Concerned of Cumbria

Whilst away for a few days in The Lake District last week I read an article by Keith Richardson, a sports columnist for The Cumberland News in which concern was expressed about the state of club cricket in that region. Keith reports that  'village clubs are folding with worrying regularity or alternatively feeling the need to reduce the number of teams they field' and that (this) 'is probably a microcosm of what is happening in the UK as a whole'. This concern about the future of grassroots cricket has been the subject of postings on this blog on several occasions and over the winter I have reported on the disappearance of The Cleveland League, the merger of the two leagues in The Scarborough area and how a long established club like Scruton with excellent facilities has been forced to pack up its Saturday team.

Today is Natwest CricketForce day when clubs are urged to get grounds into the best possible shape for the new season and twitter feeds for the last few days have exhorted members and prospective members to turn up and wield a paint brush, oil the wheels of the sight screens, sweep out the dressing rooms and generally make themselves useful. Early morning rain in The Lower Ure Valley has given way to grey sighs and what I had intended to be my first cricket watching of 2016, a friendly between Goldsborough and West Tanfield has been cancelled and both these clubs have issued appeals for volunteers to come along and get stuck in. One attraction at Goldsborough is that the bar will be open from twelve noon and if a tweet posted on April 1st is to be believed yesterday was set aside to move the pavilion to the opposite side of the ground so there may still be some unfinished work there. The response to these appeals may give club officials some indication as  to their likely playing strength but one suspects that in many cases it will be no more than the usual few who are getting their hands dirty today.

A further complication for Lake District clubs has been the impact of Storm Desmond on pitches and pavilions. It was pleasing to see on Thursday, a lovely day, the outfield at Keswick CC being mowed and the ground looking as though it were just about ready for cricket. We all saw the television pictures of the impact of Desmond on Carlisle in early December but to fully grasp the extent of the damage you need to visit the region and  see at first hand the devastation caused. As far back as December 11th Keith Richardson, this time wearing his chairman's hat, spoke of how the club would be ready for May despite Fitz Park having been submerged and badly damaged to the extent that 700 tons of silt had to removed from the ground. Their season starts on April 30th. Let's hope they are ready and that they have plenty of players from which to choose.

Caldbec CC whose ground looked in good condition when we passed by last week. Their Eden Valley League Season begins on April 30th when the second XI will be at home in Division 1 match v Scotby first XI