He’s a rusted-on Allansford man – the president and lifeblood of the Uebergang Oval club.

But bias – at least when it comes to pitch preparation – is out the window for Ellerton’s team of curators.

“We’re like anyone in that we take pride in what we’re doing,” Ellerton said.

“I’ve spoken to many curators and I don’t believe that any one of them would prepare a wicket any different to the next.

“They have some pride in what they do and most, if not all, have been cricketers in the past.”

The former Warrnambool and District Cricket Association boss, who lives adjacent to the Allansford Recreation Reserve, spends about 25 hours a week on pitch preparation.

In an era where time-poor volunteers are on the wane, curators erect pitches from scratch for division one and two cricket to flow seamlessly on Saturdays.

For Ellerton, it’s more than just rolling dead grass so a leather ball can bounce onto a willow cricket bat.

It’s a science – mixing watering, rolling, flattening and mowing to achieve the right balance for both bat and ball.

“We bring these pitches up – but we can only go so far with what we can do sometimes,” Ellerton said of the Uebergang Oval pitch.

“We’re fortunate in that we have four or five people we can call on at the drop of a hat to help us out with the ground and with everything else.”

He’s proud of its traits – true and straight – and was rapt when Mortlake captain Todd Lamont described it as “the best deck I’ve played on” after the Cats’ Sungold Twenty20 Cup triumph last week.

“Way back in September – we know turf pitch cricket doesn’t start until the end of October – but we put in 20 hours pre-preparation of cross rolling the wicket,” Ellerton said.

“By that I mean rolling north and south, east and west, and diagonally. That helps it to get into shape.”

He has grand plans for the precinct as a whole. A telephone tower, which is expected to be installed at the Allansford Recreation Reserve shortly, will deliver three-phase power.

Ellerton points to the four corners of Uebergang Oval as he speaks about his plans and dreams for the ground.

“I’d love to see lights all around the ground so we could play night cricket here. That’s long-term – that’s a 20-year sort of dream,” he said.

“It’s just a pipe dream at the moment. We’ll give these trees around our oval time and they’ll grow up to be beautiful and give a bit of shade to spectators.”

He’s proud of Uebergang Oval’s distinctive look – it’s white picket fence the feature – and hopes it can use that flair to grow into the future.

“Ray Bright, a former Victorian captain, drove along the Princes Highway one day and reached the railway overpass (in Allansford), and decided he’d turn around,” Ellerton recalled.

“He wanted to know what the ground was, who did the pitch, what put it up – he was just generally interested.

“They don’t just drive past – they have a look and take notice.”

While Allansford has a team of curators, Russells Creek has a different approach for its Jetty Flat base.

Former president Glenn Kelson shoulders the bulk of curating responsibilities.

“The boys come down and put the covers on, but apart from that, I do most of the pitch stuff,” he said.

“It’s pretty full on with the amount of games we have down here.

“The weekend of the 13^th was going to be the first weekend we’d had off here – but it turned out Brierly’s pitch wasn’t ready with the ground works.

“The (association) moved it down here at late notice and sometimes you’ve just got to just got get it up and do the best you can.”

Kelson said he understood several curators had found it difficult to produce “flat” pitches with a lack of appropriate soil after the supplier – a farm in Portland – ceased to sell it.

“It’s tough when they’ve not been top-dressed. We’re screaming for soil because we’ve got nothing to fill the holes,” he said.

“I know they’re finding it difficult. Most clubs might have a garbage bin of it left. You’ve just got to try to get through.

“I don’t think the council guys understand you shouldn’t be mixing soils, either.

“The wicket we have (at Jetty Flat) originally came from Princes Park in Carlton. We used that for the lower base and then top-dressed it with the stuff from Portland.

“i think it’s pretty well-respected around the association as one of the better wickets. It has good drainage and works well. Where we go next year, I’m not really sure.”

Like umpiring and selectors’ decisions, pitches are a part of the fabric that make cricket a game of opinions.

On the international scale, social media was sent into overdrive with the MCG’s Boxing Day Test pitch was labelled “poor” by the International Cricket Council.

Reputational damage was potentially the biggest penalty for the MCG in its Boxing Day issues.

Pride is constantly at stake for curators and the hours of work often are thankless – not all that different from coaching or umpiring.

For a pitch deemed great, a curator is not often recognised.

For one deemed unacceptable, the criticism is scathing.