My last article began with quoting various sums of money, which ranged from £200,000 to £250,000. Oh what the clubs could do with that kind of money! It would certainly go a long way to help finance the Development Project, and don’t forget the quoted sums of money relate to a weekly wage, do you think we could make an approach for a donation?  We can all dream!

          More seriously though, as you know through these articles, I have been keeping you up to date with the proposed Development at the club. We have been working hard to gather some budgetary costs to ascertain what the total cost of the Development would be, and based on information we have received to date, the costs work out at somewhere in the region of £350,000. All the clubs will be expected to contribute to these costs, including the Recreation Club, who are proposing to contribute the greater percentage.

          We are investigating various sources the possibility of Grant Funding and are hopeful that some money will be forthcoming, but we will have to be very diligent and put our case extremely well to the grant funding bodies to make sure we are successful.

          As I have already stated, the clubs themselves will also have to raise a large part of the cost, but the rewards will be well worthwhile and give all the participants in the club, whether they be bowlers, cricketers, footballers or just social members, a club with modern facilities and sustainable for many years and there for all the Community to enjoy.

          There are many ways that the clubs can raise their contributions besides special fund raising events, and some of it I am sure, will be volunteer help. Sponsorship could also be another option for instance, at present for every £ raised from commercial sponsorship, we can have it matched £ for £, so should we be able to raise £100,000 from sponsorship that would be matched with another £100,000, oh another mistake I’ve just realised that I put in an extra 0 by mistake oh well I’ll just leave it, you never know!

          In all seriousness, I have said this many times before and I will many times in the future, we are a Community Club. We provide sporting activities for all ages, we have a venue where many people are able to hold that special occasion, we have an active social membership and the club is a focal and meeting point for many people of the town and surrounding area.

          Speaking of fund raising the clubs are intending to hold another gala day this year, the football club are planning another auction evening following its success last year.

          I know I’ve got carried away again, so lets discuss the football! As we all know, the bad weather seriously affected the fixtures and Pickering went 6 weeks without a game. But, including the last game before the bad weather and since the restart, the team have now gone 7 games unbeaten. They have won 6 of them, including notable victories against a strong York City team in the North Riding Senior Cup and also a very good win over Bridlington Town. These games have been a wonderful advert not only for Pickering but also for the league as well, showing the high level of football played.

          As I mentioned previously, Mitch Cook wants to get involved with the juniors and that surely must be good for the club and needs to be encouraged.

          The next time we meet the football season will be over cricket will be well underway. Ah cricket - wouldn’t it be remiss of me not to mention that famous victory in Australia

Lets hope for another successful year sporting and business wise it certainly won’t be for lack of effort on all our parts.

Alan Brenkley.