Cricket Force 2017

Saturday 8 April

The day was blessed with warm and sunny weather, a remarkably dry outfield and a very good turnout including a good number of colts and parents. This ensured all the critical pre-season tasks were successfully completed.

The state of the clubhouse to start with was nothing short of a nightmare. Before the major spring clean could commence, all items temporarily housed from the demolished garage had to be moved into the new storage units. Large quantities of rubbish also had to be “recycled” or removed, much of it left over from the recent complete rewiring of the clubhouse. A key piece in the storage jigsaw was assembly of the new shelving units which kept Ryan entertained for a few hours, clearly pleased to be able to practise his old Meccano skills. Another success was the neat storage arrangement he put in place for the unwieldy sheet covers, now rolled around plastic pipes and suspended from fixings.

Major jobs completed outside included:

• Jet-washing and repainting of the sightscreens and parts of the exterior clubhouse
• Treating the benches and green fencing (some of the youngsters managed to get as much preservative on themselves as on the benches)
• Strimming grass
• Pruning tree branches around the outfield perimeter

Most importantly, the assembled troops were kept well-watered throughout the day with cups of tea produced by the ladies with further sustenance available in the form of homemade biscuits plus bacon butties prepared by Dave, Joseph and Asim on the spring-cleaned BBQ.

It was an excellent team effort but with particular thanks due to Carly, Fran, Fiona, Alison and Pat for the effort involved in transforming the clubhouse into a clean and usable state for the new season and Lionel Fewson for acting as Cricket Force Leader, planning and coordinating all activities (and writing this report).

A special thank you also to Brewers Decorator Centre (Woking) who kindly donated all green and brown preservative and paint.

We look forward to seeing everyone at Cricket Force 2018.