Howzat for people power! Cricket club’s future is safe thanks to YOU after readers’ donations helped raise £35,000 for boundary nets
- Historical Colehill cricket club raised the £35,000 needed to keep playing
- The 118-year-old club needed the money for high boundary nets
- It was nearly shut down after three neighbours complained about stray balls
- The club raise more than £37,000 after one generous soul donated £5,000
The Daily Mail sent down the challenge and our readers have smashed it out of the park.
Just two days after the Mail called for donations for high boundary nets to keep neighbours safe from being hit by a six, a cricket club threatened with closure has raised the £35,000 it needed.
Stars of the sport including Ben Stokes and Michael Vaughan had expressed their dismay at last week’s news that the 118-year-old Colehill club was having to stop play.
Three neighbours of the venerable Dorset institution had complained that balls kept landing in their gardens. Astonishingly, it meant the club had to scrap adult matches, saying the 25ft-high netting to keep balls in the ground was unaffordable.
Just two days after the Mail called for donations for high boundary nets to keep neighbours safe from being hit by a six, Colehill cricket club threatened with closure has raised the £35,000 it needed
The appeal for £35,000 was launched last Thursday , and last night stood at almost £37,000. Some 1,440 donors had given an average of about £25 each, with one generous soul handing over £5,000
But on Saturday, the Mail went into bat for the club, with a two-page report by Robert Hardman insisting that it was ‘not out yet’ – and directing readers to the fundraising page established by the Colehill Sports and Social Club.
Last night club steward Keith Sheppard, 72, who first played on the pitch in the 1960s, thanked the Mail for stepping in and guaranteeing the club another innings.
Mr Sheppard said: ‘What you’ve done, along with others, is absolutely brilliant. It’s gone to people’s hearts. It’s wonderful.’
Former England captain Vaughan added: ‘Great news and absolutely right.’
Vaughan said last week that news of the club’s demise was ‘an utter joke’, adding: ‘You buy a house next to a cricket ground. What do you expect?’
Three neighbours of the venerable Dorset institution had complained that balls kept landing in their gardens. Astonishingly, it meant the club had to scrap adult matches, saying the 25ft-high netting to keep balls in the ground was unaffordable
Current England skipper Stokes had been similarly bemused, saying: ‘Checked to see if it was April 1st… it’s not, so means this is real.’ Fortunately, however, the storm of outrage ensured kind-hearted fans of cricket – and village life – put their hands into their pockets to help pay for the nets.
The appeal for £35,000 was launched last Thursday, and last night stood at almost £37,000. Some 1,440 donors had given an average of about £25 each, with one generous soul handing over £5,000.
Neighbours of the ground were among those to have made sizeable contributions. Colehill captain George Taylor said: ‘The generosity shown by the community has been incredibly humbling, the fact that people have been willing to put their hands in their pockets to help us.
‘It’s so nice to know that so many people care about our cricket and want to see it continue. We will definitely be back playing again in May, which is really exciting.
‘I can’t believe that after initially thinking raising £35,000 was impossible, we have actually done it. I think in a few months’ time when the dust has settled, everyone, including the neighbours, will all be able to look back on it and see a positive result.’
Mr Taylor, 26, an accountant, added: ‘Neighbours previously unaware of just how valuable the cricket heritage of the village was to the community have been given a clear insight into how much it means.
‘As a result there has been a change of attitude – they’ve moved away from this Nimby approach and realised we all need to sit down together.’
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