Community Cricket - Damazan Cricket Club

“This year has been particularly difficult for everyone but ours was the only ground fit enough to play cricket on,” says John Ayling

Now 85 years old and enjoying retirement in south west France, John Ayling continues his amazing grounds care career by not only maintaining “one of the best cricket pitches in France” but also by freely offering advice to cricket clubs throughout the country

Colin Hoskins Editor

JOHN AYLING’S association with Damazan Cricket Club in France (south east of Bordeaux) began in 1996. While holidaying in south west France (a region where he had spent many summer breaks) the club chairman asked John to visit the ground. “The grass wicket was sitting above drainage that had been laid across the square, which was far from ideal, but the club had thankfully secured a grant to install an artificial wicket,”says John.

“I emigrated to France in 2000 and have been maintaining the Damazan pitch since then. In due course, I decided that the wicket needed to be moved to the middle of the ground, since at that stage there was only a 30m boundary on one side,” he continues. “This meant using a digger to remove a 30m by 3m strip and transferring the sub-base of calcaire (crushed chalk) from the old wicket to the new, topping it off with sieved calcaire. It was then watered and compressed with a shatter plate, after which the shock pad and mat were both winched tight then nailed down.”

Now considered one of the best cricket pitches in France (one measure of its popularity is that club members jointly travel more than 1,500km for a home game!) the Damazan ground operates on a very small budget – “certainly not enough to buy equipment,” says John. It features John Ayling-designed sightscreens and scorebox, as well as a trailer that was converted by John from a boat trailer. “I also managed to get hold of a set of three gang mowers which were being discarded, converting them into a triple roller. We were also gifted a 4ft roller which can be filled with water, and we have a sit-on mower that is used most of the time towing a small set of gang mowers.”

John concludes: “This year has been particularly difficult for everyone but, with club members’ help, ours was the only ground fit enough to play cricket on after a three-month ban on mowing!” ■

A family tradition…

Since leaving service in the Household Cavalry in 1958, John Ayling – a carpenter by training – has enjoyed a long career in various grounds care positions in the London region. He has worked in the Harrow Council Parks Department, at the sports grounds of Schweppes and Hoovers, and at the Carreras Sports Ground in Stanmore, Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge stadium, Birkbeck College and St Benedict’s School before retiring and moving to south west France.

Grounds management is clearly in the Ayling family blood. John says his choice of career was influenced by his father, who was groundskeeper at the Church Lads Brigade ground in Harrow, and that he is “very proud of his two sons who today hold key positions in the UK turf care sector” – Richard, as grounds manager at Merchant Taylors’ School, and Ian who is assistant head groundsman for the RFU at Twickenham.

Basic but functional - Damazan CC’s clubhouse (left) scoreboard (bottom left) and rollers

Thanks to John Ayling’s hard work and expertise the Damazon cricket pitch now has the reputation of being one of the best in France

Success leads to more success

John’s success at maintaining the Damazan pitch soon attracted plaudits throughout France and several years ago led to his election as commissioner for grounds by France Cricket. “This role lasted about two years, until France Cricket changed its mode of operation, and on one occasion it meant I had to travel to Paris to inspect and report on eight grounds – which at that time were in poor condition – and offer advice for improvements.

“I continue to give advice to any club when required, and have recently overseen the installation of a new artificial wicket at Toulouse Cricket Club – some years ago I did the same at a ground in Auch, near Toulouse – as well as giving help by email to several new clubs in the north of France.”