Thornham Cricket Club officially open new building

Thornham Cricket Club President Kevin McMahon, Life Vice President Barbara Crook, Life Vice President Tony Crook, Club Chairman Ian Heywood and John Holder

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Thornham Cricket Club officially opened their new community room and changing rooms today (Sunday 25 May).

The new facilities were officially opened by John Holder, a former professional cricket player and first class test umpire, he said: “Everyone who has worked on this building needs to be given praise and gratitude.”

Andrew Micklethwaite from the club said: “It has taken about six months altogether to get to this point. We are not completely finished but we wanted to celebrate the building and get it officially opened.”

The project was financed via a generous donation from Harold Hare, a former club member who left the club money in a legacy fundand funding from organisations such as Sport England.

The new building now replaces the old porta cabin style building that the club previously used.

“The new building is a lot bigger than the old one and will last us years now. The old building lasted about 40 years but I think it was only planned to be here for about 10 years,” added Andrew.

Work undertaken on the building was done by players and their families. Andrew added: “Everyone knows each other here so we have all worked together to get it done. We also did a buy a brick scheme which raised over £7,000.”

As well as the new building, the club improved the patio, built a driveway and are planning to knock down an old garage to open up the patio space even more.

There are still a number of finishing touches that need to be completed on the building.

“We need to seal some of the windows and get a new electricity supply for the whole of the building so it is just the few little final touches that are left," said Andrew.

The club hope to have everything completed within the next few weeks.