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14
Sept
The men looking to bring Beckwithshaw cricket into the modern day
A deluge of rainfall which delayed Beckwithshaw Cricket Club’s season in April was the last straw for Miles Buller and Sam Moore.
An inadequate drainage system saw the club’s junior and senior games cancelled - with the first team not playing until May.
But, for Miles and Sam, the pitch was just the tip of the iceberg of their pursuit to bring the club up to standard.
The pair have been on the club’s committee for two years and both play for the first team.
For Miles, who is a doctor undertaking his GP training in Bradford, he spends nearly every night of the week at the clubhouse at the start of the season - much to the annoyance of his partner.
Miles has been at the club as a player since he was 11, with the last two seasons on the committee as secretary.
Part of his reason in trying to get onto the committee of the club was to try and make improvements to its infrastructure.
When I started work, I was away from cricket for a couple of years. I came back and I realised that this place needs a lot of work doing to it to get it better. That was one of my driving factors for getting onto the committee.
Much of his work is arduous - looking for sponsors, organising insurance and administrative matters - but he describes it as rewarding when he sees it pay off.
An aerial shot of Beckwithshaw Cricket Club on Pot Bank.
Meanwhile, Sam, who has been with Beckwithshaw for 12 years, is the club’s chairman and managed to talk Miles into coming onto the committee.
'We're trying to bring the club up to speed'
The pair have sought to modernise the club, which takes the shape of looking at every aspect of the organisation aside from the cricket.
For instance, one key focus has been upgrading the toilets in the clubhouse. While it may seem a minor project to embark on, Miles and Sam tell the Stray Ferret that it was harming the perception of the club.
The efforts to upgrade the infrastructure at Beckwithshaw don’t stop there, with the changing rooms being revamped as well.
For Miles and Sam, the changes were necessary.
Miles said:
The last eight to 10 months have been really hard. In terms of the work we have done in the last couple of years, it wasn’t like we just wanted it [the club] to be nicer. It was quite bad, it was quite run down.
It was borderline not usable. My partner would not come up here and use the toilets before.
Sam added:
A lot of the work we have put in the last two years has felt heavy, like a lot of work. But it’s all stuff that probably should have been done over the last five to 10 years anyway that hasn’t happened for whatever reason.
We’re trying to bring it up to speed and to the modern day as much as we can and see where we can go form there.
Most of this has been paid for thanks to the support of sponsors, who pay £300 a board around the boundary.
Paying for such infrastructure is separate to the playing side - which Miles and Sam say costs £35,000 a season before they even begin to consider how to pay for such things as drainage improvements or replacing a roller which set on fire at the start of the campaign.
'It was a swamp'
In April, when the Great British elements delayed another season at Beckwithshaw yet again, it was the last straw for the pair.
Miles said:
The last couple of years have been really bad. It was a swamp at the start of this year, it was so bad.
The risk of letting the weather dictate the fixture list for junior and senior sides for a third year was too much, Sam adds.
In an already short season, usually April to the end of July, the junior teams lost a quarter of the season.
The flooded outfield at Beckwithshaw.
Putting on a match at Beckwithshaw, which is based on Pot Bank, helps the club more than on just the cricket side.
The club sells drinks and snacks from the clubhouse, which goes towards projects such as revamping the changing rooms.
As a result, cancelling a game delays such vital infrastructure upgrades as well as damaging the physical and social benefits for junior and senior teams that the game brings.
But, the route to improving the outfield drainage was not easy.
Miles and Sam had already exhausted the club’s finances and sought help through grants.
As secretary, Miles looked for funding that was available - but said he was met with the perception that because the team were in Harrogate, they probably already had the resources to take on the project, much to his annoyance.
I applied to every fund going and got batted away from a few because we’re a HG postcode, so you’re not prioritised. We might not be as deprived as other areas, but it does not mean the club has money.
One grant application did come through though. Sport England offered to put up £7,500 if the club could find the remaining £7,500 for the work.
Miles and Sam took to a Crowdfunder to raise the money to get the scheme off the ground.
They had done this before for other projects, but not to this scale. Miles said he was apprehensive that it would work in the first place.
We have done Crowdfunders before and we kinda raised £2,000 to £2,500, but it was the usual suspects and sponsors putting money in. We’ve done nothing this big at all.
Miles added that there was an element of jeopardy with the fundraising campaign because if the target was not met then the grant from Sport England would be lost.
The pair made every effort to hit their goal through speeches at the junior side’s awards night and emailing the membership for support.
The Stray Ferret were among those who helped to publicise the campaign, emphasising the need to get more cricket played at Beckwithshaw regardless of the weather.
In August, the fundraiser hit its target, much to the delight of Miles and Sam. Improvements to the pitch are expected to start in earnest in the next week.
Making it worthwhile
On the playing side, Beckwithshaw’s first team are aiming for promotion from Airedale & Wharfedale Senior Cricket League Division One. A crunch game against fourth place Follifoot is set to take place this weekend.
While Miles and Sam battle the trials and tribulations of improving a club from the inside, the playing side looks on the up.
With all that comes with running a cricket club, do the pair enjoy it?
Sam responds:
“Knowing that it benefits so many people makes it worthwhile."
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