Lifelong Clubman Graham Smith Praises Versatility of Dennis FT610 at Historic Staffordshire Cricket Club, Caverswall
For Graham Smith, cricket has been a lifelong passion. From first joining his local club as a teenager to now maintaining the square as volunteer groundsman, he has dedicated more than five decades to the game and the club he proudly calls home.
Now in his seventh year as groundsman, Graham is responsible for preparing and maintaining the club’s square - a role he approaches with the same commitment and pride that defined his years as a player.
“I’ve been a member here for 54 years,” said Graham. “I joined when I was 16, played here from that age through until I was in my 50s, and now I’m looking after the square. The club means a lot to me.”
The club itself boasts a rich history stretching back more than 100 years. Originally founded in Caverswall village, it has spent the majority of its existence at its current ground and continues to play an important role in the local community.
Today, the club fields two Saturday teams competing in the North Staffs and South Cheshire Cricket League in Divisions Five and Eight, alongside a senior Sunday side in the Stone League. It also operates a thriving junior section for boys and girls ranging from under-9s through to under-15s, helping develop the next generation of local cricketers.
Behind the scenes, maintaining the club’s facilities is a major task carried out largely by volunteers.
Graham focuses primarily on the square and wicket preparation, while a small team of volunteers help maintain the outfield, trees, surrounding areas and car park.
“Looking after the ground is a challenge in itself,” he explained. “I just look after the square, but I put a lot of hours in every week to keep it looking good and to get the wickets as best as I can.”
“We’re lucky because we’ve got one or two volunteers who look after the outfield and all the other jobs around the ground - the trees, strimming, the car park and everything else. Together that helps keep the whole place in good shape.”
A key part of Graham’s maintenance programme is the Dennis FT610 interchangeable cassette mower system, which the club recently upgraded after their previous machine finally reached the end of its working life after thirty plus years.
“When I started doing the ground seven years ago, we already had one of the Dennis FT610's,” said Graham. “But last year it got to the point where the old machine was really at the end of its life and I was struggling to do anything like a decent job with it anymore.”
Recognising the importance of reliable machinery to maintaining playing standards, Graham made it clear that a replacement was essential.
“I basically told the club we had to get something else,” he said. “In the end, we replaced it with another FT610 with the dual cassette features because it made sense for us.”
The decision to stay with the Dennis FT Range was heavily influenced by the versatility of the interchangeable cassette system, which allows multiple turf maintenance tasks to be completed using one power unit. The reliability of their previous machine was also a huge influence in the purchasing decision.
“We originally hoped to get a grant for an electric version because that was the route we were planning to go down,” Graham explained. “But the grant funding we thought we could get ended up not happening, so it became a cost exercise and we went back to the petrol version.”
Despite that setback, Graham says the new FT610 has proven to be exactly what the club needed.
“I use the FT610 for all the square work now,” he said. “Because it’s new and because of the flexibility of the cassettes and the click height adjustment system, I can do all the general square cutting and all the wicket preparation with it.”
The Dennis FT Range is regarded as one of the industry’s leading fine turf maintenance systems, trusted by professional grounds teams across cricket, bowls, tennis and ornamental turf sectors. Designed and manufactured in the UK, the system offers a choice of 12 interchangeable cassette heads including cutting cylinders, scarifiers, verti-cutters, brushes, slitters and spikers.
For Graham, the interchangeable cassette system was one of the biggest selling points.
“We’ve obviously got the cutting cassette that comes with the mower, but we’ve also got a scarifying cassette and a verticutting cassette,” he explained. “I do regular verti-cutting on the square which pulls all the thatch and rubbish out of the ground, and the scarifier helps as well.”
“I said to the club that it would be a waste to buy something else that was just cut only. That’s why we repeated with the FT610 — because we could carry on using all the other cassettes we already had.”
Another feature Graham values highly is the FT610’s simple and precise height adjustment system.
“It’s excellent because in a matter of seconds I can go up a millimetre, down a millimetre, whatever I want depending on what I’m doing,” he said. “It’s instant and you can just carry on working.”
The FT610’s click height adjustment system allows precise changes in 0.25mm increments without tools, helping grounds staff achieve consistent, professional-quality finishes across playing surfaces.
Graham also praised the machine’s ease of use and operator-friendly design.
“It’s very straightforward to use,” he said. “But because it’s new, I’m wary about just anyone jumping on it. There’s a couple of people I trust and I’ve shown them how to use it properly when I’m not around.”
Powered by a Honda engine and featuring quick-change cassettes that can be swapped in as little as 15 seconds, the Dennis FT Range is designed to maximise efficiency while reducing the need for multiple specialist machines.
For volunteer-led clubs where budgets and manpower are often limited, Graham believes that versatility is invaluable.
“It’s got everything I need,” he said. “The versatility with the click system and being able to use the different cassettes is what makes it such a good machine.”
Having spent decades around the game as both a player and groundsman, Graham says he would confidently recommend the FT610 to other cricket clubs looking to improve their turf maintenance capabilities.
“I’d recommend the FT610 to any cricket ground because of its versatility,” he said.
The Dennis FT Range is available in 17-inch, 20-inch and 24-inch cutting widths and is widely used throughout professional and grassroots sport for year-round fine turf maintenance.