Cricket Force Weekend

We are an old club that has played on the Heath at Petersfield for 148 years. In the last couple of years interest in the sport has increased dramatically especially in the Colts section. The Club has grown from having 1 child interested in playing 3 seasons ago to having in excess of 80 children between the ages of 5 and 17 playing at all levels.

This dramatic increase in players is stretching our resources and facilities. To enable all the players both young and old to continue to enjoy the sport and encourage others to participate we needed to improve the facilities at our two grounds, The Heath, Petersfield and Penns Place, Petersfield.

In order to achieve this we signed up to the English Cricket Board’s initiative with NatWest Bank, Cricket Force 2008. Three years ago the ECB set up a volunteering initiative to assist clubs. The objective of the scheme is to encourage cricket clubs throughout England and Wales to undertake improvements to their clubhouses and grounds. Also it encourages cricket supporters, their friends and families, and businesses, to give something back to their local community cricket club by volunteering to undertake major or minor renovations or donate items such as paint, flooring or equipment.

Cricket Force 2007

Before the 2007 season started the club had a number of jobs to complete: such as cleaning, repairing and painting sight screens, refurbishing and painting both clubhouses - inside and out, cutting and trimming growth around the nets.

The weekend was a good success for the Club, with two pavilions to clear out, clean, repair and decorate the need for a concerted team effort was required.

The Club was extremely fortunate in securing the support from many of the town’s business as to regards resources such as paints (Travis Perkins), carpets (Waterlooville Carpets), Carpet Cleaners (Petersfield and Reliance Laundery), glass (Safety glazing) and gardening equipment (Beaver Tool Hire) as well as financial support from several local business (Waitrose, Tesco, and Robert Dyas) and supporters.

A number of Club members from the age of 5 to 75+ joined together with Agincourt Contractors at Penns Place to replace the decking and create a brand new frontage to the pavilion. The outside of this pavilion was then painted and a new flower bed dug. The weeds surrounding the pavilion were all cut back and the fixed nets assembled ready for the new season.

At the Heath the pavilion was cleaned throughout inside ready for the new carpets to be laid and the outside cleared.