Cricket club given boost with £50,000 grant (From Bucks Free Press)

Chesham Cricket Club given boost with £50,000 Olympic Legacy grant

10:00am Friday 10th February 2012 in News By Andy Carswell

A CRICKET club is set to rise from the ashes after being awarded £50,000 to replace a clubhouse destroyed by arsonists.

Chesham Cricket Club's pavilion - which was opened by England legend Fred Trueman in 1963 - was burned down in an arson attack last April, just weeks before the start of the new season.

But they've been given a helping hand in their rebuilding job thanks to funding from Sport England’s Inspired Facilities Fund.

Chairman Jonathan Royals said: "We are thrilled to secure this grant, which will enable us to make a start on this exciting project.

"We see ourselves very much as part of the wider community and this grant will allow us to develop our facilities and other community activities within a welcoming and safe environment.

"In these austere times, we’re still striving hard to raise the money that will allow us to rebuild what was taken from us in an act of mindless vandalism. I would like to think that one day, perhaps, inspired by the project we are about to embark upon, a young cricketer from Chesham might walk out at Lord’s to represent England."

Nobody was ever caught in relation to the arson attack, with police continuing to investigate.

The Inspired Facilities fund, which gave the club £50,000, is part of the £135 million Places People Play legacy programme set up as an Olympic Games legacy programme.

Every sports facility that receives funding, including Chesham's new clubhouse, will carry the London 2012 Inspire mark to celebrate the link to the Games.

Sport England’s Chairman Richard Lewis said the investment would create "a fantastic sporting legacy for Chesham".

For more information on the Inspired Facilities fund - which still has £10m of grants up for grabs - go to www.sportengland.org/inspiredfacilities.