Wisbech Town Cricket and Hockey Club’s £600,000 ‘Crockey Project’ is once in a lifetime opportunity

Published: 12:35, 10 February 2018

Wisbech Hockey and Cricket Clubs have launched a mammoth �600,000 project and are to hold a series of fundraising events over the coming months. The car park has already been completed.

Wisbech Town Cricket and Hockey Club have unveiled ambitious new plans to build a new pavilion and are now starting the mammoth task of raising £400,000 towards the cost.

The club has been working hard behind the scenes for the past few years to secure a new lease with landlord, the National Trust, and to obtain planning permission for scheme which also includes additional car parking.

Wisbech Town Cricket and Hockey Club have launched a mammoth �600,000 project and are to hold a series of fundraising events over the coming months.

Just under £200,000 of the £600,000 needed for the project has beenraised - £10,000 of which was raised last year in a number of club events.

The existing pavilion is nearly 60 years old and is no longer fit for purpose, which is why the club has launched the ‘Crockey Project’.

Planning permission for the pavilion with the extra car parking spaces was approved in April last year and the rest of 2017 was spent satisfying the various planning conditions.

This year has already seen the first stage of the long awaited project completed with the creation of 39 additional parking spaces built between the rear of the pavilion at the Astroturf pitch on Harecroft Road,

The club is now ready to apply for local funding, lottery and other grants and applications are being drawn-up ready for submission.

The new pavilion will have additional changing rooms to cope with the four men’s cricket and hockey sides, plus three ladies’ hockey teams and a growing junior section in both sports.

The function room and the lounge bar area will also be larger, enabling the facility to be used for a wider variety of events.

In the last six years whilst working on the lease and the planning aspects, the club members have slowly been chipping away at raising the mammoth sum of £600,000 needed to complete the project.

Wisbech Hockey and Cricket Clubs have launched a mammoth �600,000 project and are to hold a series of fundraising events over the coming months.

At the annual club Draw in December, the new total was revealed to the membership of £197,215.97 - which gave a phenomenal boost to everyone.

Kim Speed, Crockey Project committee member said: “We will continue through 2018 working very hard to raise even more funds as we strive to achieve our dream. A calendar of events is underway for the next 18 months, hoping to include a “Crockey Dive”, the much enjoyed Colour Run, a “Celebrity” Cricket match and much more. This will be published on our website as soon as it is complete: www.wtchc.co.uk.”

She added: “The new pavilion will enhance the facilities available to the local community. We want to be able to offer cricket and hockey to everyone in Wisbech and the surrounding area. Plans are already afoot to run a women’s cricket team and we have several of the pupils from Peckover, Marshland High School, Wisbech Grammar School, playing regularly.

“The club is committed to help introduce hockey to Thomas Clarkson as it is not currently part of the curriculum. We will be hosting anothercounty championship three day cricket match in June, Cambs v Cumberland. The only three day fixture of the MCC remains steadfast at the opening of the season

“Our “Crockey” mascot will be seen supporting the Crockey Project at all our fund raising events.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the club and it is something the members are very proud to be associated with. If you would like to support the Crockey Project please visit wtchc.co.uk or contact Jane Peggs through the website.”

Wisbech