A square is built in layers — a coarser-screened base loam below, a finer seed bed loam above — matched in grade so the whole profile packs and binds as one. Choose the grade to suit your cricket: for example, GOSTD 75 for village and school squares, GOSTD 125 for club standard.
Choose the standard of cricket — or set each layer yourself — and see our recommended build drawn to scale.
Sown, Never TurfedThe seed bed is sown with grass seed — we always recommend sowing a new square, never turfing it. Turf growers favour light, free-draining soils, so laid turf would bring a lower-clay layer to the top of the profile.
*Clay figures are typical values from independent analysis of each grade; individual batches vary around them.
Typical Analysis: 50% sand / 26% silt / 24% clay
Typical Analysis: 50% sand / 26% silt / 24% clay
Typical Analysis: 40% sand / 31% silt / 29% clay
Typical Analysis: 40% sand / 31% silt / 29% clay
We always recommend establishing a new square from seed sown directly into the seed bed loam, rather than laying turf. Turf growers favour light, free-draining soils — easy to grow, and far easier to cut and roll than a clay loam. No turf is currently grown in a GOSTD cricket loam, so laid turf would bring a lower-clay layer to the top of the profile, against the clay-up rule the square is built on.
As you build a square, clay content should stay level or increase towards the surface — never decrease. So you can build throughout in a single grade, or place a lower-clay base beneath a higher-clay surface — but never a higher-clay loam beneath a lower one.
GameChanger Cricket Loam (typ. 31% clay) sits outside this ladder — it is a complete system of its own, built GameChanger throughout, and is never combined with GOSTD loams in a build.
For a properly constructed square we recommend a total loam profile of around 250mm — 6 inches (150mm) of base loam, topped with 4 inches (100mm) of seed bed loam, laid and consolidated in stages so the layers key together into one continuous profile. Built this way, a square has the best possible foundation for pace and trueness — developed over seasons of consolidation and care. Shallower builds compromise rooting and, over time, the way the wicket plays.