Grant boosts Fakenham’s ground plan

Friday, October 21, 2011
3:02 PM

Fakenham Cricket Club are planning to use a £30,000 Sport England grant to develop a new pitch adjacent to their existing Highfield Lawn ground.

The club have agreed a lease on the currently unused sports field with Fakenham High School & College and will use the money to lay a cricket square on the site.

The grant was awarded as part of Sport England’s Protecting Playing Fields Olympic legacy fund, which aims to bring disused playing fields back into use, improve existing sites or create new sports pitches.

The club also have a longer term plan to extend their clubhouse, incorporating enough new changing rooms to serve both the existing ground and the new facility.

Fakenham director of cricket Colin Brassett said: “The new square will provide a pitch for our third and fourth teams and the club’s junior and ladies sides. At the moment we use the council ground at Trap Lane, which is not far from our ground, but it will be good to get the whole club playing on one site and once that is done we will look to develop the changing facilities.

“The grant money is a big boost because it will enable us to do it sooner rather than later. It is now an ideal opportunity to have that ground made available and to be able to put our plans into action. We are very thankful to Sport England for agreeing to give us this money.”

He said that the majority of the £30,000 would be taken up by preparing the new site, which should be ready for use by the 2013 season, or failing that, the year after.

The new facilities will also be made available for the school to use.

There was also an award of £50,000 to Woodton Playing Field Association to convert arable land into a playing field which will be used for football, cricket and other sports.

Applications for the next round of Protecting Playing Field funding can be made between October 24 and December 12 via the Sport England website, www.sportengland.org/funding or by calling 08458 508508.