Plans to upgrade the non-turf nets area

The Cricket Club is planning to upgrade the nets area on Kitcheners Field as described below. We will continue to keep you informed of progress as our plans are finalised in negotiation with input from the supplier, when selected, and the ECB.

The Plans
The Cricket Club are looking to replace the current pair of nets with a completely level all non-turf area with four contiguous net bays, two where the current nets are and two more on the shed side. The nets and playing surfaces will be fully ECB compliant and meet all their performance standards. The area will extend about half a metre all round the cages so that there is no grass growing in or around the nets. Ideally it would like this all to be in place for next season. The nets can have different speeds so BCC are proposing two nets at Slow/Medium and two at Fast/Medium, which is about a 20% difference in speed between them. The impact of levelling the nets area is that some grading of the ground around the nets will be required to smooth the contours back into the rest of the field. The area affected will not impact either of the playing outfields, not any football pitches.

Progress so far
The ECB's County Development Officer has indicated that the BCC will qualify for ECB funding (75% grant, 25% interest-free loan) for the £40,000 plus that this will cost and will support its application. As the amount in question is over £25,000, BCC need three quotes from ECB-approved suppliers. It has had three companies come along and do site assessments and it will be receiving the three quotes in the next ten days or so. We are confident that the Cricket Club can fund the repayment of the loan portion over three or four years, given its current level of operations and demonstrated by its recent funding of the new scoreboard (£10,000) and sight screen (£3,000).

What has happened to the recent resurfacing?
The work undertaken two years ago has enabled the club to meet the current demands of the rapidly growing junior and senior sections - without it, BCC would not have had adequate practice facilities and its recent growth would have had to be constrained. Equally, without making a further investment, the current facilities will not meet future requirements. Already the batting ends are showing signs of wear, exhibiting uneven bounce, and the bowling ends (not repaired previously) are now so badly worn as to be unusable by the end of the summer. It does not make sense to continue to attempt to maintain the current facilities, when there is the opportunity to provide practice facilities commensurate with a Focus Club of the size of BCC.

Conclusion
We hope that you will agree that this exciting development will improve the appearance of the grounds and give the Cricket Club much needed facilities. Should you have any questions, Julian Dent (01442 863389 or jdent@viaint.com) will be very pleased to answer them.