I spent two hours slogging through muddy rutted horse fields today carrying out the last usable supplies from the storage container of the latest village cricket ground to be abandonned in this area (vehicular access was a no-no following the thaw). Half a ton of loam, some seed and an almost brand new line marker. Great for my club, but sad that a ground of such character (you had to drive through the horse fields to get to the ground) is lost to the game forever.
Their groundsman doesn't do e-bay, so if anyone knows a club that wants a pedestrian diesel roller (single drum pavement type) drop me a line and I can put you in touch. I'm told it's in good condition (it looked fine and is stored in a steel container, so not exposed to weather) but anyone interested would need to arrange transport.
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"He not busy being born is busy dying"
What club is this Jon?
Chris, I'm keeping the marker for myself - my current one's as bad as the photo and has to be used in reverse!
East Halton - they will play home games out of Immingham.
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12 Jan 2009 by Mike
This is unfortunate Jon. Do you have any idea as to why the club has folded?
The club has abandonned the ground for two main reasons;
ageing groundsmen (discussed elsewhere recently) and
the ground is a flood nightmare. In winter it tends to flood (rain, not tide) and they only managed to play less than half of the scheduled home games last season. The fact that there was no way we could get a car near the ground this weekend is part of the reason why the two retired chaps who look after it have decided to face reality and move to a rented ground.
Whilst never the best of grounds it was a characterful place where you got a warm welcome and it epitomised British village cricket (play would stop for a minute to allow the cow herd in the next field to cross behind the bowler's arm at milking time).
It can be argued that by losing grounds like this we improve the overall standard of our grounds. I personally think it is sad that we have lost another piece of our heritage.
East Halton joins Kirton in Lindsey, West Butterwick, Normanby Park (currently trying to be revitalised), Littlefields and probably many others I've forgotten that have folded in this part of North Lincs since 2000.
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12 Jan 2009 by vid Last edited 12 Jan 2009
In part Jon I think this goes back to the conversation on another thread. I know of a ground here in the South that the parish was renting out at @£1500/year, all maintenance and renovation to be carried out by the club. The village club had long ago disbanded through lack of interest so it was taken over by the local towns 3rd team who needed to play @ 15 fixtures a year on it. This worked ot at £200+ per match and volunteers had to do all the preparation. Now they are shifting to another parish where they can play on their pitch for £60/match and the council carries the maintenance cost - a no brainer!! My point however is no way is this cost effective for the local parish and it leads other clubs to believe that this is all they can charge for a rental. The £200 was probably closer to a realistic price!
12 Jan 2009 by vid
BTW good luck with the roller (in case we forget what you asked in the first place!!)
Jon your linemarker in reverse we had same problem try getting small middle roller filled with steel worked on ours
Paul
12 Jan 2009 by widdywoo Last edited 12 Jan 2009
It is a shame when cricket venues go to the wall - I think our league has lost something like 8 venues in the last ten years. The ground that used to be the benchmark for our groundsmen now has horses grazing on it.
I'm worried that village cricket groundsmanship may be a dying art as no-one seems to be coming through who can be bothered to take on the work involved - not in our league anyhow.
"I'm cheap, and nought but fashion; fling me away."
There are plenty of people willing to do the work. There are fewer and fewer people who are willing to do the work for nothing.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
12 Jan 2009 by vid
Well said JL, and the normal lack of wanting to pay what their sport is worth mixed in doesnt help
Blame the ECB.
There are some huge sums being dished out to certain clubs I know of. We were successful with a small grant but it hardly seems to be a fair share of the pie.
12 Jan 2009 by vid
Thats more than true enough Anon and I agree with Geoff Boycott in the Telegraph today that they need to get their house in order - sweep out the old dinosaurs and get some dynamic management that have some semblance of man and business management ability. Even then though it has to be said you will never get funds to help cover running costs.
12 Jan 2009 by MAVO
My club is in the process of clubmark status,i think everything is in place,What i want to know is how do you go about getting a grant for items of machinery?i would like to replace my roller as its past its best!
Mavo, first point of call is your county CDM.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
Vid, it's not just a case of clubs/people not wanting to pay what it costs for their chosen sport.
A heck of a lot of clubs have relied over the years on volunteers - and not just for the groundwork. Nowaday many people simply don't have the hours available to volunteer for doing things at the clubs. I know a lot of people nowadays who have fulltime work during the day and one or two part time jobs in the evenings - they simply don't have the time to do things for nothing as used to happen in the past.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
12 Jan 2009 by vid
I couldnt agree more Jon, I think the pace of life and what we do with our spare time has change enourmously in a decade - people just wont give up so much of their leisure time now. Its therefore more important than ever that sportsmen and women value their sports properly. As I have said how can you fork out £40 just to watch a premiership game ( Piers Morgan in the Mail recently said it would cost him £300+ - I think - to take his family) and then complain about £10 to play. Until that dynamic can be communicated effectively the situation will only get worse.
Village cricket is at risk due to the changing dynamic of villages themselves. Most houses tend to be bought up by the wealthy / commuters and the younger generations simply can't afford to live there.
I presume in the past you'd have village clubs where generations from the same family were involved one way or another. We get a lot of stick from the Parish Council with regards rent as a lot of the seniors live in neighbouring towns etc. They forget the fact that a house in the village would cost at least 3x the amount any of us could afford
Mavo
In response to grants, look at "Awards for All", they will grant 10k every 2 years to worthwhile causes, ie sports clubs, we have just received a grant for some portable floodlights to allow training to be moved to other rugby pitches other than our training pitch which gets overused.
Must have a constitution and at least 2 signatories on the cheques, forms take a little time to fill in but worth it in the end. www.awardsforall.org.uk
It helps if you have junior section and you can show what the benifit to the community will be.
