KENT’S cricketers reported back for duty only to spend the opening three days of pre-season in the class room.

While the players debated tactics behind the desks of Sutton Valence School near Maidstone, the club’s groundstaff team put in extra hours to get the St Lawrence practice wickets ready.

This week’s warm snap proved a god-send to head groundsman Mike Grantham as he battles to make good the two-week delay due to heavy snowfalls earlier this month.

He said: "It’s nigh on impossible to catch up time and I have learnt that you have to work with Mother Nature, you can’t speed it up.

"The problem was that thick snow fell and soaked into the surface of the pitches. It usually takes four weeks to prepare the pitches and so far we’ve had just over two weeks’ work."

Grantham’s team have also re-turfed the area scarred by the removal of the lime tree stump.

Elsewhere the ground staff team continue work on the new entrance gates to the Canterbury headquarters, the new members’ turnstile and path and the refurbishment of the old white scoreboard, which is now black with larger yellow numbers.

The club have also announced a slight change to their calendar of pre-season friendlies.

Pre-Season Fixtures:
Monday, April 4: Kent v Old Kent XI (Twenty20 format starting 2.30pm).
Tuesday, April 5: Kent v Hampshire (45-over friendly starting 10.45am).
Saturday, April 9 and Sunday 10: Kent v Derbyshire (two-day friendly 96 overs pre day starting 10.45am).

Admission is free to all matches.