Dear Members and Friends,
If you've been near the ground over the last few weeks, you'll have seen that we've broken ground on the new nets project! Here's an update on what's been going on, and what's happening next.
We finally got planning permission for the nets, and everything is set to go ahead - our steelwork is on order, and it should be arriving mid-May. There's a couple of conditions to the permission around biodiversity, so we're still working with our ecologist to get legal agreements in place with the council.
We found out that we had more concrete under the nets than we thought. There was about 45 tons under there, and that included what looked like an earlier concrete batting end that went under where the sheds are now (even Rick couldn't remember that being there). Though the 1st XI had a bit of pre-season training with a sledgehammer, it needed a lot more. With some great timing and the right contacts through one of the youth section parents, we lined up with local construction who had a crusher on the island - our old net base is now somewhere underneath the new build at St James', saving us a fair chunk of cash.
The delays in the nets have also brought one positive - the extra time we've had has put us into the window for additional funding to promote women and girls' cricket facilities through the ECB's county grants fund. We've now been approved for that grant, meaning we are fully funded for our stretch target of the 3-lane facility, with your generous crowdfunding, and support from the Veolia Environmental Trust, Sport England's Movement Fund, the ECB County Grants Fund, and Portsmouth Council's Community Infrastructure Levy. But none of this would have happened if you hadn't first supported this project from this time last year - every one of these grants needed to see the commitment from the club to make this happen.
This has been a full club effort - we haven't got these grants because of one isolated part of what the club is doing, but about the breadth of the club. It's been about how we're working across the community, giving opportunities to women and girls through our senior and girls' teams and the W10, bringing local children to cricket through our membership and All Stars and Dynamos programmes, providing the facilities for local Bangladeshi sides and the space for community days, being the home ground for Portsmouth High School for Girls, running fixtures for Hampshire over 60s and much more.
Without nets at the moment, it's a bit of a tough start to the season in finding the space for training, but we're managing that through using our mobile nets with the new astro surface last year near the seafront and our pitch astro, as well as the grass practice area that Rick, Barney and Tom have prepared. The build of the new nets should take a couple of weeks once it gets going. We're still to agree a start date, but we're aiming for something shortly after the middle of May.
Watch this space!
Toyota Good For Cricket prize draw
Last year, as one of our fundraising activities, we participated in the Toyota Good For Cricket prize draw. It's an excellent initiative from Toyota, with all of the money from sold tickets going straight to the club, and with a chance to win proper prizes for those buying tickets. Last year, one of our members won £500 of Amazon vouchers, while another (yours truly) won a huge party speaker (which you might see at the ground on some training nights). Last year, about £290,000 of tickets were sold nationally, against £230,000 of prizes, which almost makes a donation an investment.
Last year's prize draw was really successful for us, we ended up around 5th on the national leaderboard for club fundraising which was an amazing effort from you. Any money that's raised this year will go towards our next infrastructure improvements. We will be in need of new store cupboards for kit, and we are looking to refresh the astroturf on the main pitch, which is pretty tired and becoming a bit erratic, to improve the playing experience for our juniors.
To buy tickets, go to this link.
Yours in cricket,
Tom Newman
PCC Junior Coordinator