Surrey's Brown visits Leatherhead and Cobham

15 April 2006

The weekend of the April 8/9 saw Leatherhead and Cobham Cricket Club participating in NatWest CricketForce 2006 - with 40 club members from 10 to 65 years old contributing some 250 man and woman hours work.

The event was a huge success for the club, resulting in a complete makeover for the Fetcham Grove clubhouse and the surrounding grounds.

The entire bar area was successfully decorated, the whole outside of the clubhouse painted, the dressing rooms cleaned and spruced up with paint, the kitchen fully steam cleaned, all benches painted and new signage erected, as well as completing all the usual pre-season tasks preparing the club for another exciting season of cricket.

Surrey & England star Ali Brown dropped in with his family to lend his support following the county side’s pre-season tour of India and couldn’t believe the progress that had been made in such a short time.

Organiser and committee member Jamie Mead described the event as a huge success for the club and said: “The contribution our members have made this weekend has been phenomenal. I was concerned that we may have bitten off more than we could chew with the amount we were planning to do, but I really shouldn’t have been worried as our volunteers have surpassed themselves.

"In particular it was fantastic to see the colts and adult sections of the club working side by side."

Club Chairman Peter Ashdown went on to add a particular vote of thanks to the sponsors without whom the weekend would not have been possible: “A large part of the CricketForce ideal is to encourage cricket clubs to engage with the wider local community,” he said.

"We have been lucky enough to receive tremendous support from many local businesses, especially KBR who were kind enough to sponsor the weekend as part of their community project, Dulux who donated a vast amount of paint and Travis Perkins who loaned us equipment we needed.

"The club is really grateful for the contributions they have made and we look forward to building an ongoing partnership with them."

The weekend’s success sets the club up for the new season which begins on Sunday April 23 with Colts registration day for 7 to 15 year olds at the Fetcham Grove club house from 10am to 12pm.

Local youngsters are encouraged to come down with their parents and sign up for an exciting season’s cricket and coaching.