Putting The Pace Back into Kensington Oval

The square at Kensington Oval in Barbados is to undergo a major operation over the next few weeks.

Ground curator Richard 'Prof' Edwards revealed yesterday the area would be "top-dressed" for the first time in almost a decade, in preparation for the 2003 first-class season which is likely to start in January. When it is completed, it is hoped that the pitches would regain the pace and bounce they lacked in recent regional seasons.

"We are going to be taking a couple of inches off the top and replacing it," Edwards said. "It is significant. We are going to have to dig off all the top, down to about three inches and will bring in a special type of soil that has a high clay content."

After the clay is applied and it is level, pitch preparation will begin with the planting of grass. The last time such a major repair job was done to the square at Kensington was about eight years ago.

"At that time we didn't put on as much and did not take off any. We just top-dressed it and we did not go for a specific soil," Edwards said.

"I know a lot more about the soils now, so I am going for the type of soil that is recommended ? one which gives pace and bounce.

"It has to have a high percentage of a type of clay which we have naturally in Barbados."

The clay, Edwards added, was commonly known as ?Barbados black clay? and was not like the reddish one that is used at Sabina Park, in Jamaica. The work at Kensington is expected to begin next week and should be completed in abouta month.

It was prompted by the gradual 'contamination' of the surface in recent seasons. "When you put down good clay soil at the beginning, over a period of time it changes the properties of the top of the pitch," Edwards said.

"If you are putting stuff in it all the time, the soil is not the same that you?ve originally put down. It becomes contaminated by these other things that you put in the surface and it loses some of its strength to bind at the top."

Edwards, a former Barbados and West Indies fast bowler, who is also chairman of the national selection panel, said the Kensington pitch often had good pace and bounce for Test matches, but it was sometimes missing during Busta Series matches because of the high amount of activity on the square.

"What happens is that because we sometimes play back-to-back Busta matches, the area doesn?t get a lot of rest," he said.

"If the grass gets worn on one of the pitches and you prepare it like how you prepare a Saturday pitch, the actual clay of it becomes contaminated.

"It doesn?t bind together, it isn?t as tight at the top and the ball doesn?t bounce as quickly or as high."

* SOURCE: Barbados Nation