One of Nottinghamshire’s oldest cricket clubs has launched a crowdfunding campaign after its pitch roller ran out of steam - halfway though the season.
The 30-year-old motorised roller at Southwell Cricket Club - which is needed to roll the pitch before every game - has broken down two months before the end of the Summer.
And the club has had to hire a roller to complete the dozens of fixtures its nine teams still have to play by the end of August.
But Southwell - which played its first game in 1787 - will need a new machine in place as soon as the season is over.
“We have to find £5,000 by the end of August,” said Club President Stuart Grimley, who has been with the club longer than the old roller.
“We have more than 200 players here - boys, girls and seniors - and they all rely on the grass wicket being playable. That means we need a new roller."
Mechanical rollers - most more than three feet wide and weighing up to a tonne - are essential for maintaining a functioning cricket pitch. Stuart says that without one, the club faces an uncertain future.
He added: "I vaguely remember the old one arriving more than three decades ago. It cost us what was a small fortune at the time.
"And although it's struggled to keep going in recent years - we've been calling it Rusty for God-knows-how-long - it has helped us to put the club at the heart of the local community.
"We now have hundreds of people - mainly youngsters, parents, grandparents - down here on a Friday night. The cricket club helps bind this town together."
Southwell has senior teams in the South Nottinghamshire Cricket League and the Newark Cricket Club Alliance and youth teams in the Mansfield and District Youth League.
It also has two Kwik Cricket sides and its pitch is used by Notts County Over-50s and Nottingham Trent University. NTU's Brackenhurst Campus is just beyond the boundary.
The Southwell Cricket Club crowdfunding page, for the roller, is here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/essential-ground-equipment
