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Gloucestershire CCC swap bats & balls for brushes

22 March 2013

Players from Gloucestershire Cricket swapped bats and balls for brushes and buckets to help Winterbourne CC paint their new pavilion.

Around 15 of the squad joined volunteers from the club as part of the 2013 Natwest CricketForce initiative.

Winterbourne secretary Liz Bracey said: “It was a really good morning and it was great to have the squad down to lend a hand. They all came down in their tracksuits - I don’t think they were expecting to be painting - but once they knew what they had to do they were more than happy to get their hands dirty.”

The new pavilion has been 18 months in the making and includes new changing rooms, toilets and showers, a kitchen, lounge area and facilities for people with disabilities. Over the course of the morning the Gloucestershire squad helped to paint a number of rooms inside the new building. And Liz said that some of the taller members of the squad came in particularly handy.

She said: “Fuller and Payne were especially useful as they were able to do the ceilings for us without needing a ladder!”

Liz said the whole club had been buoyed by the visit of the Gloucestershire squad which included Hamish Marshall, Dan Housego and Director of Cricket John Bracewell.

She added: “John Bracewell popped in mid-morning and everyone was very appreciative of him taking the time to come down. We managed to get a lot done and we are really grateful to Gloucestershire Cricket for their support.”

It is hoped that Winterbourne’s third and fourth teams will be able to use the new changing rooms from the start of the season and the whole pavilion will be completed by the end of the summer.

At the start of the project Winterbourne – who have five senior teams and six junior league sides - couldn’t afford to employ a contractor and relied on club stalwarts Alan Luton and Mike Anstey to do much of the work. They also found a number of other innovative ways to keep their costs down, including working with construction students from South Gloucestershire and Stroud College and receiving a grant from the England and Wales Cricket Trust.

Steve Silk, Cricket Development Manager at the Gloucestershire Cricket Board said: “It was great to see GCCC playing an active role in the community and encouraging people give up their time to support their local club.

“I would urge all our clubs to make the most of the 2013 Natwest Cricket Force initiative. It is a fantastic opportunity to build partnerships with local businesses and achieve something that can have a lasting legacy for their club.”

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