Penrith Cricket Club officials have unveiled a very detailed 5 year plan to transform Penrith Cricket Club including ambitious plans to transform Tynefield Park, the home of cricket in Penrith for more than a century, over the next five years at a cost of up to £750,000.
At the heart of the proposals is a desire by the club to make Penrith Cricket Club the best and most inclusive place to play the game in Cumbria in terms of its facilities and ground. There is a strong emphasis on encouraging and developing women’s and girls’ cricket, and cricket for the disabled.
Huge improvement are also planned to be made to the club’s amenities, with new changing rooms and an extension to the main pavilion, for which planning permission has already been secured. It is hoped that the update will help attract new players and generate additional income to boost club finances.
The club says that its expansion plans focus on membership and there are targets to increase numbers across all categories. “For too long we have been a club which mainly caters for men and boys, and for able bodied people. We want to build on the increasing demand from women and girls to play cricket, and to engage and include people with disabilities,” it says. “In this ambition we are supported by a number of stakeholders — from local authorities seeking to encourage healthy activity to the England and Wales Cricket Board who wish to extend the reach and popularity of the game.
“By the end of the five-year period we want to nearly treble our number of members. We will have a programme of activities for people with disabilities, often designed with local schools and other local organisations. We will have more teams, and particularly girls’ and women’s teams, and more coaching sessions every week.”
The clubs intention is to fund the capital required for the improvements through grants and seeking the support of the local business community. A specialist funding organisation based in London has been engaged to write more than 20 funding applications in support of the five-year plan.
Potentially most costly of the proposals is the creation of a new players’ pavilion to replace a portable building that has no showers or toilets. The two existing main changing rooms were built in the 1960s and are in urgent need of modernisation. Permission has been granted for the construction of new changing rooms to accommodate four teams. The two-storey building would be located close to the existing pavilion at an angle that would afford views over both pitches on which cricket is played. It would be fully wheelchair accessible.
The function room in the present pavilion would be extended to increase its capacity and a community meeting room created that could be offered for hire, both helping to maximise revenue.
On the field, it is hoped to increase the number of club teams from the present nine (three men’s and six boys’) to 19 by 2026 in the shape of five men’s sides, one women’s, three girls’ and 11 boys’.
The club is seeking to appoint a cricket development manager, whose main role will be increase participation in all forms of cricket as well as acting as first team player coach. Targets for men’s cricket include winning the Northern Premier League by 2027 and the recruitment of at least 10 new senior playing members by 2026.
A former Penrith player, Rob Humphreys, has agreed to be the club lead on women’s and girls’ cricket. He is a level 2 England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) coach and a PE teacher who has returned to the area after teaching in the Midlands.
Other objectives of the club include:
Increasing the number of women members to 24 by 2026; recruiting women’s coaches and team managers; and hosting women and girls’ cricket festivals in August.
Increasing the number of girls to at least 50 by 2026; recruiting a girls’ cricket co-ordinator, coaches and team managers; and having dedicated coaching sessions.
Recruiting at least 80 more boys to the club by 2026; and encouraging greater involvement of parents in the running of the teams and coaching.
Dave Annette, a qualified ECB coach and a learning support teaching assistant at a Carlisle school, has agreed to be the club lead for disability cricket. Two taster disability cricket sessions are to be staged on 10th and 31st August.
The club has said through the plans it’s aim is to create a culture of welcoming people with disabilities to the club and to make Penrith the club in Cumbria offering the most opportunities for disability cricket by 2028.
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