Cricket club’s life saver
With no matches played, the club has been unable to raise its usual funds through match sponsorship and subs, but with pitch maintenance, rent and insurance all needing paying, the club was fast approaching a cliff edge.
But their immediate financial woes have been eased with a grant from the emergency fund set up by Sport Wales to help clubs impacted by the virus.
Captain, Dave Lewis, said: “With no cricket, our running costs are lower, however with the council has not been cutting the playing fields regularly during the pandemic so we had to take this on otherwise we would have been left with a meadow to sort out.
“So, we have done square maintenance as well as outfield cutting once a week, which comes at a cost with our machinery also requiring servicing work.
“In a nutshell, we would have run out of money this month. Not ideal with annual insurance and pitch rental (which we have to pay annually also) due in June. We sold some assets to raise money and several sponsors agreed to still pay their ball fees, which we are hugely indebted too, but we would have been left with asking players for support, again not ideal with everyone watching their pennies at the moment.”
The club applied to the Sport Wales' Emergency Fund and received the positive response last week.
“The emergency fund has been a life saver. Even with no cricket, it will see us through to the end of this summer and most of the winter. It means we can continue looking after the venue so that next season, hopefully, we are ready to go again from weekend one!”
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