Rampant rain leaves cricketers …

By Melissa Grant
A BOGGY ground has hit the Pakenham Upper Toomuc Cricket Club for six, with the recreation reserve’s chairman pleading for the council to immediately improve its surface.
The Pakenham Upper Recreation Reserve hasn’t been used for training or matches this year and it’s unlikely that the club will be able to take to its home pitch before Christmas.
Chris Gunton, chairman of the recreation reserve, says the Cardinia Shire Council is aware of the ground’s poor surface but has done little to ease the club’s pain.
“It has been an ongoing problem and they have been aware of it,” Mr Gunton said.
“It’s just years of neglect and funding from the shire.”
Poor drainage, lack of aeration and poor soil condition has forced PUTCC, which has 150 members, to play games at other grounds in the area.
Mr Gunton said the club was struggling to continually relocate training four nights a week as well as matches on Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays.
“This year our club also leased the Tynong Recreation Reserve just so it could have toilets and facilities for players and supporters,” he said. “We still use two other grounds with no toilets or rooms which is a disgrace in this day and age.”
Mr Gunton said he had emailed a council officer last month about the poor state of the club’s home ground but was yet to get a reply.
Last week the reserve committee of management received a report dated 3 September 2009, via the council, from a consultant stating that deep aeration of the ground was needed as well as spraying and fertilising.
The report also stated that the work should take place in September and October.
“It all seems a bit too late,” Mr Gunton said. “The work should have been done before the cricket season started.”
Cardinia Shire Council spokesman Paul Dunlop said council officers had discussed the ground’s condition with the reserve committee a number of times in recent weeks.
“The amount of rain we have had in recent weeks has certainly had an impact on the playing surface,” he said.
Mr Dunlop said the council had worked with the PUTCC and other clubs, as well as the West Gippsland Cricket Association, to provide alternative grounds such as the Don Jackson Reserve in Pakenham and at Pakenham Secondary College.
Mr Dunlop said the council provided funding for maintenance works at reserves around the shire which reserve committees were responsible for.
Mr Gunton said the reserve committee received $11,000 in council funding for building and maintenance last financial year, but there was little money left spraying weeds and fertilising and cutting the grass.
He said the ground was in dire need of major works and the club was pleading with the council to make it fit for competition.
“The time has come for support from a higher level as this is a major problem when people cannot play or train at the venue they call home,” Mr Gunton said.