Groundsman honoured at NZ Cricket Awards
During the summer months, Fitzherbert Park is Andy May’s second home.
May is the head groundsman at the park in Palmerston North and his team maintain the main cricket ground, as well as the 11 pitches across the road at Manawaroa and Ongley parks, and the sports fields at the Arena, which are mainly used for rugby and football.
May, who has worked at Fitzherbert Park for 11 years, was recognised for his efforts with an award for outstanding contribution to cricket turf management at the New Zealand Cricket Awards last week.
“It was pretty cool. All of New Zealand Cricket were there. I probably got more of a kick out of seeing Richard Hadlee around than the other New Zealanders.”
While he said he had just been doing his job and didn’t expect to win an award, May’s dedication to ensuring the grounds meet a high standard and long hours at the park made him a worthy recipient.
Before he arrived, Fitzherbert Park had lost its first-class warrant of fitness and wasn’t able to host first-class games.
But through May’s work and support from the Palmerston North City Council, the ground won back its warrant of fitness and now regularly hosts one-dayers, twenty20s and Plunket Shield fourdayers.
He said the council had the vision of bringing first-class cricket back, but it took a bit of work.
“You’ve got to make sure you’ve got the infrastructure, got the machinery, the drainage and the most important thing was building the practice nets.
“They’re first-class practice nets, equal to anything around the country now. The feedback we get from teams that train here [is] they’re [among] the best around.”
This summer Fitzherbert Park hosted multiple matches for the Central Hinds women and Central Stags men, as well as qualifiers for the national schools finals, regional tournaments, club cricket, men’s and women’s rep cricket and the national junior secondary schoolboys finals.
During the summer it was almost a seven-days-a-week job looking after the pitches, especially if a first-class game was coming up, but May was full of praise for his team of six.
The Arena fields host numerous codes, so that is a lot of work too.
May said he loved cricket and rugby, but “I just love turf”.
Cricket was the most time consuming as it required more specialist work.
“Whatever happens you just have to deal with it, get on and do the best you can.
“Just be prepared for these things. The thing in turf I’ve been taught is be prepared for everything.”
May started in the industry in the 1990s in Auckland doing renovations on sports fields for 10 years. He worked on grounds including Eden Park, North Harbour Stadium, golf courses and former rugby league ground Carlaw Park.
He spent eight years in Hamilton working at Waikato Stadium and Seddon Park where he got his level four turf qualification.
Then he went to Masterton to work at Queen Elizabeth II Park, before coming to Palmerston North, which he said was the best facility he’d worked at.
He said good drainage, irrigation and grass cover was what made for good turf, but the top grounds needed constant work. The council’s parks operations manager Dave Evans said May was someone they could trust to do a good job maintaining the facilities.
“He’s up there with the innovation. The thing is it’s not just the old school, he’s been trying new stuff and it’s paying dividends. The playability is tremendous.”