Calmore Sports Club are delighted to announce the significant acquisition of Joe Weston as its new club groundsman at Loperwood Park.

Club Chairman Pete Lavelle announced at the clubs’ Annual General Meeting last night (29 November) that Joe has agreed to take over the reigns and has already made some major strides in putting the ground and square ‘to bed’ for winter with full preparations well advanced for the start of the 2019 season.

Joe, who has worked at the Rose (Ageas) Bowl since its inception in 2001, currently holds a level 2 certificate in groundsmanship, having attended Sparsholt College and was recently appointed Deputy Greenkeeper at the Boundary Lakes Golf Course, which adjoins the cricket ground in West End.

Pete was delighted to announce the news, “Joe comes highly recommended and you can already see the great work that he has already done on the square,” he said.

“We needed to act following comments by the Southern Premier League and our inability to be promoted in 2017 after winning Division One and a number of opposing captains came to Loperwood last season with a preconceived ‘marking’ in their minds regardless of the surface – we saw that in the chalk and cheese markings we received from captains and umpires in 2018.

“But with Joe on board with us now, we have made a significant statement that we are very serious about our position in the Southern Premier League and he will made a big different to our pitches and our ground and we are delighted to have him with us.”