Cricket club hopes to net more room
A VALLEY cricket club is seeking backing to extend its practice facilities - after training ground to a halt during the latest lockdown.
Haslingden Cricket Club bosses want to extend their all weather net facility to help the squad prepare for the upcoming 2021 season, and improve their offering for juniors.
With Covid-19 restrictions they cannot hold their usual indoor training and believe an extension of up to 15m on their current nets would provide additional space to accommodate different age groups and skill disciplines at the same time.
The club has applied for a grant to Viridor Credits an independent, not-for-profit organisation which funds community, heritage and biodiversity projects. The Bentgate club has written to its membership seeking support for the extension to their all-weather nets. A petition at change.org so far has 180 signatures.
The project stemmed from an idea from chairman Andrew Lord when he was doing some maintenance work at the club during last November’s lockdown.
Club secretary Jayne Hunsley said: “We were thinking of ways in which we can help to get cricket and outdoor exercise restarted after the lockdown.The main reason for this extension is to provide another training area for players to prepare for the 2021 season, although it will provide us with a long term much improved facility to enable us to develop the skills of our junior players for them to progress to senior cricket and for all age groups to practice. To have this area will be particularly helpful when the ground is unfit for training because of inclement weather.”