COPLEY are set to boast one of the finest pavilions in the Towergate Halifax Cricket League when they unveil their sparkling new £½m facility on Sunday.
Built inside 12 months, with the help of funding from Sport England, The SITA Environmental Trust, Lottery for All and Calderdale Council, Copley are staging their official opening at 2pm when the Mayor of Calderdale, John Hardy, will perform the honours.
The Yorkshire Cricket Board and the ECB identified Copley for support because of the strength of their junior section, which includes a girls’ section, and it is fitting the club are hosting the finals of the Heavy Woollen Girls’ League on Sunday.
Club chairman Richard Hoyle said: “The new balconied pavilion has transformed the quality of our facilities and throughout the development it has been a real team effort.
“We were thrilled when ECB and Sport England made their grant award (£387,395) because this made the whole project possible.”
The club were nominated as an ECB National Showcase club by the Natwest Cricketforce programme earlier in the year, and the ECB Funding and Facilities manager Bruce Cruse (who plays in the Drakes Huddersfield League with Delph & Dobcross) said: “We are pleased to invest in this project because the club has worked hard to support ECB development policies at junior level, in particular the general promotion of girls cricket.
“Having high quality facilities accessible to the community will be key to sustaining participation in grass roots cricket over the coming years.”
The cost of the project was £586,000 and the club also received help from the SITA Environmental Trust who put in £50,000, the Lottery Awards for All (£10,000) and Calderdale Council (£2,100).
“The actual building work began last October, although we began fund-raising for the project about seven years ago,” continued the chairman.
“Back in April we were visited by former England captain Mike Gatting, who made a series of presentations and actually spent part of the day helping lay paving stones. We had a bit of a setback during the summer because of the weather and the ensuing flooding which cost us a month, but we have since managed to get back on track and we are now all set for Sunday.
“In recent years the number of juniors at the club has increased to over 150 and we have developed a girls’ section (South Halifax Girls) and have two new girls’ teams this summer.
“Consequently we urgently needed to build the new pavilion which includes three new changing rooms (one for girls), an umpires room, new toilets, shower facilities, bar and social area, kitchen and a secure machinery store.
“As well as the girls’ finals, we are using the opening on Sunday to say ‘thank you’ and to entertain all our various project sponsors, supporters and helpers.”
