Rubbish deck, facilities just as bad if not worse, clubhouse is a unruly school, outfield is a rugby pitch, need I go on. Maybe I'm spoilt in our league as we get to play at some great  places like chertsey, kempton, Hampton wick, chobham,  Dorking etc so it makes it look worse but comfortably the worst overall in the league

[Howzat]

errr, no it doesn't.  It has one that goes in front of the sightscreen at one end, if the idiots putting it out have not put the screen inside the boundary is all!

Still an awful ground haha, however their 1st team ground is one of the best in the south of england!

[jwebber86]

this is the view towards square leg. my car is parked just off the boundary, the white flags are just visible



this is the view towards third man.

i didnt take a picture of the wicket but it was mainly a gravel material. we turned up before their team and there wasnt a wicket marked out. the bloke from their side turns up and puts the frame on the wicket where ever he fancied playing today and marked it out.

they are only a friendly side we played on tour but it was ridiculous the bounce was so inconsistent i tried to make every ball a full toss.

[Manormanic]

Still an awful ground haha, however their 1st team ground is one of the best in the south of england!

Although I tend to agree that Coney is not great, it isn't as bad as is made out (well, the wicket isn't - the outfield would be better if the council could be relied upon to cut it) and is not massively worse than the home grounds of some of the people who criticise it!

[Gingerbusiness]

errr, no it doesn't.  It has one that goes in front of the sightscreen at one end, if the idiots putting it out have not put the screen inside the boundary is all!

I haven't criticised the pitch, have criticised the ground. When I last played there someone had obv left the sight screens beyond the path as a few people used the path during the match...

As you say, the council have a lot to answer for... But I have been there when players have checked the outfield for needles and glass and had to remove a burnt motorcycle from the outfield, but admittedly, this was years ago. Once again, not the clubs fault. Can't account for the variables.

Tbh you probably have a better square than us (the groundsman is allergic to water at certain times of the year but won't listen! the chairman told him it was a 'league rule' that he had to repaint the lines, and sweep the ends, between innings just so the umpires could see the lines in the depths of summer!) but we have one of the most beautiful grounds in Berks IMHO.

[meats]

That description sounds a bit like Dartford down in Kent!!

Wallingford's old ground in the Cherwell league was a dump and I used to play for them! They've now moved to Blewbury CC and they have a lovely ground. Stokenchurch isn't a great ground in the Cherwell either for that matter but it plays well enough, proper postage stamp but not the best of settings.

I haven't played at many grounds in the TVL but of those I have I would give a mention to Kew. Generally a good bunch of lads but ground isn't great. Our ground isn't the best but it plays a lot better than some of the scores on the mark card we receive suggests.

Down in Kent, I wasn't a fan of Blackheath. Outfield was a rugby pitch covered in sand but the track was generally fine.

[TGB1997]

It probably doesn't help that my home grounds track and pavilion is top notch (in fact 280 became a par first innings score later in the season and the pavilion was brand new for last season) but there were a few places last season I didn't enjoy playing at.

The first ground I didn't enjoy was probably just a one time issue as in the second innings the pitch started to level out. I played at Metrogas in a Sunday game early in the season and it was a nasty pitch to bat on. Our club in the pre development league season Sunday games tend to give the bowling all rounders a chance to bat up the order and the batting all rounders more overs ready for the league games to start. As a spin bowling all rounder that bats normally around 7-10 depending on the team we have out, in this game I opened the batting which I had done a couple of times last season on Sundays and facing the tall Aussie opener found out the hard way how difficult it was to play on the pitch. Good length balls were bouncing over my head, the seam movement was unreal moving from outside off to outside leg and to add to this some balls pitched and just rolled along the ground. As the game went on these problems calmed down especially in the second innings. I believe this was just an anomaly as when one of our Saturday teams played there later in the season it was fine we were just unlucky.

