Tuesday 11th May 2010

Grand CricketForce Prize Draw

A grand prize draw was held at the County Ground today for all the Derbyshire Clubs who participated in NatWest CricketForce 2010.  The names of the clubs were put into a hat and the winning three were drawn out by Keith Loring, Derbyshire CCC's Chief Executive. 

The winners were drawn out in the following order:

1st:  Ockbrook and Borrowash CC won a flat sheet pitch cover donated by Stuart Canvas Products

2nd:  Clifton CC won a bag of cricket clothing

3rd:  Chesterfield CC won a signed bat

Thanks again to all the Derbyshire Clubs who participated in CricketForce 2010.

Keith Loring and Jacqui Hendrick drawing the winning Club names out of a hat

Tuesday 27th April 2010

CricketForce 2010 at Breadsall CC

Over the weekend of the 27^th and 28^th of March, Breadsall CC took part in its fifth annual NatWest Cricket Force event.  Nationally, we were one of 1642 clubs which took part, with an estimated 85,000 volunteers up and down the country helping out their local clubs.  Further details about the overall event, including features on some specific clubs can be found at:  www.ecb.co.uk/development/natwest-cricketforce/

As it was in 2009, the weather was definitely on our side once again and the turn-out of volunteers was our best yet, with an estimated 260+ man (and women!) hours being donated to the club by its members over the course of the weekend.

The major job for the weekend was to safely demolish and dispose of the former garage and its remaining contents following the arson attack at the club at the beginning of January.  As you’ll see from the before and after photo’s below, this job was successfully completed.  In addition to this job, here’s a list of other tasks which were achieved either over the Cricket Force Weekend or since then…

Full litter pick-up of ground and surrounding area.

Full clean-out and tidy of pavilion room, bar, kitchen, changing rooms, showers, toilets and score-box.

Painting of toilets, shower room, existing away changing room and corridor.

Painting and pointing of steps leading up to the ground.

Fixed top of newer sightscreen and painted this.

Cut wicket cover down to a more manageable size.

Trimmed over hanging trees and bushes, in particular, behind the new building development.

Tidied up land in front of new building development as well as access path up to the bowls club.

Full weed-kill of ground and surrounding area.

A special thank you must go out to the following:

Dave Watts - for all his expertise and help before, during and after CricketForce

Janet Robertson for keeping us well fed and watered on the Saturday and Sunday

Wards recycling (and Steve Lakin) for providing another free skip for the third year running.

Jimmy Drew

To read Jimmy Drew's full report on CricketForce 2010 click on the button below

The new pavilion at Breadsall CC - nearing completion

Wednesday 14th April 2010

Local Cricket Clubs Join Forces for the Weekend 

Ashbourne Cricket Club and Clifton Cricket Club joined forces recently to be Derbyshire’s Showcase Club’s for the 2010 NatWest CricketForce weekend, which is a national initiative which this year brought 1600 cricket clubs and over 90 000 people together to prepare cricket clubs for the forthcoming season.  The Derbyshire Cricket Board chose Clifton and Ashbourne from sixty four clubs across the county due to both candidates putting forward strong cases and both clubs have worked together to strengthen cricket in the area and develop closer links to the community.  This was the second time in six years Clifton has been chosen as Derbyshire’s Showcase Club and the ongoing aim of improving the ground and improving links with the local community continues to bring rewards. 

Around sixty people helped with various projects at Clifton over the three days, which began with Club Chairman and friend of the stars Roger Jones meeting former England cricket captain Mike Gatting at Radio Derby for an interview and ended with Roger being handed a cheque for £500 from The Cock Inn Clifton, towards Clifton’s ground redevelopment plans. 

All areas of Clifton CC were represented over the three days with juniors, families, ladies and men’s members volunteering to undertake roles ranging from painting the changing rooms to varnishing the benches, slabbing the patio to putting up sight screens and organising the bar to photographing the event.  At the same time volunteers from the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Midlands Regional Volunteer Manager helped with the various projects and Clifton also received donations from villagers who could not attend during the weekend.

Volunteers erect sightscreens during NatWest CricketForce weekend

Clifton’s aim of painting the boundary board around the ground in one hour rather than one day was a huge success.  As the stop watch started the English weather took a turn for the worse and the volunteers felt the rain on their back, but not disheartened they managed to paint the whole white boundary board in eighteen minutes.  This event in its self reflected the NatWest CricketForce ethos whereby groups come together to make light work of previously tiresome projects and now anyone who drives down Collycroft can see the gleaming cricket ground.  The completion of all of these projects plus previously accomplished slabbing in front of the changing rooms and replacement of some of the floor in the clubhouse has resulted in the Club being prepared for the season much earlier than normal.

Mike Moran takes a brief rest from painting the boundary board.

After three days of cleaning and painting the volunteers were ready for alternative food to a barbecue and finished the weekend at The Cock Inn where the group were fed, before receiving a further £500 donation from The Cock Inn who have now raised over £1300 towards the Club’s redevelopment.

Speaking afterwards Roger Jones said, “We have been a part of NatWest CricketForce now for number of years, and this years event has comfortably been our most successful.  Along with Ashbourne Cricket Club, we have shown the strength of feeling for cricket in this area.  At Clifton we have increased the number of participants and accomplished things over the three days which in the past has taken us weeks, we want to say a massive ‘thank you’ to all those who volunteered.  In particular we’d like to thank Derby College, JDB Builders, Buildbase, Homebase, Build Centres, Clifton villagers who made donations towards our major project and of course The Cock Inn.  Andrew and Loraine continue to be exceptionally supportive of us and we are thankful for their enthusiastic, generous and long term support.  This years NatWest CricketForce has been a spectacular success in every way.” 

