UK sports clubs boost biodiversity by letting nature go wild on their grounds

Across the UK, cricket and golf clubs are starting to do their bit for local biodiversity by ditching the pesticides and nurturing wildlife

A row of apple trees defends the mid-wicket boundary at Whalley Range cricket club in south Manchester, while aged lime trees sporting bird feeders and nest boxes look on from the far end of the ground. A lone herring gull prowls the outfield, while a noisy flock of starlings settles in the slips. In one corner of the ground a mound of grass cuttings is allowed to slowly rot, the perfect habitat for grass snakes, although club chairperson Mike Hill confesses he has been reluctant to check whether any have moved in.

Last year, the club won the Cricketer magazine's inaugural UK Greenest Ground award for its work encouraging biodiversity. Badgers, hedgehogs and foxes are all regular visitors and, with some help from the Woodland Trust, the ground has more than 200 trees, from a young horse chestnut to a mature Manchester poplar (also known as the downy black poplar), that shades the score box.