A cricket club more than 100 years old could be forced to fold following complaints from a neighbour about flying cricket balls.
Colehill Cricket Club in Dorset were told in December by the ground’s owners that they will not be holding adult cricket matches in 2023 due to pressure from a small group of neighbours who have recently moved into the area.
Colehill Cricket Club was formed in the 1920s when the village ground was gifted to the club by a local landowner. In the 1970s a sports and social club was formed to run the facility due to other sports being played on the land as well as cricket.
In 2014 a neighbour moved to one of the houses bordering the ground and in 2018 began raising issues about balls hitting her fence and landing in the garden.
Plans to erect netting costing around £15,000 were abandoned on cost grounds with tree protection orders complicating the process. Last year the social club instigated a rule that a six could only be hit on one side of the ground but league authorities objected and Colehill were forced to find a new home a week before the start of the season, on the understanding that netting would be installed.
Now they have been told by the club’s committee that adult cricket will be banned instead. A petition to save the club was launched on Friday and has already attracted 10,000 signatures.
“The committee were just unable to manage the situation and buckled under pressure. They have not been able to find a middle ground for everyone and instead taken the easy option of banning adult cricket despite 100 years of history,” said George Taylor, captain of Colehill Cricket Club, who play midweek cricket in the Wimborne Evening League.
“There is no risk. We have not had one serious incident in the time I have been playing at the club, which is ten years as captain and 13-14 years as a player. Once a garage window was smashed but the neighbour was supportive of cricket and fetched from the ball from her garage and gave it back to us. We got it repaired and there were no issues.
“We are a social team. It is not a good standard. It is village cricket. We will try to keep the team going but how long it will last? The closest adult ground is three miles down the road, outside the village, so we will lose the village ties. There are so many downsides to moving away and we will die a death quickly without that base.
“The petition has given us fire in the belly. We were happy when we had 50 signatures, then 100 and the fact it has gone to 10,000 is very surprising but it resonates among people because this ‘not in my backyard’ mentality is so detrimental to the community. During Covid pandemic we had four players who moved to Colehill from London and all have sent supportive messages and said how much it had improved their lifestyle. A select few people shouldn’t be able to throw their weight around and stop us playing.”
Chris Dunk, treasurer of Colehill Sports and Social club: said: “I was part of the committee that has made the decision and have played cricket at Colehill myself for 40 years. There is more to the decision than has been reported so far and we will be releasing a statement.”
Village cricket has been in decline for years, although exact numbers of people playing the game have not been released since 2014. Cost, the length of matches and societal changes are blamed for the decline.
With more employees working from home since the pandemic and moving from cities to villages, the demographic is changing again and clubs like Colehill can help new arrivals settle in their new home.
“It helped me make friends and integrate much quicker than I would. It’s a very friendly and local club, I came here not knowing anyone, though my wife grew up here,” said Duncan Slater, who moved to the village in 2020. “I met up with people immediately and bump into people outside the cricket, there’s always social events going on in the local town.”
“It’s the most picturesque ground; you look down from the hill over the minster. Lovely to play in the evenings. We are all concerned it will go the way of other sports facilities and end up with housing on it.”
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