                         Roger Jones receiving a cheque for £500 from the Landlord at the Cock Inn

Cricket club is all white on the night

The joint showcase clubs of Ashbourne CC and Clifton CC kicked off this year’s Cricketforce event with a bang  

More than 80 volunteers were involved across both clubs and they who were supported by lots of local businesses.

The weekend saw 30 volunteers at Clifton CC paint the boundary boards around the ground in 20 minutes and more than 50 volunteers descend on the recreation ground as part of Ashbourne’s plans.

Their aim was to make a difference to the tired and uninviting facility that is the current pavilion.

Eleven seniors, seven juniors, 15 from the Derbyshire Cricket Board junior squad and 17 volunteers, including the mayor, all turned up to lend a hand and a paintbrush.

Caroline Cooper (Ashbourne's Mayor) and Andy Smith of Ashbourne CC

http://www.ashbournenewstelegraph.co.uk

Fuelled on tea and juice from Waitrose, buns from Bates the bakers and chips from the marketplace chip shop, they pushed on at speeds reminiscent of Dominic Corks fast ball — his son was part of the DCB team.

The support for the event was fantastic as local businesses all rallied round to help with donations.

Materials and supplies came from David Neills, Homebase, Lester Lowe and Speedy hire.

Chairman Andy Smith said: “Local businesses have been brilliant and have really dug deep to support us.

“When you do an event like this you realise that there still is a strong sense of community and if something is worthwhile getting involved in people really come forward.

I’ve got say a massive thank you to all our volunteers and sponsors and hope that this success off the field continues through the season.

I’d love people to come and cheer us on when the season starts and we begin our quest for success on the pitch.” The group painted throughout the inside and the outside of the pavilion and gave it a good clean.

This was finished off with two amazing signs created by Acres Signs and Graphics that really put the club and the pavilion on the map."

                                                                                      Greg Cork armed and ready to start work

Richard Bates, the club’s new youth development director, was amazed at what the volunteers achieved.

He said: “We’ve done more in four months than we have in the last 20 years.” The club secretary, Chris Tiano, added: “This weekend has been amazing and is a fantastic start to our ambitious plans for Ashbourne Cricket Club.”

Anyone who wants to get involved at any level in the club, playing, management, volunteering or supporting please contact Andy Smith on andy@ashbournecricket.co.uk, 07725 550808, on twitter @AshbourneCC or on Facebook.

This article was featured in the Ashbourne News Telegraph http://www.ashbournenewstelegraph.co.uk

NatWest CricketForce 2010 at Swarkestone CC 

Swarkestone Cricket Club took part in CricketForce 2010 over the weekend of 27/28 March 2010. The event was well supported by members and parents of all ages.  

Over the close season the club has been building a new pavilion and the work this year focused mainly on the pavilion but we also took the opportunity to tidy up the hedgerows around the ground.  

Work done on the pavilion included laying the foundations for the block paving on the verandah and in front of the pavilion, painting the cladding on the outside of the building, painting the shower areas, cleaning the brickwork, digging trenches and moving materials to required areas. 

The club were grateful to all who contributed over the weekend and it was helped by good weather.

Thanks from West Hallam White Rose CC

"West Hallam White Rose Cricket Club wishes to thank every one helped over the weekend of the 26th, 27th & 28th of March. This initiative promoted by the ECB & NatWest, supported by the Derbyshire County Cricket Board, was very successful.
 
It is estimated that 40 to 50 people took part in assisting to develop our facilities- juniors painted fences made by older members, some older juniors painted an equipment container, others erected additional poles for the practice nets, whilst some of the parents helped to block pave a patio at the front of the Pavilion. These projects are ongoing and more still needs to be done.
 
Refreshments were prepared by club members over the weekend, and special thanks go to Warburtons for sponsoring the event & Tesco who provided a gift voucher to purchase the food."

CricketForce a huge success for Belper Meadows CC

As the Cricket season speedily approaches, this is a time when nationwide, cricket clubs repair and renovate their facilities. This is done under the banner of CricketForce sponsored by the ECB and Natwest. 

Belper Meadows had a great response to the event, which took place on the weekend of 26^th, - 28^th March. There were 48 volunteers taking part, from all the Christ Church Meadows Sports Clubs, plus families and friends. As a result more jobs than ever were achieved, it was a great success.  

We were 1 of 62 Cricket Clubs taking part in Derbyshire. Needless to say help & sponsorship from local companies was paramount. Our thanks to Haldane’s, The Co-op & Morrison’s for donations of food to keep the workforce happy. Build Base, Focus & MAP for providing materials needed for the tasks. 

A big thank you goes to skilled volunteers G Horton, M Slater, P Hudson, M Sewter, B & P McGonigal who kept our jobs from disaster. Special thanks to all the volunteers who helped with the jobs, even the mundane. 

CricketForce is over for this year. Now as the season draws closer we can look forward to the games.

Good luck to all our teams. 

If there are any budding cricketers out there who would like to join, come along to one of the training sessions.

Adult training is on a Tuesday evening.

Junior training is on a Thursday evening. 

Thank you to all June Williscroft - BMCC CricketForce Administrator

NatWest CricketForce 2010 Pictures

Thanks to everyone who sent in articles and pictures of your NatWest CricketForce event 2010.  Below are just a few of the pictures received. If you would like to send your pictures in to the DCB Office they will be featured on this page.

                      Young volunteers at Alfreton CC                                                        Mick clearing the brook at Nutbrook CC

   Painting the sightscreens and putting the finishing touches to a new set of steps on the perimeter of the ground at Alvaston & Boulton CC