It's rained at last!

It's been hot and dry here in the UK and it's been pretty much the same elsewhere in the Northern hemisphere. The result is the wickets are dry and hard.

Nearer to home the Paddock where Joe and I practice and have a knock about has suffered from the long dry spell with massive cracks on the wicket. Thankfully at the end you bowl to and bat on, it hasn't been anywhere near as bad as the areas mid-way down the wicket. We've had to resort to bowling really full and do some running repairs on the area "good" to "full", but this rain today has meant that I've been able to do something more significant.

In the garage I have a load of clay ready to be mixed with organic matter (Compost). The clay is graded through the use of a couple of Sieve's with the intention of re-seeding or repairing.

 
This image here below is indicative of how bad the cracks have been. What's surprised me this summer elsewhere, is how sound the cricket wickets have been that I've seen, none of them have cracked in the same way which is either down to the correct ratios of clay with organic matter and care and attention from the local council?

So today with it scheduled to rain all day I've put down some of the slightly rougher and bigger mix with some seed in. I don't think the seed will take as it'll dry out again and we'll probably use it through till September for batting. What I'm hoping will happen, is the rain will break down the earth further still and it'll bind/stick to the existing earth 

 Over-night the rain is due to stop and tomorrow cloudy/bright with a good breeze, so before it has the chance to dry out I'll roll it and with a bit of luck it'll bind with existing surface. There was a little bit of a dip in the surface - a bit of a bowl, so hopefully I'll have rectified that to some extent.