Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2022

24 undoubtedly a groundswell of support. People want it to happen as long as their concerns can be addressed. I get phone calls saying, ‘David, when will you be here playing?’ “Another, Keith, rings regularly to inform us, for example, that someone is messing about on the square. When I say I will pop along to deal with it he o ers to have a word with them himself - it’s so encouraging to have that rapport. “I have learned to sit on my hands and be patient because o cial planning of any sort inevitably takes time. But it is worth it when the funding comes through as well because it is considerable.” ere’s no doubt that funding has been key but it is a feather in the Club’s cap that it has spent in excess of 40k, an awful lot of money for a modest club - all raised by themselves without any outside help. ON THE AGENDA Vandalism and security are probably next up. Houses at the bottom side and ten foot high hawthorn hedges on the other provide good protection. Bunting Nook, although a steep slope, doesn’t prevent access yet but the planting of 1500 Quickthorn bushes - at the Club’s cost - is helping make that more di cult BACK AND FORWARD e Matthews Lane site was part of a Special Needs School’s grounds and old aerial photos show there was a cricket square there once. e eld was then used by football clubs for more than forty years, despite its irregular shape. But it is big enough for Norton Woodseats who might consider a couple of junior pitches in the future. “We rented out to a couple of junior football clubs but litter was an issue,” Dave recalls. “I went up one day a er a game and collected 32 bags of it. Enough was enough and we gave them seven days notice. With houses next to the site I had no idea what to do with that amount of bags. Fortunately, Ian Auckland rescued us by providing a dumper truck but he was only able to help us that once. I said once is all I need. “We decided we didn’t want football on the site again, at least not now. If we ever do it will have to be very modest and restricted.” Matthews Lane becoming available when NW needed it was pure coincidence. e Club wouldn’t have gone somewhere that wasn’t in the same area. “We consider ourselves very fortunate but we would have struggled on because there was no other option,” admits Dave. “We paid peppercorn rent to the Council under licence rather than lease so the Council wanted us to sign a lease. But I felt that we wouldn’t be best served by that because we have protected rights, and thankfully that has been acknowledged. “We have an ongoing dialogue with She eld Council and SY ECB because there are not enough cricket grounds in She eld. e rate of decline in grounds has been higher than the decline in teams, and in the Norton area alone I can think of seven in fairly recent years. “And that is despite the best e orts of the very helpful Gareth Davies, Head of South Yorkshire ECB, who wants to put teams into Graves Park because some have no ground to play at.” Construction has contributed to the decline in the number of grounds - several teams share the Olive Grove site - but there are springs of hope for grassroots cricket through the ECB’s good work in that regard.