England Cricket Captain Lends Hand At Local Cricket Club

Andrew Strauss helps them restore Riverside Drive ground

Last weekend (27-29 March), local volunteers received a helping hand from former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss to whip the home ground of Turnham Green and Polytechnic CC (TCPCC) into shape for the new season.

As part of the Cricketforce programme, club and community volunteers were joined by staff of the local Natwest branch and Middlesex Cricket employees and players in improving the club's home on Riverside Drive, the Fullers Sports Ground.

(The clubhouse at Fullers Sports Ground received a face-lift)

Work included building a new patio awning and picket fence, providing top-soiling for the outfield, smartening up the nets, painting inside the clubhouse, and planting and lanscaping the ground's borders.

Strauss, winner of the Ashes three times and twice as captain, came down on Friday lunchtime, joining in the decorating and taking part in a Q&A session. Speaking at the ground, he said: "Ensuring that clubs are in shape for the start of a new season is massively important. But more important still is [the way that events like this encourage] people coming together, getting stuck in and creating that special club atmosphere."

Turnham Green had been chosen as the Middlesex Showcase club for Natwest Cricketforce 2015. The club was one of over two thousand across the country where improvements were carried out on the weekend (27-29 March) as part of Cricketforce. Few of these could boast the help of a former England Test Captain, however.

Club Chairman Bernard Hughes said: "It was great to have Andrew Strauss there on Friday, and to see so many people working on the ground was fantastic, from skilled professionals to enthusiastic amateurs wielding a paintbrush. We hope this is the start of a new era for the club and for cricket in Chiswick."

(Local volunteers and staff from the W4 branch of Natwest helped out)

Work will continue over the coming weeks ahead of the season, and the clubhouse will open as a public bar in the next couple of weeks, with cricketers and non-cricketers alike welcome.

The cricket season kicks off in a fortnight, and the Turnham Green club is looking for new junior and senior players of all ages and abilities to enjoy the new facilities. For junior enquiries, please contact Justin Pieris (jpieris@gmail.com) and for senior enquiries, get in touch with Tom Mason (trg_mason@yahoo.co.uk).

(Middlesex players helped volunteers re-plant the borders of the ground)

April 3, 2015