Meg Lay makes history by joining Lord's groundstaff

The 27-year-old New Zealander has spent the past two years working on the groundstaff at Gloucestershire, blazing a trail in a male-dominated industry

Meg Lay has etched her name into the history books as the first female grounds person to join the staff at Lord's.

The 27-year-old New Zealander has spent the past two years working on the groundstaff at Gloucestershire and was the only female member of a grounds team on the circuit of international venues in England and Wales when she helped prepare the pitch for England Women's ODI against South Africa in July 2022.

Since then, she has blazed a trail through the male-dominated industry – a report commissioned by the Grounds Management Association (GMA) in 2019 found that women accounted for just three per cent of the sport turf industry – going on to win the newcomer of the year award at 2023 GMA Awards and forming part of an all-female groundstaff team during the Women's Ashes T20I at Edgbaston last summer.

We did it. pic.twitter.com/39fpEQOAdi

— Meg Lay (@meglaynz) July 1, 2023

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), Lay said: "Not sure I'll ever get my head around this one. Words don't quite do it justice how excited I am to be joining the ground team at Lord's at the end of the month."

Speaking to The Cricketer in March 2023, Lay, who played age-group cricket for Canterbury in New Zealand, explained how she moved to Bristol in 2023 and planned to find casual work to support her travelling. With no expectation of getting the role, she applied for a groundskeeper position at Gloucestershire "because I thought it'd be fun to do a summer".

However, after her application proved successful, she has since described it as "the best job in the world", although the lack of women in the industry did take her by surprise.

Not sure I’ll ever get my head around this one. Thank you for your kind messages this last week.

Words don’t quite do it justice how excited I am to be joining the grounds team at Lord’s at the end of the month. pic.twitter.com/oE9wri82d5

— Meg Lay (@meglaynz) February 8, 2024

"I knew there were no women at Gloucestershire but I didn't realise it was male-dominated," she said. "With the growth of women's cricket, you would think there would be a lot of women on the groundstaff as well.

"For there not to be any others… it should be fifty-fifty. It's such a good job, and I'd love more women to put their hand up."

She continued: "The only reason I can think of as an outsider looking in is that it looks like a boys' club and I know that can be really daunting.

"I do want to make sure that I'm visible so that people can see that there is a pathway here. In my experience, everyone has been great. If people see that I'm doing it, they feel like they can as well."

Read The Cricketer's full interview with Meg Lay here.

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