The cricket pitch at school
When I started at the school where I became principal we did not have a cricket pitch.
We always had to take a bus full of kids to the country club to play and practice cricket.
One day we had a parent meeting, and some of the mining men were on our parent committee.
I decided to ask them what the chances were that they could get the mine to help us build this cricket pitch at school.
The next day they phoned and said, the mine manager said no problem and we will get a cricket pitch.
This was really a blessing as it was quite a long journey for the children just to go and practice.
They did not tell me when they would start building but one day, as I came back from a meeting I saw my beautiful rugby field looked terrible.
There were heaps of ground all over and it looked awful.
I walked nearer to see what was happening. I got the shock of my life.
There was a back actor digging a whole 3 metres deep 22.56 metres long and 3.66 metres wide.
I asked what was going on, and the young guy there said no the mining manager sent him to build the cricket pith here in the middle of the rugby field.
O thank you I said but why so deep? This guy told me that we live in an area that has a lot of clay soil. He was bringing in big rocks to put at the bottom and then gravel. He would then put a drainage pipe in and bring some decent soil for the rest of the build. They took all the ground that was dug up away in trucks and the rugby field looked a lot better.
I said it seems as if you have done this before, and he said yes, he had. The mining manager knew that he had done it before and that is why he sent him.
This was a much bigger job than I had thought but maybe everything will be fine once they were done.
It took about two weeks for them to finish this pith and it was beautiful. They even brought the grass that was planted on the pitch.
They planted some steel pipes next to the rugby field and put cricket nets around it. This meant that at least four children could practice here. It was so well made they even made the stumps inside to come upright by themselves when they practised, and that meant that we did not need someone to be behind the stumps to put them up every time.
They put tartan inside so that the children could practice on that as well.
I was very pleased and impressed and thought that for my part I will go to Sasol and get some liquid fertilizer from them. We got this for free from them for the schools.
I wanted the grass on the pith to be as beautiful as the pitch was.
I got the gardener to pour some over the pith and water it with a sprayer.
WARNING DO NOT USE AT HOME THE GRASS WILL HAVE TO BE CUT AT LEAST TWICE A WEEK.
Idiot that I am, the grass grew so well that we had to cut it every second day. This was a very big job as it had to be cut by a roller blade, and kept the gardeners busy for a long time.
I said I would never do such a silly thing again as this was really hard work for them and actually unnecessary.
Sometimes we all learn the hard way.
Have a wonderful day and greetings from the beautiful Wild Coast.
The mines supported the communities well in those days, they have built so many schools for the children whose parents worked on the mine and for the local community. With all the continued strikes, they cannot afford to help the schools anymore. It was once such a privilege to be part of the mining sector, but not anymore. That prestige has also been destroyed by all the "I want" demands
The truth is the truth.
Outstanding post and narrative. Thank you for sharing Resteemed!
Thank you so much.
I enjoyed reading your post. There is a lot of good stuff.
Thank you so much.
We never really have cricket in this part of the world. Interesting sports though !
And the grass stuff, yea can be much of a pain lol
That was terrible, but never did it again :)