Stan Job Groundskeeper of the Year 2025
Previous Winners Groundskeeper of the Year
Stan Job - Cornwall Cricket Groundskeeper of the Year for 2025.
Stan Job ( St Stephen ) Del Codd Trophy Winner
CACG Groundskeeper of the Year
As he proceeds at a steady pace towards his 80th birthday, with that purposeful gait familiar to the natives of China Clay country, Cornwall’s venerable ‘Sultan of Swing’ has a new trophy adorning his cabinet.
Stan Job disembarked from his presidential Range Rover on Saturday, July 18 and marched out to the middle at St Stephen CC, just as he has done since he first reported for duty there as a 13-year-old in 1959.
He is the latest recipient of the Del Codd Trophy - awarded by Cornwall Association of Cricket Groundskeepers in memory of a multi-talented, selfless individual who gave exceptional service to Cornish cricket.
Like Del, Stan is a man of many talents: not just a player, but groundskeeper, engineer in charge of procuring, servicing and repairing machinery and other equipment, mentor to many on and off the field.
He has opened the bowling (more about that in a moment ), opened the batting ( more Barnacle Bill than Ben Duckett), and stood for years in a suicidal position at very silly mid-off ( until injured and carried off) while being close at hand all the year round to tend to his hallowed turf.
A leading member of the Stan Job Appreciation Society is club chairman Richard Budge, himself a groundskeeper and massive contributor to an upsurge in community cricket at St Stephen, which now has two grounds and runs numerous teams ranging from three open age XI’s on Saturdays to juniors, women and girls, and disability on other days of the week.
Richard said: “I may be a little biased, but Stan Job has given wonderful service over the years. He has often mentioned the help and advice he received from Edward Wakeley, father of Andrew Wakeley at Ladock CC.
“Stan has continued to do a huge amount at St Stephen Recreation Ground and has been training up Oliver Martin ( Club Secretary ) over the last 5 years. With reluctance, Stan has had to let go of some tasks.
“The energy and enthusiasm of Stan is truly amazing, after having a major heart attack at the age of 47. He fought back to play cricket for a further 29 years, and he played his last game at 76, I believe.
“ Despite his advancing years, he has still been seen on the ground out working many of our members in their teens and early 20’s.”
Alas, these ‘whipper snappers’ are far too young to have witnessed Stan in his ‘Sultan of Swing’ pomp when his prowess as a bustling medium pacer in Senior 2 East was in evidence week in, week out -leaving hapless batters in what can only be described as ‘Dire Straits.’
His bonanza summer arrived in 1977, following a chance visit to his garage in St Stephen by a cherished character many of us would consider to be Cornwall’s finest post-war fast bowler.
Brian Read ( Camborne, Wadebridge, St Just and Grampound Road to name but 4 of his clubs ) came to Stan with a broken starter motor and a bank balance not best placed to pay for Stan’s services.
As a master of barter and exchange, Stan informed Brian that he would do this job for free but on one condition: Brian was to divulge his bowling secrets and teach Stan how to swing a cricket ball both ways at pace.
These priceless lessons from the mighty Brian bore a spectacular dividend for Stan in 1977. The League Yearbook reveals: S Job (St Stephen), 435 overs, 88 maidens,1,244 runs,103 wickets, Av: 12.08.
This made him, by a distance, Cornwall’s leading wicket-taker of that year and the first East Cornwall bowler since the formation of the League in 1905 to take100 League wickets in a season. Stan is in no doubt about the reason why: “It was all down to my friend. Brian.”
Modern-day League restrictions on the number of overs a bowler can deliver, to ensure at least 5 players in a team get a chance to bowl on Saturdays, mean the days of S Job and B Carhart delivering all afternoon for St Stephen have long gone - as it has everywhere else in Cornwall.
Stan, as a member of the Bowlers Union, is not best pleased. Steam starts to come out of his ears at the mention of it. But his chief concern these days is the mounting challenge facing volunteer groundskeepers.
He said: “Extreme weather, from droughts to severe storms, makes it ever more difficult for groundskeepers to prepare decent pitches and protect them. Costs of machinery and materials are going up and up.
“I don’t envy their task, especially the younger ones with all the competing pressures on their time, but I shall keep doing my best to help and to give the right advice for as long as I can.”
Robert Jobson ( Hon Sec, CACG )
