NatWest Cricket Force meets Ashtead CC

Monty paints our scorebox and Mike Gatting digs our trench!

We weren’t expecting to find the police riot squad when we arrived at the club early on the morning of Friday 3 April, but once we had established that they were en route to enforcing democratic justice at the G20 summit we were able to start the final preparations for one of the most significant days in the Club’s history.

Planning and building a new pavilion had been high on the agenda at Ashtead Cricket Club for many years, and with the help of the ECB, NatWest Cricket Force and Surrey County Cricket Club this was the day all the hard work would come to fruition. Club organiser Alan Culff had worked tirelessly for many months to organiser, cajole, beg and borrow both bodies and equipment for our Cricket Force day. The harsh winter meant the inside of the new building wasn’t quite ready to paint, but there was plenty of work to do to get the ground ready for the coming season.

The team from the ECB were among the early arrivals and they began to set up their road show – a cross between nets, a bouncy castle and the set from Gladiators. The ECB team, together with Rob Wint and Ashtead coaches, were also preparing to coach children from three of the Club’s Chance to Shine schools, The Greville, West Ashtead and St. Peter’s.

The weather gods were at their kindest, with a dry cloudy morning leading to a warm sunny afternoon. Feeding the volunteers was the key to a happy workforce and the barbeque team was certainly able to do that after cleaning most supermarkets in Surrey out of rolls, bacon and sausages. And hundreds of donated delicious homemade cakes were on offer in the afternoon sunshine.

As our excellent builder Colin Pringle and his team continued fitting out the pavilion, with Steve McDonald our Architect on hand to answer questions, there was a myriad of tasks around the ground. A massive pile of timber and assorted rubbish was swiftly relocated into three giant skips, a seventy metre trench was dug to create a power supply for the bowling machine, while the colts shed was dismantled and re-sited alongside the nets.

Several teams repaired, cleaned and re-painted various fences, the outside of the bungalow and the scorebox. The gardening team dug and planted flower beds around the new groundsman’s hut and along the front of the new pavilion. The toughest job was the construction of a soakaway drain, which involved digging more than a metre into clay and flint.

Big thanks is due to two companies in particular who supported the day by providing free materials, namely The Build Centre, Leatherhead, and Dulux, who are also providing the paint for the pavilion! While the volunteers toiled away the ECB and Ashtead players provided coaching clinics for the local schools and Club colts. They were joined by the entire Surrey staff, from the Chief Executive to all the players who enthusiastically lent their support. As the morning went on the England world cup winning women’s team captain Charlotte Edwards arrived with some of her team mates to show off the trophy. They joined England’s spin duo of Monty Panesar and Graham Swann to sign hundreds of autographs. The Club was pleased to welcome David Collier, the ECB’s Chief Executive, who presented the club with a £115,000 cheque representing our grant of £65,000 and ECB loan of £50,000 towards the new pavilion. Former Ashes winning captain Mike Gatting was one of the first to roll his sleeves up and join the trench digging team.

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It was wonderful to see so many people from the ECB, Surrey CCC, Brit Insurance and NatWest come to help our club. Paul Taylor and Sharon Eyers from Surrey and David Leighton from the ECB have given us tremendous support in recent months. But above all it was the volunteers from the Club and our friends in the local community who should take most pride in this enormously successful day. The Club doesn’t exist in isolation, it’s embedded in its community and is a thriving resource for everyone in the area.

There are too many people to single out for individual thanks, but as everyone basked in the warm afternoon sunshine they should have been proud of what they had achieved.

And that sunshine was the perfect excuse for many of the volunteers to enjoy their first pint served by George, our new bar supremo, who was on hand from a temporary bar to serve product from our new brewery Fullers.