The Final Countdown...

It's taken me a while to get around to this latest post, with the project in the final countdown, work commitments picking up and pitch preparation in full swing; I'm somewhat bereft of time! The pace has somewhat picked up on the project, with final fix activities nearing completion and the building beginning to take shape. So what's happened since my last update...

If anyone out there is looking to carry out a similar development, get the decorators in. I'm not one with a passion for decorating and the pavilion project has reinforced this and then some! Personally I racked up in excess of 50 hours, but we couldn't have done as well without the help of our volunteers from the club and the Natwest Bank in Yarm. During this years Natwest Cricket Force we got many of the painting tasks completed, along with the usual jobs of erecting the nets and working on the ground. We'd like to thank everyone who offered their support over the weekend, it was a great success and we owe all of that to you. Yarm Cricket Club gained a little slice of publicity in the Evening Gazette last Wednesday, unfortunately the article isn't available online, but I'll see if I can get it scanned for next weeks update.

Kirk Developments continue to excel, with work continuing at pace and no dip in standards of finish. Here's a quick run through of events...

Here's Dave from Redcar & Cleveland College installing the kitchen we purchased from Howdens Joinery, he's been ably assisted by club stalwart Pete and they did a great job. Dave has also helped us with all the benches for the changing rooms, these are to be installed at some point this week.

This is the huge hot water cylinder and boiler, which will run the heating and hot water. The final fix is virtually complete, with only final tests and connections to be made. Ashton Plumbing Heating and Gas have done an excellent job throughout and it's hoped the system will be tested and live sometime Wednesday.

The tea room is still full of clutter, but you should be able to make out the radiator, but also the new lighting, emergency lighting and smoke alarm. Electrix North East have done an admirable job of rewiring a somewhat under supplied building. We looked into acquiring a new electrical supply, but at a cost of £10k this was deemed unfeasible and we opted to lean more towards the cheaper gas connection at £4k.

Changing rooms are virtually complete. Just a little painting left, fixtures and flooring. You can just see the new toilet cubicle to the right.

Showers in the home dressing room.

Rear elevation, incorporating new security lighting, meter box and external power point.

Fascias and cladding nearing completion, gutters were installed today and porch beam boxed in.

Latest view of the building.

So much will happen this week and all will be covered in next weeks post. Final activities include; gas meter installation, floor coverings, external drainage, guttering, rendering, shutters, benches and erecting the pavilion clock.

If you would like to help by donating to the project, we have extended the deadline to 26th April for donations via our Just Giving site and we're grateful to everyone who has donated so far. If you, a family member or a business would like to help and in turn have your name added to our honours board; then simply donate in excess of £50, leave a comment and we'll do the rest. As a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) we can also collect Gift Aid on most donations, this equates to an extra 25% on top of the original donation. The final honours board will be erected in the pavilion and unveiled at this years Family Fun Day on the 13th July.

To donate just follow this link: http://www.justgiving.com/yarmcricketclub (don't forget to leave a comment)

I'll be back next week with possibly my final update, incorporating a guided tour of our new facility, brief run through of the weeks events and a big thank you to everyone who has supported our Inspired Pavilion Project.

Give Me Just A Little More Time...

A little late with the update this week, very busy on and off site at the moment and often wish someone could give me just a little more time. The wet and the cold are finally beginning to take their toll on us all, but we must press on and have the pavilion ready for the 13th April. We're currently looking into the various flooring options and trying to bring them in on budget, but at this stage it looks as though we may need to spend a little more than we initially expected. This will place further pressure on the budget, but we're confident we can make savings in other areas to offset the increase and still fulfil the design provided by Wighton Architects.

 

We have a few very busy weeks ahead now with final fix activities taking place, decorating, kitchen installation, internal furnishings, floor coverings, drainage and the roof to complete. If the weather allows, the groundstaff will need to put a serious amount of time into getting the ground ready for the season and we're seriously up against it. On a positive note though, we've just received a grant of £1,000 from Stockton-on-Tees Council and we can now look to order our new batting cage.

