With a little help from my friends...

Well as another year comes to an end, we can hopefully all feel proud of what we've accomplished in 2012 and look forward to a prosperous New Year. This year has proved tough financially for not only ourselves but many small cricket clubs, the season long battle with the weather had a massive impact on fixtures, practise sessions and match day profits. However, the positives by far outweigh our slender bank balance: ECB Clubmark achieved, Pavilion Funding secured, two more coaches completing ECB Level 2 and a very promising season for the Under 11's and 9's.

I would personally like to thank all the junior coaches, especially Chris and Ben Gibbons who work tirelessly to give the under 11's and the club a great foundation for future success. Another who deserves a mention is Stewart Ballantyne our Club Welfare Officer, without his help and assistance ECB Clubmark would've remained a distant pipe dream. Plus his work with the Under 9's has also been exceptional, with numbers increasing year on year. Finally, thanks to Mark Green who has proved an able assistant throughout the Sport England Inspired Facilities application and during the development to date.

The success of a project such as this is always reliant on the local Community getting involved, whether it be through playing and volunteering, or just dropping in to watch the odd game. Indoor nets and junior coaching will begin in January at Conyers School and details are available on the club website. New members are always welcome and it would be great to see plenty of new and old faces next year. Next season begins 13th April 2013, come join us and with your help we can continue to go from strength to strength.

So, what's happened on site this week? Well it was another wet one, but Kirk Developments got plenty done and heading on to the Christmas break we look to be on schedule. As you can see from the picture below, foundations were poured, trench blocks laid and the first course of Newton blocks laid taking us to finished floor level. Building Inspector visited site and seemed satisfied with everything done to date.

The advantage of both extending and modernising the existing structure is that we have a number of work faces. It's hoped this will allow progress to continue whatever weather gets thrown at us!

For any other Clubs looking to go down a similar line, make sure you get organised before you start on site, especially if you've received Sport England funding. Make sure you get all the required post award documents sent off well before starting and try to avoid requesting payments over the Christmas period as delays may occur. We've had to rush a lot of this due to our tight timescales and on occasion this has given me a few sleepless nights!

I've just set up a Just Giving site to provide our members and followers the option of donating to the project online. Those who donate in excess of £50 will have their names added to the honours board, to be erected in the pavilion on completion. As we recently received CASC status, we are now eligible to receive Gift Aid and Just Giving sort this out on our behalf. Details will be provided once the site is up and running, but this may take a couple of weeks with it been Christmas. It's anticipated the site will be available from January through to May and the board will be erected at the Family Fun Day in July.

I'll be back in January to report on progress and keep you all informed. If anyone has any queries or would like to get in touch drop me a line, or give me a shout on Twitter.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas from all of us at Yarm Cricket Club.