Russell Wylie resigns at Lancaster Park

[Chris Owen]

Russell Wylie, groundsman at Lancaster Park for sixteen years,
announced his resignation from the post today.

For the past three weeks, Russell has been suspended, following a
debacle in which a pitch was left uncovered, resulting in a Shell Cup
match being abandoned.

Wylie was given the option of accepting a severance package or seeking
reinstatement. In order to be reinstated, he had to agree to
statement admitting incomptence. Understandably enough, he didn't
want to, so quit instead.

Fact, Wylie is one of the best groundsman in the country, and the
Lancaster Park has been the envy of the rest of the country. Just ask
the England team which scored over 300 to win a test last year how
good it was.

But the Victory Park Board were increasingly asking Wylie to do more
with less. His assistant (and new groundsman) Chris Lewis was
seconded to prepare the pitches at the academy at Lincoln. The rugby
and cricket seasons are overlapping more and more. He was permitted a
block of only four pitches to work with this season. He asked for the
return of ground convenors for cricket and rugby who could liase
between the Park Board and himself. He was turned down.

IMO, the VPB has screwed up royally. If the Western Australia
Cricket Association is still looking for a groundsman for Perth, I'd
get on the phone quick. Having said that, it will be a complete
waste if his skills are lost to New Zealand. Maybe New Zealand
Cricket or the Turf Culture institute should offer him a position as a
consultant or something.

Chris

--
Chris Owen
christop...@vuw.ac.nz
--

[James Sugrue]

Chris Owen wrote:

I couldn't agree more. So often in cricket circles there are tight arsed
winging f**k pigs running the show and stuffing it up. They have
mis-handled this incident from the outset. I say sack the board ,
reinstate Russell. One bad pitch out of sixteen years isn't a bad ratio.
If VPB were running Eden Park groundsmen would last about five seconds.

[Simon Thompson]

On Fri, 23 Jan 1998 22:54:32, Garyth <gbed...@ihug.co.nz> wrote:

> Personally, I'm shocked at the way this has been handled, and at the
> treatment of wylie. You simply dont treat one of the country's leading
> groundsmen this way, even if there are personality differences with him.
> Victory park board are being incredably short sighted about this. The
> success of the ground relies on the quality of the games, and the
> quality of the games depends on the quality of the ground (though rugby
> less so than cricket). For NZ cricket to develop quality players they
> must play on quality surfaces, and IMO Wylie has produced some of the
> most consistent pitches in the country. NZ cricket should step in and
> tell Victory park board to get it's shit together.
>
> NZ cricket will lose a lot if they lose the services of Wylie.

Two points:

1) I suspect that NZ Cricket still have faith in Wylie, and will do
what they can. That is opinion only.

2) There is still confusion over his employment status. Different
sources sat different things. The last version I could trust (via P
Sharp) was that he has not resigned, and he has not been sacked. It is
accepted he will no longer work for the VPB, but his employment status
has not been finalised.

-----------------------------------------
Simon Thompson
Christchurch
New Zealand

[Craig Sutton]

Chris Owen <christop...@vuw.ac.nz> wrote in article
<34c70f08...@news.vuw.ac.nz>...

> Russell Wylie, groundsman at Lancaster Park for sixteen years,
> announced his resignation from the post today.
>
> For the past three weeks, Russell has been suspended, following a
> debacle in which a pitch was left uncovered, resulting in a Shell Cup
> match being abandoned.

christop...@vuw.ac.nz

The reason the pitch was left uncovered is the tractor at the ground had a
flat tire. The VPB were to stingy with their money to shell out for a
replacement.

[Garyth]

Personally, I'm shocked at the way this has been handled, and at the
treatment of wylie. You simply dont treat one of the country's leading
groundsmen this way, even if there are personality differences with him.
Victory park board are being incredably short sighted about this. The
success of the ground relies on the quality of the games, and the
quality of the games depends on the quality of the ground (though rugby
less so than cricket). For NZ cricket to develop quality players they
must play on quality surfaces, and IMO Wylie has produced some of the
most consistent pitches in the country. NZ cricket should step in and
tell Victory park board to get it's shit together.

NZ cricket will lose a lot if they lose the services of Wylie.

Chris Owen wrote:

> Russell Wylie, groundsman at Lancaster Park for sixteen years,
> announced his resignation from the post today.
>
> For the past three weeks, Russell has been suspended, following a
> debacle in which a pitch was left uncovered, resulting in a Shell Cup
> match being abandoned.
>

--
Garyth
gbed...@ihug.co.nz
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Stadium/3521/

[Simon Thompson]

On Sat, 24 Jan 1998 07:12:16, "Craig Sutton" <csu...@netaccess.co.nz>
wrote:

>
>
> Chris Owen <christop...@vuw.ac.nz> wrote in article
> <34c70f08...@news.vuw.ac.nz>...

> > Russell Wylie, groundsman at Lancaster Park for sixteen years,
> > announced his resignation from the post today.
> >
> > For the past three weeks, Russell has been suspended, following a
> > debacle in which a pitch was left uncovered, resulting in a Shell Cup
> > match being abandoned.

> christop...@vuw.ac.nz
>
> The reason the pitch was left uncovered is the tractor at the ground had a
> flat tire. The VPB were to stingy with their money to shell out for a
> replacement.

It was far more complicated than that. This was a factor, but there
were also staffing problems, and politics involved.