S&L Corby's issues show it's a struggle for clubs

S&L Corby Cricket Club, who have three teams in the Northamptonshire Cricket League as well as Sunday, midweek and youth teams, sent out an email to their members at the weekend asking them to pay their subscriptions to help them get by.

In the email, the club confirmed they had applied to the local authority for a Small Business Grant of up to £10,000 as they are registered as a small business.

And while chairman Mark Poucher admits such a grant will see them survive, he insists that without it the club which is based in Occupation Road in Corby could face going to the wall in August.

Poucher has been delighted by the response by members and even former members since the appeal was put out.

And he said: “Up until I had a chat with someone on Monday night I was very concerned.

“But I have been assured that because we are registered as a small business then the local authority should help us out.

“It’s about timing. If the government stalls then we can’t go on without any income.

“But we are registered as a small business and we get the rate relief then we should be entitled to £10,000 local government funding. If we get that then we will survive, even if we get no cricket this summer.

“But if we don’t then we will go out of business around August time because of the bills we owe.

“We have limited maintenance costs as much as we can. We have had the bins suspended and I tried to cancel our broadband but all companies want to be paid, we are all in the same boat.

“But the response has been excellent.

“We got over £600 in subscriptions and donations in just a couple of days and we even had an umpire who regularly stands in county and district fixtures who has contributed.

“We have had ex-members from all over the country have pledged money to help us get through this difficult time.”

Recreational cricket is currently suspended until further notice and it remains unclear whether clubs will see any match action this summer.

The NCL was due to get under way this weekend and, while cricket is on hold, it creates a concern over participation numbers for the future.

“My particular concern is that we have done a lot of work with the All Stars project and we have gathered a good base for the youth set up,” Poucher added.

“We have been rebuilding with very young players and they haven’t picked up a bat and ball since we had one indoor training session.

“We should have been going outdoors this week, which always gathers momentum.

“Some of those players might decide not to play again and that means we are losing them to the game, which is very worrying.

“But it might also be the case for some older players who might be towards the end of their careers and this situation may have brought their retirement forward.

“We want to try to sustain three teams on a Saturday, one on a Sunday, one in midweek and all the individual age groups for the juniors but doing that in this crisis might be difficult.”

Poucher is also the vice-chairman of the Rutland & District League, which plays its matches on a Sunday.

And while the picture of when cricket might return remains unclear, he revealed the league are doing what they can to salvage some sort of season.

“We made a decision based on what we have seen happening around the country and we have produced a half fixture list,” Poucher said.

“At the moment I am producing a new fixture list, starting on July 5 with teams playing each other once so they can have a fairly meaningful season.

“We have taken that view and we are looking at the fixture list to try to make sure each club gets some cricket.”