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ACCRINGTON CRICKET & TENNIS CLUB Just over 9 months ago we met for our last AGM. This room was dark, dated and unwelcoming. I’m glad and proud to say that after a lot of hard work that isn’t case. We’ve transformed our clubhouse to create a great, welcoming environment where people of all ages can enjoy a day at the cricket, functions and other events. This club is moving in the right direction and what these past 9 months has shown, is with a lot of hard work a lot is possible when help is out there from great volunteers. As you can all see works are continuing on the new housing estate with the continued use of our carpark as a base for the developers. I am told this development will be coming to an end towards the end of the summer and I would hope to see our car park fully returned to us and left in good condition by Autumn this year. I’ve not yet had sight of the confirmed plans for the land but there have been several conversations with ideas put forward by the club, on how we would like this to look. I do know this will be considerably better than it currently is, with the possibility of adding tarmac to the areas leading to the car park, and the car park itself being coated with gravel. Some good news from the developers came over the winter as they continued their support of materials and skips for our own renovation projects. I wanted to thank Countryside and the team on site for their help, as without them the projects would likely have cost us a lot more. Moving on to our own projects as you can see, we have managed to refurbish the function room, toilets and changing facilities upstairs. The works to the changing facilities upstairs had been started about two years ago but due to COVID this project came to a halt. I’m pleased to say now that upstairs is 90% complete with some finishing touches required in the corridor and some additional work in the shower area, but this is now the best it has been for years. We have received some really positive feedback from players of both sides, umpires and visitors who can remember what it was like before. Our funding for the function room was awarded by the Lancashire Environmental Fund with investment from ourselves, which topped up the grant for us to purchase the new furniture and other smaller items. All of these projects could not have been possible without the hard work of volunteers who have given up many hours to make it happen over the winter. Special thanks must go to Jimmy Hayhurst, Ray Alden, Alan Cunliffe, Pietro, Bryan and others who have given up their time to make it happen. I would like to thank Property Shop for their continued support along with all other sponsors at the club including the all the board, ball and player sponsors. Thank you also to Scott Dawson who helped throughout the year with sponsorship and developing a new partnership with Amazing Accrington who are now on the back of our playing and training shirts. This new partnership will hopefully build a greater relationship with the town and help us expand as a club both in the cricket community and local community. Other notable sponsors that need to be recognised are Helm Restoration, who have sponsored the back of all playing and training shirts along with LED Controls and CS Creative Marketing who are now sleeve sponsors. All three additional sponsors have committed to the club for 3 seasons and will be on all senior and junior playing and training shirts. Finally, it’s worth mentioning even though we have made some great progress over the last 9 months lots of challenges still exist. At present, we’re relying on a small group of volunteers, giving up their time and running a large variety of things. We really do need help in areas like Social Media, Sponsorship opportunities, grant funding for cricket equipment and facilities, general maintenance of the ground and buildings and fund raising for all areas. The club really needs this help in order to fulfil its maximum potential. If anyone would like to help, please get in touch. Thank You
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