 

On the 6th and 7th April we will be taking part in Natwest Cricket Force, an initiative which encourages volunteers to get involved with their local cricket clubs and help get them ready for the season ahead. This years Cricket Force activities include decorating, erecting nets and sightscreens, ground maintenance, hard landscaping and cleaning. The Natwest bank in Yarm will kindly be sending along some of their staff to help and we'd like as many of our members, families and community there as possible. We'd really appreciate some help with catering on the day, so if any businesses out there fancy donating some bacon sandwiches or cakes please get in touch with us at admin@yarmcricketclub.co.uk

 

All volunteers will receive an official Natwest Cricket Force t-shirt and participating businesses will be included in all press releases and social media marketing.

 

Let's move swiftly on to what happened last week, first job for Kirk Developments was to get the tea room windows installed.

 

 

 

The building is now completely drylined and plastered. Below is an image of the new home dressing room.

 

Work on the roof continued, giving us the first glimpse of how the final building is going to look.

This weeks tasks include: Completing the roof, final fix electrics, skirting boards and decorating.

If you would like to help by donating to the project, you have until the 12th April to donate via our Just Giving site and we're grateful to everyone who has donated so far. If you, a family member or a business would like to help and in turn have your name added to our honours board; then simply donate in excess of £50, leave a comment and we'll do the rest. As a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) we can also collect Gift Aid on most donations, this equates to an extra 25% on top of the original donation. The final honours board will be erected in the pavilion and unveiled at this years Family Fun Day on the 13th July.

To donate just follow this link: http://www.justgiving.com/yarmcricketclub (don't forget to leave a comment)

Only 3 weeks to go now and still so much to do. Join me next week for a further update from the Yarm Cricket Club Inspired Pavilion Project, hopefully it will warm up a bit and I'll have plenty to talk about.

Bring Me Sunshine...

The constant inclement weather has finally started to make an impact on the Yarm Cricket Club Pavilion Project schedule. We all know the problems suffered last year by cricket clubs around the country and so far 2013 isn't looking much better. Completing the pavilion roof is proving difficult; with sleet and snow for the last five days, but work has continued indoors and all first fix activities have been completed. With the roof and drainage having to take a back seat, work to the interior is coming together at pace and plastering is set to commence this week.

With just under a month until the season starts, the weather is also impacting on my role as Groundsman. The ground has had standing water in certain areas since last April and although the squares drain quite well work has proved an impossible task. By now we should have at least drag brushed, trimmed and started rolling. I can't see us getting out there for at least another week, which will be cutting things very tight and areas we were looking to repair may have to be put on hold. So top of this years wish list will have to be, new covers, a water hog and bring me sunshine!

Last week Kirk Developments continued work on the interior of the building, the final few bricks were added and the new door frames were fitted in the extension.

New windows were fitted throughout, the picture below shows the tinted windows to the front of the away dressing room.

Dry lining was completed throughout the building and all areas are now ready to be plastered.

Hopefully by next weekend the building will be plastered and the roof will be well on its way to been complete. Progress on the roof will be determined by the weather! I'm still trying to come up with the best floor coverings for the building, at this stage I'm thinking carpet tiles throughout and vinyl flooring for the kitchen, toilet and shower areas. I've spent many years visiting other clubs and it's not making the decision any easier, some have no floor coverings, some have carpets and others have spike proof vinyl. The budget is very tight for finishes, so to carpet or not to carpet? This is another dilemma I have for the week ahead.

Our Just Giving site is still available for donations and we're grateful to everyone who has donated so far. If you, a family member or a business would like to help and in turn have your name added to our honours board; then simply donate in excess of £50, leave a comment and we'll do the rest. As a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) we can also collect Gift Aid on most donations, this equates to an extra 25% on top of the original donation. The final honours board will be erected in the pavilion and unveiled at this years Family Fun Day on the 13th July.

To donate just follow this link: http://www.justgiving.com/yarmcricketclub (don't forget to leave a comment)

Back next week with a further update, fingers crossed we get better weather.

Lifeline...

