Cricket returns to Buxted Park CC - and the heavens opened to mark the occasion

One-to-one coaching and training has been given the green light under the ECB guidelines and the club have hired out the newly laid artificial nets plus a prepared grass pitch on the square.

Highly respected coaches Rob Ferley (Kent and Nottinghamshire) and Aaron Watson (Norfolk and Cambridge UCCE) are offering sixweek private one-to-one cricket coaching in the build-up to the much anticipated start of the season at the Sussex League division four east outfit.

The initiative was set up by club chairman Rob Hunter in a positive move to bring much-needed revenue for the club during these testing times for recreational sport.

Buxted Park club players are block booking hour-long sessions of one-to-one training hoping to push for promotion in all three teams should the league start.

Meanwhile a small grounds team led by head groundsman Mark Sheffield, supported by Alan Todd and Rob Hunter, have been maintaining the ground to a level that would only need two weeks’ notice to be match ready.

With the fifth wettest winter on record followed by the sunniest May on record with only 9.6 mm average rainfall pre-season rolling and reducing the height of cut gradually was a challenge.

With three senior Saturday Sussex League teams, midweek and Sunday teams plus a junior section of 120-plus players are patiently waiting for the ECB and Sussex League’s decision on the resumption of safe recreational cricket.

A spokesman said: “It was almost like a match day with a grass strip being prepared and photographer Ron Hill arriving. We just need 22 players, two umpires and one scorer. Then the heavens opened... the cricket season must be close!”