Cricket Force Weekend

Cricket Force

We are an old club that has played on the Heath at Petersfield for 148 years. In the last few years interest in the sport has increased dramatically especially in the Colts section. The Club has grown from having 1 child interested in playing 6 seasons ago to having in excess of 110 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 . Five 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 2010 is Another Success!

Petersfield CC held their Cricket Force Weekend on 27th and 28th March. Special thanks goes to Mark Holloway who co-ordinated the successful event.

Over the two days PCC assembled a team of 40 volunteers to prepare their facilities for the forthcoming season. Before this can happen the facilities needed to be prepared after a winter’s hibernation. PCC has two pavilions at the Heath and Penn’s Place, pitches and training areas to maintain. The club has three senior league teams, a Sunday team and a thriving Colts set up with U7, U9, U11 Girls and boys, U13, U15, U17 & U19 teams. This season has seen the addition of an U11 girl’s team. It is very important that players, families and friends become involved in the club to help make it the family orientated club that it wishes to be.

The ethos is not about raising and spending large amounts of money; it’s about involving the community and using “in-kind” contributions. So, armed with dusters, mops, cloths, brooms, brushes, pain rollers, paint brushes and a variety of other equipment a willing band of thirty eight volunteers set about their tasks eagerly. It was great to see players, mums, dads and brothers and sisters volunteering their valuable time and effort into sprucing up their club. The weather was kind to us, although showers interrupted on the Saturday they didn’t dampen the spirits of the volunteer work force. We achieved eighty percent of our tasks plus a few extras. This is a phenomenal achievement considering the range of tasks that were set. These tasks included erecting the nets at both training facilities, cutting and rolling the outfields and wickets, clearing brushwood and weeds from around the pavilions, painting sight screens, painting the balcony ironwork, redecoration within the pavilions as well as lots and lots of cleaning. The efforts of the few will be enjoyed by all those associated with the club. The willing band of volunteers were rewarded for their efforts with official NatWest Cricket Force ‘T’ shirts and tickets to a Pro40 Hampshire cricket fixture. Without our volunteers we would not be ready for the season.

They were:

Will Rice, Dan Godman, Dave Mallen,Marcus and Karen Sampson, Nicky Caddick, Nick Blakstad, Mark, Ben and Matt Friend, Paddy and Dan May, Mike Freeston, Rory Newman, Jordan Hiscock, Ben Cox, Jennie and Jack Harvey, John Valentine, Julian Chun, Nikki and Allan Brooks, Tim Boulton, Sarah and Joe Mayell, Richard, Lisbeth and Alex Thomas, Andy and Christie Salmon, Robert Straw, Christine and James Lomas, Eric, Catherine, Molly and Rory Claasen.

PCC would also like to extend their thanks to Agincourt Contractors, Sumach Sales, Travis Perkins and Beaver Tool Hire for their continued support. Agincourt helped us out with emergency repairs that were beyond our DIY skills.

50 Hanpshire Pro 40 tickets will be split amongst the volunteers as a thank you from the club.

Cricket Force Weekend 2009 Was a Success!

Many thanks to those who came along to help the club get the facilities ready for the start of the season. All the tasks were carried out at Penns Place and after 3 years of concentated effort at Cricket Force weekend, we feel that at last we are on top of things at our second ground. Good progress was also made at The Heath but there is still much work to do on the pavilion and surrounds to get it to the standard that we would like.

50 Tickets to watch Hampshire Hawks vs Worcestershire in the Friends Provident Trophy on Sunday 19th April at The Rose Bowl will be shared amongst:

Colts - Matt and Ben Friend, Ben Turk, Rob Straw, Rory Claasen, James Lomas, Alex North, Thomas Richards, Max and Zach Boulton, Allan Brooks, Oscar Windebank and Dominic Ringrose-Voase, Matt and Christie Salmon
Colts' Parents - Ros and Tim Boulton, Mark Friend, Dee Salmon, Ian Turk, Nigel Straw, Eric Claasen, Christine Lomas, David North, Suzi Richards, Mike Freeston, Nikki and David Brooks, John Windebank and Chris Ringrose-Voase
Senior Team Players - Nick Blakstad, Jim Smallbone, Andy Salmon and Fred Patten

Many thanks also go to Agincourt contractors and Travis Perkins who have once again stepped up to help us with their expertise and materials.

Further help is much needed at The Heath and those who couldn't come at the weekend are welcome to help with the tasks that are left. Contact Dee Salmon - 01730 260094

Cricket Force 2008

More work again was needed and this year the volunteers refurbished the storage container at Penns Place, rebuilt the nets at Penns Place with equipment purchased from the Awards for All grant and painted the sight screens at Penns Place.

There was a competition for the younger colts to see how many sticks they could pick up from The heath outfield.

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.