New All-Weather Cricket Pitch

The Community Trust is keen to see the sports flourishing within the communities. One of the successes has been Stanton Drew Cricket Club who have gone from strength to strength since considerable investment into their clubhouse to which The Community Trust contributed several years ago.  Ambition at the Club did not stop there – and a 2019 plan to install an all weather pitch  was realised earlier this year. Steve Croucher who is a lifelong Club player, coach and former captain said, “the season at the cricket club has been extremely difficult under COVID 19 restrictions, but with the fantastic help from The Community Trust we went ahead with installing an all- weather cricket pitch for the area. Unfortunately this great new amenity was not used due to COVID 19, but we hope next year will be different. “  Steve went on to say, “ the idea is to provide youth, girls and ladies cricket with an all-weather surface, which can also be used to practice and train on. We hope to see our girls and ladies cricket expanding along with our already established youth section. All Stars and Dynamos cricket will continue to bring on the next generation of cricketers with the  help of our training coaches and volunteers. We will be advertising next spring for anyone wishing to help in this important role.”

Andrew Hillman praised Stanton Drew Cricket Club for their commitment and determination to establish such a successful club and said that The Community Trust was delighted to provide a grant of £3000  towards the all-weather pitch and was equally pleased to see its successful installation during the summer.  Andrew also explained that as The Community Trust is a registered charity and participator in Gift Aid, donations were received on behalf of the Cricket Club under Gift Aid terms which helped maximise the value of personal donations received.

As an aside Andrew said, “ one of our Trustees visited the Cricket Club during lockdown to check on progress, only to find  that with no cricket, the outfield had been allowed to grow for haymaking. On this occasion the club was literally “letting the grass grow under their feet”,  certainly a characteristic we don’t normally see at this go ahead club.”