CRICKET


I’m a solicitor by


profession and remain a solicitor. I had been in a


”


law firm for twenty years and was just looking for something different to do


were seeking to provide an indoor sports hall but had insufficient space on their adjacent site.


The discussions, negotiations and fundraising culminated in the creation of the superb new indoor sports centre and community pavilion which was built in 2013 at a cost of £2.25 million. The old pavilion was taken down in 2014. In it were memorial boards containing the names of Greene King employees who died in both World Wars and these have now been returned to the company to be displayed in their museum. The ground is now owned by The Victory Sports Community Interest Company (CIC) who purchased the ground from St Edmundsbury Borough Council on January 1st, 2013.


In its current format, the ground has two


cricket squares (twenty-nine strips) in the summer, nine football pitches used by Sporting 87 FC - who have 750 members from four years old up to seventy - and a croquet lawn that is looked after by the club. Having three stakeholders funding the


I don’t think you can


really teach this job. You have to suck it up like osmosis, the more you do it, the more bits you pick up


”


Baz is ten and a half years old - or seventy in human years - making him the youngest volunteer!


84 PC August/September 2020


ground has been pivotal in the development of the site and will be a crucial part of the future with all parties needed to ensure it thrives.


Maintenance of the fifteen acres is undertaken by Mark Flack and his enthusiastic group of volunteers - Bob Flack (his father), John Hargreaves, Keith Bishop, Roger Howlett and Chris Winning - who have an average age of seventy-two. Mark makes it clear that without the help of these men - whom he refers to as his dad’s army - the site wouldn’t be in the superb condition it is now, and that, without the guidance of Bob and John, he wouldn’t have the skills or knowledge he now has. Mark explains: “I’m a solicitor by profession and remain a solicitor. I had been in a law firm for twenty years and was just looking for something different to do. I think life is about making changes, doing different things and learning new skills, so I was looking to do something else, the groundsman here left and so the planets sort of aligned.”


“Dad was working here with John, whose dad was a great professional cricketer and the original groundsman, who everybody looks up to here at The Victory Ground. Dad and John were running the ground between them on a voluntary basis, and they said why don’t you come up and see what you think to it, and I've been here ever since.” “It was lovely to spend time outside, notwithstanding some of the awful weather that we got. It was a completely different skill set to pick up, which was great. It was a real learning curve - and I’m still learning, even though I’ve been doing it for ten years. I was very lucky in that I was working alongside people who had so much experience. I don’t think you can really teach this job. You have to suck it up like osmosis, the more you do it, the more bits you pick up.”


“Nobody can really sit you down and say ‘right, this is what you do today, and this is what you do tomorrow’. So I think I was very fortunate to be able to do that. Although you could say the level of volunteer assistance


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