‘Transformational’ drainage project at Bomere Heath
A ‘transformational’ project has started to improve the drainage and outfield at a Shropshire cricket club.
The work at Bomere Heath CC is the culmination of five years of planning to sort out the issues which have seen numerous games at the ground postponed in recent seasons.
The club, Cricket Shropshire, the ECB, Sport England and the Football Foundation have all been involved in the project which will see new drainage installed and the outfield reinstated in time for the start of next season.
Club Chair Adam Vanner said: “I think the problems here with the outfield have been well documented.
“It has been extremely difficult especially in the Spring months coming off a wet winter for us to get onto to the outfield to prepare it for the season.
“We’ve had to postpone fixtures, especially a couple of years ago when we missed the first three fixtures of the season due to the outfield being completely unplayable.
“We’ve been unable to get the heavy machinery on the outfield until the late Spring.
“Often during the season we have numerous issues – obviously this Summer we have been lucky – but it only takes a few hours of heavy rainfall and the ground will be unplayable for a couple of days.
“It means we have to cancel junior sessions, training sessions, weekend and midweek fixtures when other teams around the county are absolutely fine.
“The problems have become more and more acute in recent years and the start of the season is always a big problem for us.”
The club runs three weekend teams, a mid-week team, has a thriving ladies’ section the Bomere Bullets playing softball cricket and more than 120 juniors including All Stars and Dynamos from all around the local area.
“We have very kindly received a grant through the Football Foundation thanks to wonderful work from the ECB and Cricket Shropshire providing incredible assistance to our club.”
Adam added: “The work that is going to take place will be transformational. The whole outfield will be dug up and state-of-the-art drainage put in.
“It will enable us to commit to a large number of fixtures and ensure we can host cricket seven days a week without the whim of the weather.
“It will be a state-of-the-art facility which will attract players and ensure we have a club people want to be a part of for now and years to come.”
He said huge thanks were due to former club Chair Andy McIlroy, Steve Reese from Cricket Shropshire, Ged McDougal at the ECB and goundsmen Paul Bolland and Ian Humphreys.
The club has also received help from Bomere Heath Parish Council and club members have been busy raising funds in recent years which will all go towards the project.
“It’s not area I have a lot of expertise in, so I’ve had to lean on a lot of support to ensure we can transform the club. We are a village club but we have aspirations to make this one of the leading clubs in the county.
“This is a long-term project. Work first started back in 2021 when Andy McIlroy had a meeting with Steve Reese and County Pitch Advisors Adrian Shelly and Alan Lewis who dug a hole and found that our drainage was in serious need of some renovation work.”
“For the rest of this season, our ground will be unplayable.
“We are very lucky that a number of clubs around the county have allowed us to use their pitches including Calverhall, Church Stretton, Harcourt and Wem and we’ve had to reverse a few fixtures.
“A huge thank you to all those clubs and hopefully from next Spring we will be good to go at this ground again.”
Groundsman Paul Bolland said: “We’ve had big issues with drainage and getting on to the outfield pre-season, especially with the wet winters we’ve had. It’s really pushed back our preparation time.
“This will of big benefit to the club. It will improve our access to the ground and the earlier we can get on each year the better with it being used seven days a week.”
Ian Humpreys has been a member of the club for 55 years – 50 years playing and now an umpire for Bomere as well as helping out with the ground.
He remembers the club moving to the current ground in the late 1990s after the previous ground was sold for housing.
He said: “In recent years it has upset the whole club that we can’t really get going in the first few weeks of the season due to the outfield.
“The old clay drains put in when the ground was built have been getting blocked with water and debris running off the road. It’s just got worse and worse and worse.
“We couldn’t even get to the nets at one point it was so wet. It affects the club’s hopes of getting promoted due to missing the first few weeks of the season.”
Jill Knowles – the vice-captain of the Bomere Bullets Ladies team – has seen first-hand the problems caused by the drainage issues.
“We started playing 2023/24 and it was a very difficult winter. When we came to practice, we couldn’t get on the outfield and I even had to wear my wellies to get to the nets from the car park because the mud was that deep.
“That’s not something you expect to have to do. There were about 15-20 of us so that made it very difficult to practice in such a small area.”
“We are really excited about the drainage project and being able to practice on the outfield early in the season.”
