Worksop Cricket Club: Project Restart

Worksop Cricket Club has been at the heart of the local community for over 100 years. Playing cricket in the bassettlaw league and even hosting county games and the great Sir Garfield Sobers and Richard Hadlee over the years. We pride ourselves on our ability to provide opportunities for our local young people and give them the chance to play cricket at any level. 

In 2007, Worksop town centre was struck by massive flooding across the whole centre. Being based right in the heart of town, our ground was hit hardest and cricket was on pause. 

13 years later, history repeated itself and we found ourselves underwater again, right before the start of what was shaping to be a great cricket season. 

Our members and club culture have never been better and, by pulling together, we were able to get our buildings back to normal and clear the ground, as well as 3 pallets of loam to start work on rebuilding our playing area and prepare for season 2020. 

Then, when COVID-19 struck, all of our efforts to prepare for 2020 seemed to have been in vein. Our efforts to recruit new players at all levels were in danger of not coming to fruition in developing them into fully fledged cricket fans and players. 

Our 'new' committee, in place since 2014 were able to work together over zoom and to implement the government guidance and ECB guidance to #GetTheGameOn. 

We started by hosting 1-2-1 coaching slots with our memebrs to give them the chance to get back into playing which was a roaring success. We were then able to host an excellent inter-club T20 tournament where we got our members familiarised with the new guidelines and back into playing cricket and then were able to start the season and set the standard for COVID-19 security within our home grounds and when we travel. 

It's been a challenging year already for us and, despite the hard work by our committee, captains and players we still find ourselves running against the tide financially, having had to replace machinery, fix buildings, replace contents and outlay on cleaning and sanitising products to protect our players. 

Also, given the decrease in cricket played, we had to reduce our annual subscriptions which were already the cheapest in the area to ensure we were sensitive to our members financial circumstances and retain engagement in the club through this testing time.