Biggleswade Town Cricket Club humbled by thousands of pounds of donations towards new facilities

Biggleswade Town Cricket Club has been hit for six by the generosity of the public as it looks to improve its facilities.

The ambitious club, based at the end of Fairfield Road, has been part of the community for more than 100 years. It says it is bucking local and national trends as it continues to thrive, building momentum both on and off the field.

Since the last improvements to its facility in 2008, Biggleswade’s population has grown by 25 per cent and the club’s popularity has risen.

A spokesman said: “Our current training facility is not equipped to facilitate this, nor to sustain the growth we had seen prior to the pandemic. It is hazardous, attracts vandalism, is an eyesore on the edge of our Green Wheel, and is generally unfit for purpose.

“This lack of suitable facilities risks our recent successes becoming a short-term peak and a huge missed opportunity for the town.

“Instead, we want to prepare our club with the infrastructure to sustain this development, propelling ourselves to become highly aspirational, over-achieving representatives of the town, competing locally, regionally and nationally to the same extent as our football and rugby clubs.”

After receiving £22,000 from The Langford and Biggleswade Windfarm Community Fund, the club also pursued a Covid-19 Business Rates Grant for £10,000 and also received Ward Councillor Fund contributions totalling £6,901 from Central Beds councillors Mark Foster, Steven Watkins and Hayley Whittaker.

Now a Crowdfunder campaign has secured further community contributions, as a result of which Sport England have also pledged £1,200 through its Active Together scheme. After raising the money for a new cricket net and security fence, the club has extended its Crowdfunder target to £8,000.

The spokesman said: “The netting facility is just the starting point for the improvements we want to make to our club. We want to continue to broaden the ways in which we serve our community, with further investments to include:

“Artificial playing surface to allow for more junior and schools fixtures.

“Improvements to the clubhouse making it a more hospitable resting place for passers-by .

“Laying a car park to welcome our opponents and allow more organisation on match days,

“Build a permanent storage unit to tidy up the clubhouse surround.

“Mount an electric scoreboard to share our successes more accessibly with the community.”