Back to the first page of NatWest CricketForce 2005 club achievements and anecdotes

Billesdon CC - Leics
This was our first CricketForce event and helped focus the club members on working on the ground

One of our younger volunteers - up at Tynemouth CC in North Shields

over the weekend. All felt motivated due to a good turnout of club members (and the good weather!). Sure that we will be able to build on this success in 2006.

Whalley CC - Lancs
Whilst NatWest CricketForce did not directly provide a great deal in terms of materials that we could not have sourced ourselves, it did give the club a huge focus that drew in more volunteers than we have ever managed to achieve before. This has resulted in our club being seen in the local community as expansive and progressive. These are invaluable qualities that can not be bought at any price and will see our club continue to build on what was started over the NatWest CricketForce weekend.

Nowton CC - Suffolk
The funny but serious story was Friday April 1. Four of the team had taken Friday off to collect and receive materials. Two of us set off to Colchester to collect what we believed to be a warehouse full of paint ready for collection. This included all paint required plus all preserve etc. When we eventually found the warehouse it turned out to be a small container in which we found 1/4 pots of bits and bobs dating from a month to two-year-old paint. We couldn't help but laugh especially with the April Fool's relevance. However, then the reality set in with an estimated 100 people turning up to paint tomorrow we had no paint! We eventually arrived back in Bury St Edmunds at 11:30 and two of us armed with presentation folders and our CricketForce T-shirts knocked on doors of local business with cap in hand. An amazing response and a very close shave resulted in over 200 Litres of paint and preserve present at the clubhouse before 18:00 Friday night phew!!!

Saffron Waldon CC - Essex
Fourteen volunteer committee members signed on 120 young players, sold kit, signed on players for membership of Essex CCC, recruited three new volunteers and served refreshments for parents and eight adult members of the club who were working on the ground.

Porthcawl CC - Wales
It is quite ironic that the CricketForce event coincides with our clubhouse being 50 years old this summer. We tracked down and invited the remaining members of the club to attend our grand re-opening. It was a great mixture our past / present and future.

Halesowen CC - Worcestershire
We had visits from Councillor Karen Shakespeare, prospective MP Les Jones, Worcestershire players James Pipe and Shaftab Khalid, and trustees of the ground. CricketForce has had a major impact on Halesowen Cricket Club with young and old working in unison over the weekend.

Darley Abbey CC - Derbyshire
The contact with local suppliers - who didn't give us anything on this occasion because of either time or procedural constraints - has given us the information to enable us to approach them again when we improve our playing conditions and extend our pavillion.

Charlbury CC - Oxfordshire
Did we finish everything? No way! But without the organised CricketForce weekend, very little would have been done, so it was a very worthwhile project and one that we will be repeating every season.

Tillside CC - Northumberland
The varying levels of DIY skill, amongst the adults, was frankly staggering, and the kids did well to confine the majority of the paint to the sight screens and not their clothing!

Bredon CC - Worcestershire
There were half a dozen children aged four to eight who came along with parents. We gave them an old table to paint and they had a whale of a time!

Tynedale CC - Northumberland
An excellent weekend with members getting together to help the Club. It helped concentrate the ideas - team leaders assembled their teams. County CDO attended and took video and photos. One non-playing member bought fish& chips for everyone on the Saturday!

Workington CC - Cumbria
Loads, only wish I had the video running when those one off moments arrived. Our new club motto: if you don't ask, you don't get. From materials for curtains, a lorry load of flag stones, concrete, timber, even the shirt off an England player's back!

Chippenham CC - Wiltshire
We are naming the relocated wooden pavilion after Bill Dolman (a stalwart of the club who spends most of his retirement helping out with pitch maintenance and improvements to the ground and club facilities). Bill spent over a week preparing the new site for the relocation of the wooden pavilion, and spent all weekend helping to move it, and this week is continuing work to finish it off. It will be called 'The Bill Dolman Pavilion'.

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