Bears help clear Small Heath rubbish

14 April 2008

Warwickshire Bears turned out in their droves to support NatWest CricketForce at the Small Heath Community Cricket Club in the Birmingham Heartland.

Volunteers help to clear up Small Heath

The Club which won a £50,000 lottery award, voted on by TV viewers, to develop a piece of abandoned land into a cricket ground for the local community, attracted around 20 Bears plus hundreds of volunteers to help clear up and prepare the new cricket ground.

Small Heath sightscreens get a lick of paint

Warwickshire's new signing Ian Salisbury, an ECB Level 4 coach, ran a coaching session in the new nets for the Small Heath CCC Under 17s while Junior Bears skipper, Neil Carter ran a series of cricket sessions for Small Heath’s Under 13s.

In the nets at Small Heath CC

In between the coaching, there was some hard graft being displayed by some Warwickshire favourites with Darren Maddy collaring seven helpers to help paint the sightscreen and Jim Troughton and Luke Parker picking up the rubbish.

Club Chairman, Rafaqat Ali said he was impressed with the commitment of the players.

"It was great that the Warwickshire players were prepared to get stuck in and it means a lot to our community that the County Club came down in force to engage with the youngsters and support our efforts to build a ground," he said.