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
Pace and bounce come from a hard, consolidated surface — one that gives as little as possible when the ball strikes it. Sand, silt and clay each play their part in how a loam packs and binds into that surface, and clay does the heavy lifting: the more clay, the stronger the binding. Stronger isn't automatically better, though — the grass still has to live in it, which is why the ECB recommends cricket loams carry 25–35% clay in total.
Binding strength has been measured the same way since 1968, when Stewart and Adams first linked the pace of a wicket to the clay content of its soil. Their soil binding test — the "motty" test — is still the trade's yardstick: loams breaking between 45 and 70kg suit club pitches, 70 to 90kg county and international, and anything outside that range isn't right for cricket. Our loams are motty-tested independently by the STRI — the Sports Turf Research Institute, in whose journal that founding work was published.
The quiet enemy of bounce is organic matter. It holds water, deadens the ball and weakens binding — which is why a square is prepared thoroughly before any dressing goes on, and why a well-managed profile matters as much as the loam itself.
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.
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.