Club's £85k ground upgrade almost complete

Earlier this year the club secured 84,384 of grant funding from Sport Northern Ireland to improve its playing facilities at The Cloughan, Ballyclare.

Sportsground construction experts, Clive Richardson Ltd, were brought in at the end of February to lay eight new, high quality grass wickets, a new artificial wicket and improve drainage across the outfield. The new pitch, which can't be played on until next year, has been laid to the highest English and Welsh Cricket Board (ECB) standards.

The club's Cricket Development Officer, Andy McCrea, revealed this week that work on the ambitious scheme is almost finished.

"The project is 99 per cent complete. There's just a small amount of drainage work and some top dressing and levelling to do in the autumn, but the bulk of the work is done," he explained.

"This project represents a massive investment for our club, but we hope it will be a worthwhile one that will serve us well in years to come.

"This year has been tough for us, having to play our games away from home for the first couple of months of the season, but these ground improvements will be a major benefit to us in the years ahead.

"We are indebted to Sport NI and the Old Ballyclarians Association for helping us make this vision a reality. We are also very grateful to Ballyclare High School, who have let us use their new pitch at Rashee Road for the remainder of the season. We'll be back playing at the Cloughan next season, and we hope that our performances can complement the fantastic new facilities that we have put in place," Andy added.

The official opening of the new pitch is expected to take place at the start of the 2011 season.

Templepatrick's ambitious ground improvement scheme came just months after the completion of work on a 45,000 state-of-the-art astroturf practice area at its Cloughan headquarters. That project, which has given the local club one of the best practice facilities anywhere in Ireland, was funded by Biffaward, The Foundation for Sport and the Arts, Newtownabbey Borough Council and The Lords Taverners.

For more information about Templepatrick Cricket Club log on to www.templepatrickcc.co.uk