Definately worth looking at.
I got 10000 for a roller, scarrifier and new plastic windows for the pavillion, you dont need clubmark just someone who is reasonabley articulate and you get an answer in 8 weeks
12 Jan 2009 by MAVO
Thanks for the info guys,i shall look into it.
I think there is another fundimental reason why there is a lack of volunteers and players at village level, when my father played cricket even at the end of his career in the mid 80's, most people worked 9 to 5 Monday to Friday, the main exceptions around here, South Yorkshire, were the pits and the steel industry, both had very strong social sections and if you were on the wrong shift then a word to the forman and you would miraculously be on the right shift, imagine asking an employer these days to alter your working pattern to accomodate sport, the other shift workers were ploice and firemen but again they had there own strong sporting networks and you could still play, usually in works time. I would say that these days the vast majority of people don't work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday, what with call centres and out of town retail parks being open 7 days a week and of course requiring the logistics to serve them, then Saturdays and even Sundays are rotered in as normal working days, these people get days off in the week but of course that doesn't mean they want to go and work on the ground and there isn't a cricket match to play in, bearing in mind many of them have desk or serving jobs they aren't manually minded and here is another big change, the retired men around 30 to 40 years ago had known nothing but damned hard work from the age of 14 in the pits and steel works, many of them on retirement simply didn't know what to do with themselves and their wives definately wanted them out of the house, the local cricket club or bowling club was an alternative to the allotment. If we look at todays situation then many men working in the service indusries will find themselves at home alone, while the kids are at school a round of golf can be had, pick kids up, get tea on and gain extra browny points by running round with the hoover, all without having to disapear for 7 or 8 hours on a Saturday to play cricket. Unfortunately the fixed timescales of when you can play cricket doesn't easily fit into todays modern working patterns and it's the small village clubs that suffer.
I for one have returned to the village club where my father played for over 40 years and is chairman and a life president, clocking up around 55 years service, my Grandfather scored for 25 years virtually to the day he died (well 40 woodbines a day was always going to catch up with him eventually) and of course my Mum spent 20 years doing the teas, as mentioned above these family ties are now few and far between and the problem is that 2 of the best young players have left the club.
You're right in many ways Andy. I'll add to that my observation that many younger players feel that £10-15 a week on their mobile phone is a necessity without which life would cease, but on minimum wage rates they only have so much money to spend. If they go to Uni then they come out £15-25K in debt and again cricket is an easily cut expense.
Our village club age profile for many years has shown a distinct gap from 20 to 35.
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15 Jan 2009 by paul.
All
Very much agree/sympathise with all thats been said !
Times are changing ,and therefore cricket has to do so ,but only in respect to selling itself to a new generation,otherwise it wouldn`t be cricket!!
Enter the ECB ,who in there wisdom tell us that the huge sums of money that Sky pay for international cricket,are "a no brainer".Well this might be true for Giles Clark,and ex players who commentate/coach and county cricket clubs,most who can`t run themselves and benefit greatly, surviving on ECB handouts .Worse however,is the same County clubs,then turn a blind eye to the fact that they are not being fed talent from the recreational game(so much so, they now employ kolpaks,giving more money away overseas,and indeed now back to the ECB).
Why are they not being fed from school and club cricket?.This Is a mix of the ECB not understanding what grass roots are,ie;where they should be spending Sky`s money and the fact that cricket, can no longer be viewed/introduced to people,who are tommorow`s players, groundsmen and commitee members!.This point was of course proved with the Ashes on channel 4, as we all saw a major improvement in interest and numbers playing!This to me is the crux of it ,as more numbers playing at the bottom, mean you get More Flintoffs and (dare i use him as an example) Petersons at international level filtering all the way down to more members at club level and indeed,more do-ers, that clubs at grass roots need!The way the ECB are going, it wont be long before we have more coaches than players,when all thats needed, is to pay a good natured person with the basics, to go into schools in the afternoon and get youngsters playing the game and put cricket back on Terrestrial TV.This of course would mean that your top cricketers would not get paid quite as much as they do now,and might well be better Ambassodors for the game because of it,after all who would have a shop and then rent to someone else the shop window!!
Sorry to spoil a very interesting thread, I certainly recall how 32 years ago when I joined the local Constabulary, I was given every encouragement to play Rugger for the Town Rugby team on a Saturday and Police team on a Wednesday, but as the years rolled on the 'bosses' gradually squeezed the facilities such that one was only able to play in their own time. You are all correct how little thought goes in to the cultivating of 'the next generation' into sport these days. The only real way forward is through the professional games, as grass roots amatuer teams are ever dwindling
"Their groundsman doesn't do e-bay, so if anyone knows a club that wants a pedestrian diesel roller (single drum pavement type) drop me a line and I can put you in touch. I'm told it's in good condition (it looked fine and is stored in a steel container, so not exposed to weather) but anyone interested would need to arrange transport. "
jontaylor, I live near Immingham, any chance of arranging for me to have a look at this roller.
regards
Andrew
Andrew, I think you make a good point there. In years gone by you used to be actively encouraged to take part in things outside of work. I believe it came under having a well rounded 'life', ie too much work made for poor work, this doesn't seem to be the case any more.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
16 Jan 2009 by Mal
I do recall that a number of the major banks used to have sports grounds for their employees but the majority of those along with alot of other industries have closed too.
Geography is everywhere
16 Jan 2009 by vid
needed the money to pay those bonuses!!
LOL, you could read that in a very cynical way Mal. There certainly are a lot of other industries that have closed shame tax payers aren't going to bail them out as well.
No doubt the banks gave a 'loan' to their sports clubs then just foreclosed on it and sold the land.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
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