The Sport England Places People Play scheme has provided many clubs and sports groups, the opportunity to improve facilities and in turn improve levels of participation. Round 4 of the funding has opened recently, so if your club could benefit from modernised facilities or improving playing surfaces then it's time to work on those applications. When preparing your applications, be sure to gauge community support via a questionnaire and attain letters of support from leagues, local MP's, sport development groups,etc. Don't just focus on the benefits the funding will have; what may happen if you don't recieve funding? At Yarm our facilities were unsuitable for the modern game, not up to the standard expected by players and well below what was required by the ECB North Yorkshire & South Durham League we participate in. The pavilion facilities were rated the lowest of all participating clubs by league officials and may have affected our league status.

Thanks to the funding we received from Sport England, plus contributions from our members, Yarm Recreation Ground Trust, Yarm Town Council, Carter Steel and Judges Hotel, we can now look towards a much brighter future. We have many new targets to achieve in our 5 Year Plan, set out as part of our Club Development Plan established during the ECB Clubmark process. These range from improving participation, establishing more teams, improving practice facilities and work to the playing surface. Four items we are currently lacking are: sufficient practice facilities, training aids, pitch covers and water hog. We have just received notification of Small Sports Grant funding from Stockton-on-Tees Council, which will go towards a much needed new batting cage. This new batting cage will allow us to sufficiently increase our practice facilities and cater for larger group training sessions. Due to the increasing number of Under 9's attending coaching we are seriously short of training aids, such as cones, batting tees, Kwik Cricket equipment, etc. An application will be forwarded to the Lord's Taverners, they give great support to grassroots cricket by providing equipment and artificial playing surfaces to clubs who are lacking in this department. We are also fundraising and looking for sponsors to help us purchase some training equipment from the ECB Cricket Factory range. Businesses interested in sponsoring us for the coming season can get in touch at admin@yarmcricketclub.co.uk

Last week on the Inspired Pavilion Project was very busy. Kirk Developments first job was to get the building watertight and finish off the the roof felt and battens. The roof is now ready for the tiles to be added and these along with the uPVC fascias were delivered to site last week.

The gable end of the new extension was completed.

Both changing rooms had the shower trays and partition walls installed.

The old rear windows were removed and openings created to access the kitchen, disabled wc and umpires changing room.

First fix plumbing and electrics were completed and shown below is the new disabled toilet.

Plasterboarding completed throughout the new extension and shown below is the new kitchen.

Jobs for this week: Roof tiles, plastering and possibly some final fix electrics.

Our Just Giving site is still available for donations and we're grateful to everyone who has donated so far. If you, a family member or a business would like to help and in turn have your name added to our honours board; then simply donate in excess of £50, leave a comment and we'll do the rest. As a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) we can also collect Gift Aid on most donations, this equates to an extra 25% on top of the original donation. The final honours board will be erected in the pavilion and unveiled at this years Family Fun Day on the 13th July.

To donate just follow this link: http://www.justgiving.com/yarmcricketclub (don't forget to leave a comment)

Thanks to everyone who helped create this Lifeline for the club, without the support of many we would never have got this far and we can now plan for the bright future ahead.

Little By Little...

With Natwest Cricket Force getting ever so closer, we are working hard to get as many businesses, groups and members of the local community involved. Redcar & Cleveland College are to produce the benches for the changing areas and assist with the kitchen installation. We have another group from our local area that will be laying paving around the building and also assisting us with a number of ground maintenance tasks. Painting and decorating and flooring will be done as over the Natwest Cricket Force weekend on the 6th and 7th April. Once we have everything in place we will issue press releases to the local media endorsing all those parties involved. We're still waiting to see whether our project will attain showcase status with the Yorkshire Cricket Board and ECB, hopefully we'll hear something regarding this shortly.

If your company or group would be interested in getting involved, please get in touch with us at admin@yarmcricketclub.co.uk If you can wield a paintbrush, lay carpet tiles, provide paint, materials or catering then come along and you can play your part in the Yarm Cricket Club Inspired Pavilion Development. It's hoped we can also incorporate junior cricket coaching (ages 7 to 13) on the 6th, this will be dependant on the weather and new members are more than welcome to join in.

