25.07.2008

Derbyshire to use aerial lift sun shade

According to a local news story, Derbyshire County Cricket Club is planning to use a large “cherry picker” to hold up a six metre panel in order to shade its wicket from the setting sun in Monday's Pro40 League match against Essex at the County Ground.

The aim is to save Derbyshire from further embarrassment, especially as the Essex game will be shown live on Sky TV.

The County Ground is apparently one of only two top cricket pitches in the country that run east to west, as a result the setting sun has been a major problem during evening matches.

In two games so far this season, there have been delays of 75 minutes and 85 minutes while they waited for the sun to go down, because the batsmen could not see the ball as it was being bowled.

The England and Wales Cricket Board refused to allow them to bowl from one end only while the sun was in the way. They are now looking at turning the pitch to a north-south direction at the end of this season.

Derbyshire chief executive Tom Sears said: “If this works it will save us a lot of bother.” Experiments have already been conducted, and while it worked, the sheet was too small, it has not been determined that a six metre panel will do the job.

Vertikal Comment

Hopefully whomever is supplying the aerial lift for this job, will seriously consider the machines ability to handle this application.

Capacity is a factor, but much much more important will be the wind factor, given that the UK has had a very windy summer so far, this will be a major consideration.

If it was me supplying a machine, the very least I would do is make sure that the machine selected was within its capacity by a massive margin. In fact I would rather use a crane and some guy ropes.

Hopefully someone will send us a photo or two next week.