Dunant: New clubhouse will take Kineton Cricket Club to the next level
CHAIRMAN Haydn Dunant says exciting plans to build a new pavilion will take Kineton Cricket Club to the next level.
The Cotswold Hills League side have been granted permission to build a new drop-in pavilion on the boundary line on the opposite side of the entrance road.
However, Stratford District Council planners have told the club they must undertake an archeological survey because the proposed site of the new pavilion was close to where a Parliamentarian baggage train was attacked in the Battle of Edgehill.
Kineton CC initially had planning permission to add an extension to the existing pavilion, but the cheapest quote the club could find was around the £175,000 mark.
The club then reviewed their options and found that building a drop-in pavilion on the boundary line would be the best way to go forward.
The recently-approved project to build a pavilion on the boundary line is expected to cost between £90,000 and £95,000, but the club has been working hard over the last couple years to raise the necessary funds required to start the work.
Despite the impact of Covid-19, Kineton CC has almost £80,000 in the bank and chairman Dunant is hoping that once the foundations of the pavilion are put in place, people will donate the remaining money needed to get the project completed before the start of the 2022 season.
“The current pavilion was built at a time when people didn’t carry around cricket bags the size of a three-storey house,” he said.
“The rooms are ridiculously small. They can only hold about six people each and they have just a single shower and a single toilet.
“We’ve got a really strong junior section, a women’s softball team and the men’s senior sides, and the facilities we have don’t support the cohort of people we have here.
“We’ve had support from the parish council who have committed to giving us £10,000 through community infrastructure levies while Warwickshire ECB has committed to giving us £10,000 in July and a further £10,000 in February.
"We’ve also had some outstanding contributions from the community so we have in the region of £75,000 to £78,000 raised so far for this project.
“We are really close now and the plan is to start the project this year.
"I’m hoping that once the foundations are down, people will help us get over the line with the funds we need.
"The club has invested hard over the past few years to improve the facilities and we are working hard to make Kineton a nicer place to play cricket.
"We are a club on the up and really going places, and I believe having this new pavilion will elevate us even further.”
Anyone who would like to donate to the cricket club should get in touch with Dunant by emailing dunanth@aol.com.
