Yorkshire stars aid Shiregreen
Yorkshire’s cricketers will be out in force visiting Shiregreen CC in Sheffield as part of the NatWest CricketForce weekend.
Richard Dawson, Tim Bresnan, Richard Pyrah, Mitchell Claydon, Deon Kruis, Michael Lumb and Matthew Wood will all be on hand to help spruce up the club and give coaching to Shiregreen's younger players.
Sky television and several ECB officials are also expected to be present as the club and the joint initiative between NatWest and the ECB gets a much-deserved publicity boost.
Even Minister of Sport, Richard Caborn, will be popping by on Sunday and according to Neil Clarke, one of the co-ordinators of the event, Shiregreen have a lot of work to do.
“All the windows are being replaced with UPVC frames, new showers are being fitted in the changing rooms and the whole pavilion is being repainted internally,” he told ecb.co.uk.
The windows have been donated by Calendar Home Improvements Ltd from Rotherham, while all the electrical shower equipment and waste pipes have been provided by Plumco.
The ECB have been putting clubs in contact with JTF, who are supplying tins of paint at greatly reduced prices, and Shiregreen are one of a number of clubs to have taken advantage of the offer.
They have also had some fencing given to them by Beta Fence and a microwave has been donated by members of the club as the whole community gets together to improve the cricketing facilities in the area.
"Work gets under way for the project on Friday night when particularly committed members of the club start concreting near the footpath ready for the majority of the work to be completed over the weekend,” Clarke added.
Shiregreen are also planning to create a seating area for spectators, and the local council have donated a number of shovels to make their task easier and allow as many people as possible to get involved.
The club are expecting 30-40 junior members to turn up to wield a paintbrush and take advantage of the coaching tips on offer from Yorkshire players.
In addition to all the hard work, a raffle will be taking place, with prizes including tickets to see the Sheffield Steelers ice hockey team and Sheffield Wednesday FC on offer.
Regular pre-season activities such as putting up the cricket nets and painting the sightscreens will also be undertaken as Shiregreen get ready for their first match the following weekend.
However, Clarke is mindful of the fact that Yorkshire start the new county season next weekend, and added: “The players present won’t be doing anything too dangerous. We don’t want them hurting themselves.
“We still want them to be available to play for Yorkshire.”
