York Civil Service CC making great strides

Ambitious York Civil Service Cricket Club are making great strides on and off the pitch.

The club's first team are riding high at the top of Hunters York & District Senior League division four having won promotion from division five last season.

And Civil Service officials are also gearing up for next month's grand opening of their refurbished clubhouse at the Outgang in Heslington.

A family fun day will be held on Sunday, June 9 to celebrate the upgrade of facilities at the Heslington Sportsfield base, which is used for cricket and football.

The clubhouse has been extended and restructured to include a new kitchen, changing rooms with showers, a disabled toilet, referee and umpire changing rooms, improved security, a cricket score room and storage for groundsman Jonathan Latham.

Fundraising for the project was led by Graham Souter of the Heslington Sportsfield management committee, with cash coming from the Football Foundation, City of York Council, volunteers and the various clubs that use the ground.

The majority of the work was carried out last summer and helped Civil Service win the Albert Pattison Trophy for the most improved club in the Senior League.

The club, who were forced to move from their original home in Boroughbridge Road in 2003, have secured further funding to improve the outside of the clubhouse and the grounds, and to buy up-to-date equipment such as sight screens.

York Civil Service chairman Simon Desborough said: "It has been hard work and last summer was especially difficult during the extended period of bad weather.

"But visiting clubs were very understanding and our lads all mucked in to make it work."

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