Five years ago, during the first lockdown of the pandemic, a horrible thought crossed the mind of Lee Fortis one day at the Kia Oval.

What if all the work of the head groundsman and his team over the previous eight months – putting his square “to bed”, when all the renovations and repair work take place, keeping it frost and weed free during the winter and the hours of rolling in the spring – was to be wasted by no cricket being played on it throughout 2020?

Fortis has too strong a sense of proportion to believe that whether cricket was going to be played that summer registered among the leading priorities in a worldwide crisis of the likes rarely seen since the Second World War.

And, happily, restrictions abated sufficiently quickly for The Oval to stage a limited programme of matches in the second half of the season, even if few people were allowed in to watch the action live. Viewing the game online became very popular that year and the audience has grown dramatically ever since.

But the episode was an example – a pretty stark one – of how ground staff are at the mercy of events around them and, most of all, nature. Fortis’ counterpart at Worcestershire’s New Road ground Stephen Manfield and his team are in a category all of their own given the propensity of the nearby River Severn to spill into their territory.

Eight times in the winter of 2023-24 and five more in the early months of 2024-25, the ground was covered in mucky brown water and there’s nothing they can do other than wait for the floods to subside. Once that happens they can finally wash down the square and outfield with fresh water to remove the silt (and other such substances) which prevent proper grass growth.

It's the problem of being on a flood plain and the growing propensity of incursions explain why Worcestershire are having to consider a move elsewhere. A wall between river and ground would doubltess look formidable but ignores the truth that the water comes up through the drains.

Go back 12 months ago and some grounds struggled to stage any cricket in May, so much rain having fallen that rollers were getting bogged down before they could reach squares.

This time round the problems are different. Hardly a drop has fallen since the start of March. Getting sufficient water on to grounds has, at least temporarily, become the issue to bind pitches together.

Test and first-class grounds are at least tended to by full-time staff, who work long hours in the season and hope to get some of them back outside it.

Many clubs, particularly in the villages, depend on volunteers who devote much spare time and love to their ground. They often don’t feel well appreciated, particularly when teams are keen to play in almost any conditions and then moan later about a ball misbehaving when it has been caused by a player carelessly skidding and leaving stud marks.

Groundsmanship is not a skill which can be picked up from just reading a book – all the leading practitioners learn most from their own observations and experience and 2025, so far, is providing another fascinating chapter.

By Richard Spiller