You’d have to be concerned about the droppings, wouldn’t you? I mean, nothing against sheep and all that, but I’d be a bit gunshy about making a desperate dive to save a boundary with all that shit everywhere.

I once played at a ground (won’t mention the name, the pavillion was basically a shed with gaps in the walls large enough to stick your arm through. The opposing captain showed us around: “Here’s the toilet lads”; a large water container, the type you store rainwater in the garden, sawed in half. It was about a tinckle away from overflowing. “We don’t do solids there lads” Was the only futher comment he had to make on it.

Templecoombe’s ground in Somerset has rather interesting topography. The majority of the ground including the wicket is more or less level. Then the remaining third slopes alarmingly away. So much so that if your at third man you cant see anything at all going on at the crease. The wicketkeeper has to jump up and down and shout so you know where to return the ball to.

My club at Barrington uses sheep on the outfield over the winter most years… Just as long as you get them out of the way by about March there isnt much mess… Badgers, rabbits and dogs are far worse

I played one match on a field in County Durham that was used for grazing cows. They’d obviously only just moved the cows off, as the outfield was liberally scattered with several dozen fresh cowpats, and most of our team’s first reaction was much the same as Scott’s above, i.e. what are you going to land in if you dive for a catch?

The home team told us not to worry, saying “We’ll fix it.” A couple of minutes later it turned out that their way of fixing it was to send the mower round. This did remove the cowpats in the sense that there were no longer any actual mounds - but the rotating blades of the mower also chopped them up, spraying the result wildly around the area so that the entire field was now covered in a fine scattering of shit. The smell wasn’t much fun either. And no, I didn’t dive for anything.

We play on an artificial wicket set in the middle of a public park. The outfield is lumpy and the Parks Dept mow the grass when they remember. The ground slopes up about 2m at long leg where it joins the rugby/american football field. Just don’t ask how many time we/they have to ask for the ball back. Disused tennis courts lie at square and deep mid-wicket so a six there gives everyone a drink & smoke break. Park visitors seem to think it perfectly OK to take a short cut across the pitch during play. During the lunch break, we post guards to stop sunbathers and picnic-ers settling down, or even dogs pee-ing on the wickets!