The second ground I didn't really like playing at was in Swanscombe. The track itself wasn't too bad but I found out the hard way how bad the outfield. This was during my time playing in our 3XI in which I fielded on the boundary a lot as I'm pretty quick and have a good arm. I had a brilliant day so far already taking two catches including a difficult catch on the boundary in which I sprinted from long off to around deep extra cover to take the catch. Whilst fielding on the boundary at the other end I didn't have too much to do but when one of their players belted a ball straight up where mid on would of been (I was at long on at this point) and on my way in to try and take the catch my foot landed in a goal post hole that hadn't been covered properly and jarred my knee which could of been worse and ended my season. On this occasion I was lucky as I was able to bowl 2 overs that game claiming a wicket before they were cleaned up at the other end finishing with figures of 2 overs, 1 wicket for 3 runs. Remarkably I also managed to bowl 8 overs straight through in the development game the next day finishing on 8 overs, 1 maiden, 1 wicket for 27 which I was happy with along with a direct hit run out near the end of the innings.

One away ground I particularly enjoyed playing at was Lordswood on their main square. I played there once when I was a lot younger in a development game in which our young development side were thrashed against some much older and experienced players. However when returning with my new club we managed to earn a victory against a very competitive side. Normally as a spinner I dislike bowling with the orange development league balls however at Lordswood it was fairly decent. I enjoyed the challenge of bowling early in the innings against former and current county 2XI players and was surprised to see the ball spin as the orange balls normally skid on a lot. In this game I was able to get the ball to drift and spin which allowed me claim some big scalps.

If I'm totally honest most grounds I played at last season were actually really decent grounds and largely didn't have many complaints.

[SirScottiod]

If anyone has played down south, the new forest kinda south, will probably heard of Swan Green. Renowned as a terrible ground. The strip itself is pretty good but it is on a hill of its own. Standing at one end of the ground you could only see chest up of another  player standing at the other end. Theres a few trees within the boundary one being a MASSIVE oak tree. The outfield is littered with an awful amount of horse sh*t and there are a few uncovered manhole with loads of concrete all over them.

The ground was so bad, they were denied promotion one year because of it

[shamelessshaun]

Played at Stoneywood Dyce in Aberdeen. It happens to be next to Aberdeen Airport so you will have 757s coming into land as you try to fend off a rising ball from a length. Wont be rushing back there.

[Woodyspin]

East Dean is an awful pitch! Never looks cut or rolled!

[rickjames]

Reading through and seeing Beddington mentioned on page 1, pitch seemed fine but the main problem when I played is they were having their BBQ/football party stuff going on with a DJ playing all manner of loud dance music, kids running onto the outfield, all sorts. Eurgh.

[TangoWhiskey]

We turned up for a game we got last minute through the conference as our Oppo had pulled out very late.

We had been told that we were probably going to play a 3rd XI side on an artificial pitch. The club had two elevens plus junior teams and had two pitches, so we presumed it would be a mix of kids and adults. We didn't have many options so we took them up.

When we got there, this was the pitch we had to play on:



Their fixture secretary doesn't play a lot of cricket I imagine. Not only this but the oppo had an average age of about 15 with two 40+ year olds who'd presumably drawn the short straw and had babysitting duty.

Worst game I've ever been involved in. Was an utter disgrace. Our fixture sec copped a few comments from some of the guys unfortunate enough to turn up!

[TGB1997]

If anyone has played down south, the new forest kinda south, will probably heard of Swan Green. Renowned as a terrible ground. The strip itself is pretty good but it is on a hill of its own. Standing at one end of the ground you could only see chest up of another  player standing at the other end. Theres a few trees within the boundary one being a MASSIVE oak tree. The outfield is littered with an awful amount of horse sh*t and there are a few uncovered manhole with loads of concrete all over them.

The ground was so bad, they were denied promotion one year because of it

There's a team near me that can't get promoted due to their ground conditions. They win the league every year as they are really way too good for that division but due to their outfield being so bad they can't be promoted any further (they play rugby on the outfield on both sides which lead to there being sandpits all over the outfield due to the wear from the rugby season.