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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Simon Burnton

Hairdryer treatment and other fads: a history of cricket pitch-drying ideas

Lord's groundsman Ted Swannell takes delivery of three ground drying machines from James Elvy of Cimex-Fraser Tuson Ltd in June 1957 ahead of England’s Second Test against West Indies.
Lord's groundsman Ted Swannell takes delivery of three ground drying machines from James Elvy of Cimex-Fraser Tuson Ltd in June 1957 ahead of England’s Second Test against West Indies. Photograph: Sport and General/Barratts/Empics Sport

In 1903 a poem was published in the popular magazine Truth about the English cricket season:

Sing a song of fixtures, of wickets never dry,
Two and twenty cricketers with visages awry;
Even when the rain stops play is not allowed;
Isn’t that the sort of thing to rile a British crowd?

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