The project build is coming together well, Kirk Developments made great progress last week getting the roof felted and latted ready for tiling this coming week. The pavilion is almost water tight and the new windows have been delivered ready for installation. The changing room windows are to be installed with tinted privacy glass, the shower areas and umpires changing room are to have textured privacy glass similar to that installed in domestic bathrooms.

The picture below shows the roof to the rear of the pavilion, felted and latted ready for the tiles to be positioned.

Work commenced on the new dormer to the front of the building, the front elevation is to be finished with cedar cladding and the pavilion clock from Good Directions Ltd will provide the final touch.

Ashton Plumbing  Heating & Gas continued with the first fix plumbing, running the pipes for the hot water and heating systems.

 

 

And Electrix North East continued with the first fix electrics, running the cables and mounting the socket boxes. Cables were also installed for the tv aerial, although at this stage a television is outside our budget. It's hoped a suitable television will be installed once we have raised the required funds.

 

 

The old tiles from the roof have been used as hardcore for the access track, it's hoped the track will be topped off with road planings provided by Stockton Council and the Highways Department. We are also looking to utilise the old doors and floor joists to create composting areas around the ground. This not only reduces the amount of waste going to landfill, but it cuts down on skip hire, purchasing of additional hardcore and also provides the Club with adequate facilities to compost grass cuttings and waste generated during ground maintenance tasks.

Tasks for this week include: Completing the roof, finishing off brickwork at the rear, installing the shower trays, erecting partition walls in the changing areas and further first fix installation.

Our Just Giving site is still available for donations and we're grateful to everyone who has donated so far. If you, a family member or a business would like to help and in turn have your name added to our honours board; then simply donate in excess of £50, leave a comment and we'll do the rest. As a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) we can also collect Gift Aid on most donations, this equates to an extra 25% on top of the original donation.

To donate just follow this link: http://www.justgiving.com/yarmcricketclub (don't forget to leave a comment)

Little by Little we're getting there and I hope everyone continues to offer their support where they can. Thanks for reading and we'll be back next week with a further update.

Picture This...

We're now heading in to Week 11 of the Inspired Pavilion Project and work is gathering pace on all fronts. Details of last weeks progress will follow later in this post, but for now I'd like to concentrate on the efforts that will be required to increase throughput, both in line with our Sport England estimates and to be sure the finished pavilion is sustainable.

All cricket club management should have an idea of how much it actually costs to play. For example; league fees, groundsman costs, machine servicing, service connections, insurance, etc. Once you have this figure you can set your annual membership and match fees to the required level based on the previous seasons numbers. The cost to play and throughput are directly related to cost of membership, so if throughput rises and your cost to play remains the same, then fees can be reduced or frozen. For larger clubs this calculation will have added complexities such as professional fees, full time groundstaff, bar profits, etc, but most larger clubs will have other revenue streams in place to cover these areas.

At Yarm Cricket Club we hope to increase throughput in a number of ways over the next few years. The first way is to increase levels membership; so we hope to further increase our number of junior teams and have recently introduced a senior Friendly XI. Many Clubs suffer from juniors losing interest after a few years, so in the future it would be a positive step to introduce 2nd teams at junior level beginning with the Under 11's. This would give the club sufficient numbers to feed future 13's, 15's and 17's teams.

Another good way to increase throughput is to arrange coaching events, these can be run by external coaching groups such as Pro Coach and also by your own coaching staff. We currently have 7 ECB qualified coaches at the Club, who look after the junior teams and we will be looking to add to this number in coming years. The coaching staff play a major role in providing for the future, without their commitment and dedication most club's would cease to exist. Our coaches do a sterling job and we cannot thnak them enough for their continued efforts.

Diversification; what other areas can we look to explore? There's the potential to start a womens and girls section, increase the number of corporate events, allow community groups to use the facilities (WI, Bridge Clubs, etc) and what other sports can we offer (rounders, ultimate frisbee, archery, stool ball, boules, etc)?

