Walsall Cricket Club fundraising for new practise nets.

Express & Star

Walsall Cricket Club are fundraising for new nets, and today they competed n the Cannock Chase 5k to help with the challenge they have.

Transcript

00:00cricket club we find you on a sunday morning um medals are strewn around you you've just been

00:05taking part in a race is that right yes where's it been at guys can it chase 10k can it chase

00:13and a bit of healthy competition between you yes who won

00:20is it mr zilch yeah was it well done sir what was his time uh just over an hour

00:25fair dues matey and is this all part of the fundraising effort it is yeah so fill us in

00:31nick then what what's um what you fundraising for so fundraising for uh to improve the nets

00:37you can see them behind us they're not in their best state and there are another set of nets

00:41near the road which need for complete rebuild yeah and uh new changing room facilities and you

00:48uh what do they call them um picnic benches picnic benches cool cool and how many people

00:55come through the club then how many kind of people are involved here players and

00:59coaches you know it's hundreds isn't it yeah yeah lots and lots of people all ages so it's

01:04an asset to the town really isn't it you know i mean cool uh who's been um the longest longest

01:10player here at you lot is it close it might be you cool so what what would it mean to um to the

01:21club to have a you know some fresh nets then um quite a bit it's just we were able to do so much

01:27more kind of training wise uh it'd be so much more effective for our seniors but also juniors

01:32and local community as well i would have massive impact throughout really yeah so how long you've

01:37been playing here since oh well it's a difficult question here since i was five wow okay how old

01:44are you now then i'm 27 all right just a few years so uh did you get into it then was it a family

01:49thing yeah old man played yeah i played it um aston manor cricket club yeah yeah yeah snake

01:59but yeah okay here was a local club when i was five years old so yeah so are these the nets that

02:05would have been here when you were five i think i remember them building these nets when i was

02:11uh probably 10 so they've been 17 years yeah roughly so they've served their purpose but

02:17they've been good been good to us but well yeah and he's very tired now well well done on your

02:22run today guys and um good luck with that fundraising what's your actual role role with

02:27the club i'm head of women and girls cricket and we've got with you who's this your man this is

02:32who is the captain of the first team got you just walk us through then and what's the issue with

02:37these nets then come and show us some of the bits that need um lots of we go right down the end you

02:43can see the obvious thing so what's the plan then does it is it a whole new whole new set you know

02:50new nets new floor in the works the whole thing yeah yeah and he's redoing you can see there

02:55there's a carpet coming up ah yeah sure that yeah yeah if you want a bad picture that's a

03:02mess in it there was a point where we had last year where we couldn't let the juniors use the

03:08net yeah because of obviously all the holes down here and of course it's a it then becomes a safety

03:14issue yeah you've got holes like this which are in the middle of the net

03:19those yeah they might go off someone's head oh wow yeah we can see those if i just change

03:22my settings just bring it i've been there i can't see those really big ones but someone quite

03:28easily hit a ball through one of these and hit some kid yeah so so really it's impeding the

03:35training the training of the the juniors as well juniors and all players yeah seniors and juniors

03:40and everyone yeah we're currently actually hiring out a facility to let some of the juniors train

03:44elsewhere because no way you just can't let me train here yeah yeah so obviously that comes at

03:48a cost in its own right doesn't it the plan is to actually change this from a two lane facility to

03:53a three lane yeah um so we're going to push them all across that way yeah but we're actually going

03:59to make it enclosed so we're going to obviously then become safer for everyone yeah watching and

04:04playing as well because you know there's times where we're having a senior game or junior game

04:09one with senior training you hit a ball and it flies down onto the outfield yeah you can't have

04:13that happening if there's kids like running around so yeah just a bit of safety feature to

04:18be honest and the nets up by the road there what's the plans with those um i think we're going to just

04:23try a full refurbishment of those yeah just replacing the matting replacing the netting

04:28because like those nets are sort of worse than this yeah terms like we can't use those apart

04:33from really for really young kids yeah if we can get those sort of to a standard where the juniors

04:38can use those and you know the older juniors can use these so we have five or six lanes that we

04:43can actually use yeah so what's it going to cost then what's the what's the view what's the quotes

04:48you've been getting 70 000 pounds yeah yeah i think it's um 50 000 plus just for these three

04:54nets if you don't yeah obviously the other bits you want to do change rooms and that's all extra

04:59but it's 50 000 just for these three nets yeah yeah so what in an ideal world when would you

05:05like to kind of have that raised by obviously as soon as possible but any thoughts the plan is by

05:12early april end of march yeah just before the new season starts obviously yeah you don't want

05:17to be building nets in the middle of winter so you want them as close to the season as you can

05:21to not get damaged by the weather and all sorts but ideally before the new season starts when we

05:26get the kids back outside again after the winter we can you know start fresh and start a new

05:30program with them and how long you've been playing for um i joined the club when i was about seven or

05:35eight oh okay what's that about 14 yeah now so so what is it you've got out of it then you know

05:42what why are these clubs important obviously it's a bit of pride for the town it's nice but

05:47on an individual level what is it you've it's given your life um it's something to do on a

05:53saturday something to do on a sunday but i think once you join a club like this like i've played

05:58at another club before um and actually left that to come back here yeah because there's a big family

06:04relationship going on at this club um where you know you can play at other clubs you might be

06:09winning a lot of games but you don't necessarily enjoy it and you don't enjoy the fact of i'm going

06:13to go out on a saturday and spend my whole day with a bunch of friends and people that i enjoy

06:17yeah um i think that translates to better results and everything at the end of the day if you're

06:22wanting to spend more time with the players you're training more you're playing harder and

06:26you know at the end of the day everything goes up that's nice to hear isn't it nick you know i mean

06:31you obviously put a lot of effort and a lot of time yourself into the club it's nice to know it

06:36kind of has that effect on people and it sounds like you've got something a bit special um going

06:40on here at walsall not just on the pitch but kind of off the pitch they're very much very important

06:45for the town and the community as a whole well we wish you all the best guys with your fundraising

06:50good luck

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