'St George's is going to whip the pants off of Somerset'

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27: Veteran groundsman Clayton Raynor is confident he has prepared a match-winning batting strip this year and reckons St George’s are better equipped to exploit the conditions.

He boldly declared: “St George’s is going to whip the pants off of Somerset.

“I’m not trying to tell you they are going to win by a two-to-one, but St George’s is going to win because they have played on it before.

“St George’s have a good idea of how it played before and now they have a good idea of how it’s going to play even better.

“I’m quite sure St George’s have the hang of things by now. But a lot of the players that Somerset have picked have not played on my pitches before and by the time they adjust it could be too late.”

Earlier this year Raynor completely rebuilt the batting track traditionally used for Cup Match at Wellington Oval that was in dire need of attention, using a backhoe to shave inches of clay off the surface at both ends to level it off.

Muck

“It was just a big pile of muck about four -months ago after the backhoe scaled it down.”

The square at Wellington Oval was then top dressed with spare clay taken away from two adjacent batting strips that will no longer be used.

Even though the batting track for this year’s Cup Match has yet to fully mature, Raynor is confident it will still live up to his own lofty expectations.

“Most people around here can’t put wickets back together in four or five months when they are torn apart like that. But right now she’s back on the money and is willing to come to attention and play.

Prepared

“St George’s have played three games and trained on a brand new wicket and they love it.”

Raynor reckons the batting track he has prepared this year is better than the one that St George’s played on when they wrestled the cup from Somerset at Wellington Oval six-years ago.

“This wicket is a big difference and I see St George’s scoring lots of runs and taking lots of wickets.”