There's many more ways to improve throughput and all avenues should be investigated thoroughly. All Clubs are different and it's all about finding the right mix for your specific club.

On with the project update; the work continued on a number of fronts last week and great progress was made by our excellent contractors Kirk Developments. There's a lot to get through, but I'll keep it as short as I can. First job of the week was to get the away dressing room floor poured and this was completed on Monday.

The writing below was uncovered when the timber encasing the steel RSJ was removed, it's not easy to make out but it says Yarm Doughty. We just need to find out which Doughty it was, but we think the steel was possibly a later addition and was ordered by former 1st XI Captain Dave Doughty.

Below are the two new steel box sections in place, these replace the two rotting timber posts there previously.

 

The plumber started on site last week, commencing with the first fix and running a number of pipes for the heating system.

 

All internal studwork was completed in the new extension and plasterboarding will take place once the roof is watertight.

Work to the extension roof continued and it was due to be felted over the weekend.

A couple of other notable developments are, the pavilion clock has arrived from Good Directions Ltd and the t-shirts have turned up for Natwest Cricket Force.

So that's it for last weeks progress. This week work will continue on the roof and with first fix plumbing and electrics.

Our Just Giving site is still available for donations and we're grateful to everyone who has donated so far. If you, a family member or a business would like to help and in turn have your name added to our honours board; then simply donate in excess of £50, leave a comment and we'll do the rest. As a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) we can also collect Gift Aid on most donations, this equates to an extra 25% on top of the original donation.

To donate just follow this link: http://www.justgiving.com/yarmcricketclub

Thanks again for taking time out to read the blog, back next week with more progress and an update on how community involvement in the project is growing.

Up On The Roof...

This week away from site we've been concentrating on final fundraising activities, researching various funding opportunities, lining up volunteers and reminding everyone how important this scheme is to the Club. To date we have raised an additional £1k thanks to donations, leaving us just over £2k left to find. Again we'd like to thank all who have donated so far, your support will go a long way to ensure the final building will have everything we require now and for the future. We've had donations so far from players, ex-players, neighbours and parents. If you or your business would like to make a donation details are provided later in this post.

We have been notified by Sport England that our latest application for payment has been approved, this will mean we can pay our contractors well within the contractual 28 days. This leaves two more payments, one for completion (30%) and the other for certified completion (10%). Certified completion can be released once we are in receipt of all certification for service connections, fittings, etc and the building has been signed off by the building inspector.

Finally we've had a reasonable break in the weather at the Yarm Cricket Club Inspired Pavilion Project, allowing Kirk Developments to make good progress in the last week. First job to be completed was rebuilding the corner of the building, externally this is now ready for the render to be applied so it ties in with the existing walls. Later in the week the two changing rooms floors were insulated and lined with DPM and as shown below the floor was poured in the home dressing room.

The last two days of the week were very hectic, with concrete being delivered, scaffolding been erected and the roof trusses for the extension turning up. By close of play last week, all but one of the trusses had been erected in position on their brackets and braced for the weekend. Unfortunately my camera decided to go on the blink this week, so these pictures had to be taken with my phone and the quality isn't quite the same!

 

This week will see the away dressing room floor poured, further progress on the extension roof and the first fix plumbing and electrics being installed. Once the extension roof is water-tight, then the openings to the tea room can be opened up and we'll get a true feel for the final space.

 

To make donating easier for everyone we have set up a Just Giving page, where supporters can forward donations online and provide details for the Club to receive Gift Aid. To have your name, business, or relatives added to the new pavilion honours board, donate in excess of £50 to the project and we'll do the rest. The honours board will be unveiled at our Family Fun Day on the 13th July and to date we have 22 individuals represented along with the main project sponsors. To donate just follow this link: http://www.justgiving.com/yarmcricketclub/ You can also cut and paste this link into emails and forward to friends and family.



Back next week with updates on the build, funding and what we have planned for the future of Yarm Cricket Club's Inspired Pavilion.