Cricket club is set to get new home at last?
ACRICKET club looks set to finally move to a muchneeded bigger ground after a search that began in the last century.
Members of Bredbury St Marks Cricket Club, based on Hillside Road for more than 100 years, began their search for a new home in 1999.
And they hope to have found one at Dark Lane, Bredbury, after looking at 21 other sites over the last 18 years.
Two planning applications have now been submitted to Stockport council. One is for the new ground and another for 22 homes at the current site necessary to finance the move.
Geoff Mountford, 65, has been a member of the club for 50 years and has been on its relocation committee since the move was proposed 18 years ago.
He said: “It is a relief, we need a medal for longevity and sticking with it but the need is great if we want to continue to provide cricket for the community.
“We found 21 sites and decided 11 were suitable and of those four of the landowners were willing to sell.
“We decided on one but the planning application was immediately sent back as it had our address as Hillside Street rather than Hillside Road.
“The next week the council put a planning moratorium on houses, which lasted five or six years.”
Plans will go out to consultation and if the goahead is given there will be two pitches to English Cricket Board specifications, bigger boundaries and training facilities.
The club has 12 teams, including six junior sides and a first XI in the Cheshire County League.
This first XI would not be allowed in the league’s top division as the boundaries are less than the mandatory 50 yards.
And balls regularly hit nearby homes, in one recent weekend causing £600 of damage.
Geoff said: “People at the club are excited. Our present ground is a century old, when it was first built cricket was a completely different game. At the level we play at with better bat technology, people’s physique and pitch improvements it is easier to hit sixes. It is not sustainable it is just too small.
“There is no room to expand, if this goes through we will be at a 10-acre site and will give us a quality set up for the next 100 years.”