When cricket fans watch Cup Match they are obviously concentrating on the players for the respective teams. But one man is integral to the two-day Classic and that is the head groundsman. And in this case that man is Clayton Raynor who has been busy for over two months preparing the wicket for Cup Match.Mr Raynor has been working the wickets around Bermuda and in fact has done both Somerset and St George’s for decades and he learned his trade under his father, the late Harley Raynor.“I have been doing this from when I was little,” said the 61-year-old groundsman.It was Mr Raynor’s father who was a pioneer in Bermuda as he played a leading role in the introduction of turf wickets on the Island in the early 1970s.And it was his father who passed down his immense knowledge to his son.Over the years Mr Raynor has prepared Cup Match wickets at both ends of the Island with his late father, cousin Sheridan Raynor, Mansfield (Bojangles) Smith, Winton (Timmy) Edwards and the late MacDonald (Bull) Swan.He said a few years ago: “Whether I do it for Somerset or St George’s, I take great pride in my wicket and sometimes I can tell you exactly what it’s going to do before a match.”Of his work this year, Mr Raynor took a break from rolling the wicket and said: “This has been going on for two and a half months. The wicket underneath has a skeleton just like we do. That is the hard part of the wicket and then there is the soft part (on top).“I am trying to prepare a wicket that they (the players and fans) have never seen before. That is what I am trying to do. I am rolling it three times a day sometimes all day and half the night.”And of rolling it with plastic covers on he said: “It is just like a baby’s diapers.”He added that he will then take the covers off and dry it out and roll it.Mr Raynor wants to give both the bowlers and batsmen a chance but he definitely wants one aspect of the wicket right. “This year I hope we can watch Cup Match and watch the ball hit the ground and nothing (dust) come up.”Mr Raynor has basically “taken the wicket apart and rebuilt it”.He said: “Very few people in Bermuda have done that.”After talking to the main people at the club, Mr Raynor started “from the bottom up”.He said: “This year we tore the wicket apart.”He is also looking for “St George’s to make a lot of runs”.And of course since St George’s are the hosts, they have home field advantage in that they can play on the new wicket in the trials.Of preparing the wicket he added: “It is a passion, it is an art.”