Blotter Machines
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As a company, CMS Blotter are supplying all the hire
water removal units for the ICC World Cup to all the grounds.
In cricket, there’s tremendous pressure to get a
game on when there are large numbers of
paying customers and television viewers
waiting to watch a match. Blotters
are recognised as industry
standard in water removal, and
they’re Ian Perkins creation.
Since the turn of the century
he’s been making them at
converted pig and dairy
cattle buildings.
As a young man
Ian studied agricultural
engineering at Askham
Bryan
College
and
Rycotewood
College,
eventually
becoming
service
manager
at
Risborough Turf with Mark
Barthelmie. It was on a work
visit to Lords that Mick Hunt
asked him if he’d ever thought of
going out on his own? He wanted
an engineering mechanic on permanent
call. CMS (Contract Maintenance Services),
servicing all manner of machinery, was soon under
way. Wyke Green Golf Club was Ian’s first client, then
Lords, Twickenham, Stamford Bridge and other big name
venues soon followed.
One day at Lords working on Mick’s kit, the then ECB
pitch inspector, the late, great Harry Brind, came up to Ian
and asked if he would be interested in looking after their
12 Issue 51
Super Soppers, or Whales as they were better known, and
taking them around the country to Test and county grounds.
These were then the answer to mopping up areas
of excess rainwater and like all things doing
well in cricket at the time came from
Australia.
“It was a great piece of
design by Gorden Withall from
Australia. He was a very clever
man. You had to wind the
wheels up, which was hard
work and inefficient when
time was of the essence.
More
significantly
it
had insufficient safety
guards,” said Ian.
Ian set about re-
designing the whole
machine, with hydraulics
introduced to make it
more efficient and user-
friendly. He saw a benefit to
the groundsman in making it
out of stronger material too. An
abundance of safety guards were
also added, winning further favourable
attention from groundsmen.
“I did loads and loads of doodles and sketches
to get a better Whale. I suppose I was re-inventing it, helping
it evolve. Hydraulic enhancement meant you no longer had
to turn a handle, you just push or pull a lever. That had to be
an obvious improvement for groundsmen.”
“There were very early few teething troubles. I’m glad to
say I pretty much got the design right first go. I believe in old