Aerating a cricket wicket is often considered the ‘Holy Grail’ for contractors and grounds teams.
The precision and speed of a Wiedenmann Terra Spike XF6 is the preferred option for the Lincolnshire groundsman who, along with a handful of others, pioneered deep tine cricket aeration in the professional game in this country.
“It’s not that punching holes in a wicket is difficult,” said Keith Exton, director of family-owned Grantham contractor, Perfect Pitches, “it’s just when you juggle unpredictable factors -such as weather and moisture content- everything must align.”
“Patience, judgement, and perseverance are called into question; you absolutely don’t want to feel pressurised to ‘go’ when conditions are wrong…”
Keith has spent his working life tending professional turf surfaces with cricket his speciality. From blue chip clients like Lords, the Oval, and Trent Bridge to the smallest village clubs, they all command his equal respect.
In the background is his son, Alex Exton, currently full-time groundsman at Grantham Cricket Club, but very much part of the operation. Alex started helping his dad from the age of ten and doesn’t remember a time when his father wasn’t working with Wiedenmann Terra Spikes, and conducting dozens, if not hundreds, of renovations every year.
“Recently, dealing with some mowers, I had a chance meeting with Bruce Alexander, Wiedenmann UK’s former sales manager for central England and Wales,” volunteered Alex.
“Bruce and I got talking. He remembered Keith vividly. He recounted the time when he arrived to demo a Terra Spike XF6 deep aerator.
“It was 2004; the cricket square in question was at Oakham School. Bruce and Keith were chatting through the effect deep aeration would have on site. The XF was faster – and still is- than anything else.
“It was the actual wicket that was under discussion. Deep tining was still a recent innovation… Bruce from an engineering standpoint backed the process of clean punched holes but the intricacies of a cricket square made him nervous. Keith, conversely, knew the science, but was aware other venues with different-style machines, had gouged ‘chunks’ from their squares.
“Bruce was still considering the much faster ‘in and out’ action, when Keith decisively announced: “Well, there’s only one way to find out,” jumped into the tractor cab and carefully drove a Terra Spike XF6 across one of the wickets. The rest is history…”
Over the next few seasons, Keith championed deep aeration on cricket wickets, instrumental in having Wiedenmann GmbH engineers develop a 10 mm tine for cricket applications.
Wiedenmann’s Chas Ayres takes up the story:
“Keith has been a long-time advocate of the 10 mm tine. He said we were missing a trick by not having it.
“Originally for Keith’s machine – the XF6 -we just had 8 mm, 12 mm, and 20 mm tines available.
“Keith insisted 12 mm holes created holes too wide in diameter to allow them to ‘heal’ sufficiently before the colder, wetter winter months. Equally, holes punched by 8 mm tines didn’t let enough air, and water through. Hence discussions with the factory. The following season 10 mm tines were introduced, with a unique head, and almost two decades later, they are still in demand.”
Keith himself remembers the period fondly, as literally, in his world, Keith and his peers were breaking new ground.
“Chris Wood was the ECB pitch advisor in those days. He also was an early advocate of deep aeration. We started out on lower league pitches until we had confidence to venture into the county scene. We took the Terra Spike to Taunton, Somerset and a square that had been problematic. Chris, together with Wiedenmann’s Chas Ayres and Mike James were there. It went well, not perfectly because we were learning as we went. That became the benchmark and from then we adjusted set up and the process evolved.”
Around 2007-2008 a four-year study by Iain James and Simon Parsons, began in association with Cranfield University. Their published report was called The Aeration of Cricket Pitches. After its publication, The England and Wales Cricket Board and the IOG (now GMA), actively started promoting deep aeration for cricket from 2012 as an essential part of the maintenance calendar, including the report among their education programme.
The report confirmed that one deep spiking of a cricket pitch each year, in the right conditions, saves both time and materials throughout the rest of the winter and following season.
“Going to around 100 mm with a deeper machine was found much better than trying to go with a pedestrian machine three or four times, trying to get deeper each time,” explained Keith.
“Put all your efforts into doing it perfectly the first time, not too wet, preferably before Christmas or immediately after… The research pointed to the first aeration clearly giving the most benefit.
“Our diary for terra spiking cricket squares nationwide looks good for Winter 2024 so we must be doing something right as we keep getting the invitation to return year on year.
“Many sports clubs – and not just cricket – rely on volunteer groundsman, who cannot find enough daylight hours over winter to give pitches the time and attention they need. This is a central part of what Perfect Pitches is about. In those instances, we agree a programme of routine maintenance visits to maintain and keep them in excellent shape for the start of the next season.”