As the new cricket season shivers into being and youngsters look once more at the sad reality that is our current pavilion the Cricket Club can’t but long for the day the new pavilion is ready. And with huge amounts of work now completed behind the scenes on developing training programmes, safeguarding policies and a host of other things that are needed for the young people Mission EmployAble will train and employ in the café there, everyone at Mission EmployAble is similarly desperate for the Pavilion to spring into being.

But first we need the money! Let us share with everyone in Chorleywood the great news of our fund-raising success to date. We are quite certain we are now in a position to start building very soon.

Fund raising has continued throughout 2020/21 despite all the COVID restrictions and has been very successful. We have raised over 80% of our target funds to date, including £100,000 pledged by Sport England. We have nearly a million pounds in the bank and pledges from reputable grant making charities for another £730 thousand including the Sport England commitment. This is enough to cover the building costs and, thanks to the offer of a generous interest free loan to be available if required, we are now ready to start the building of the pavilion with confidence. But we still have to raise funds to pay back that interest free loan, to pay for a pilot project for Mission Employable and to pay for the start up costs of the café. So during the remainder of this year we will continue to fund- raise.

To allow everyone involved to sleep well at night, a large UK based charity has pledged to underwrite the entire cost of the build, thus guaranteeing that nothing we can think of will stop money being available to get the pavilion completed.

The Parish Council has asked us for certain guarantees and assurances which we are talking to them about. As soon as these discussions are completed, we will be in a position to start the building and we are all excited about the prospect.

We would like to thank both the local Chorleywood community and the wider community for the support for this project to date. We have had many kind words of support given to us and people have responded incredibly generously to all our fund-raising events.

We now look forward to a new cricket pavilion and a new community café that will equip and train young learning-disabled adults for employment in the local area and provide a wonderful facility for cricket, refreshments and facilities on the Common.

More fund-raising events are planned for the remainder of 2021 which will be advertised locally soon, including an additional day on the 3rd May to see the Bluebells as local support resulted in the 2nd May being sold out!

Thank you again for your continuing and much appreciated support,

Steve Dunning Chair, Chorleywood Cricket Club

Katharine Weston Chair, Mission EmployAble

£50 Robin Webb

£10s Kevin O’Donnell, Jamie Mulholland and Terri Pinnock

£50 Chris Moore

£10s Andy Stothart, John Chadwick and David Brabham

We know you will share our excitement that work is about to begin on the new Cricket Club pavilion and Mission EmployAble training café. The original 1960s building which is in bad repair will be demolished in March. The new pavilion will enable the Cricket Club to grow and to extend opportunities to play cricket to girls, women and people with disabilities.

It will also house a café run by Mission EmployAble, which, in conjunction with Bucks College, will train young adults with learning disabilities, via supported internships.

The café will be open every day to all comers, serving delicious home-made food for snacks, light lunches and afternoon teas, all with magnificent views of the Common. The café will also have a small gift shop.

Keep an eye out on the website's new buildings page which will show you how we are doing. The building site will be protected by the contractor Boom Construction Ltd from day one by secure and newt fencing as recommended by the ecologist, and parking and welfare facilities for the contractor will be provided on-site.

We especially wanted to thank all of you who have supported our fund-raising efforts so far. The Cricket Club and Mission EmployAble's joint scheme was launched to raise £2m, £1.7m of which has been raised already.

We will have plenty of new events planned during 2021 and have some spaces available for the Charity Golf Day on the 16th April. Click here for ticket details.

The new building is due for completion in late 2021/early 2022.

£50 Anthony Shuster

£10s Tom Smithson, Natalie Hinds and Jeremy Hinds.

Gulam will be remembered for many feats on the cricket field - promotion winning knock for the 2nd XI, just missing out on his 100 for the 4th XI on a baking hot day in Ramadan (and then keeping for 49 overs!), diving one handed catches under the nose of the batter for the 3rd XI, batting on, covered in blood, after taking one in the face on a dodgy track in the 4th XI, and countless other fine innings with the bat.

Most of all though, Gulam will be remembered as someone we all enjoyed playing cricket with. He was a true gent with a great sense of humour who was always open with advice and help for others ..... and he had the baddest batting gloves you'll ever see! He will be hugely missed.

Condolences to his family from everyone at CWCC and rest in peace Gulam.

£50 Barbara Bailey

£10s Meg Downing, Ken Buchanan and Lesley Neal

£100 Les Dacre

£10s Jonathan Rice, Charles Hardcastle and Meg Downing.

Robsons Estate Agents are proud to be Chorleywood Cricket Club's official sponsor.