Bearsted CC

For those of you that are not aware Bearsted Cricket Club is under threat of potential closure. The club has a fine history dating back to 1749 (and I don’t mean 11 minutes to six!) and does nothing more harmful than play cricket and invite anyone who wishes to come along to watch and even play. We have approximately seventy young players including an ‘under Nine’ team that I’m sure will forgive when I say that they couldn’t hit a house yet if they tried!

The club has played in harmony with the rest of the community as grateful participants and viewers over the years until the biggest house on the Green was bought by the CHIAPINNI family about five years ago for over a million pounds. It is a place where most of us would dream to live. They soon began to instruct solicitors to write to the club voicing their concerns over balls entering their property and potentially causing injury. This was despite the fact that no damage had ever been caused to their property and no injury has been caused to anyone. The club has adequate insurance to pay out for any damage caused. Let’s get one thing straight from the start, damage very rarely occurs and when it does, it is minimal and is sorted at no cost to the householder. Let’s get another thing straight, we do not want to hurt anyone or damage anything. There is however a risk as with most things in life. You are still I respectfully suggest more at risk from a car driving through the village than you are a cricket ball.

There was an exchange of letters between solicitors and I think it is fair to say that the club at that stage felt intimidated and purchased some netting to erect on the Green near to the CHIAPPNI’s house. It cost the club several thousands of pounds to reach this ‘gentleman’s agreement’, and for the next three years this netting had to be erected and then removed every game. This obviously did not take into account the numerous other properties that surround the playing area. The netting was ineffective and balls continued to enter their property over the netting. Frankly it was a farce from the outset, but we continued because of our fear of being closed down. We have never had a ball returned by the family concerned either.

I became Captain this year and with this position came a place on the cricket club committee. I caused a review of the netting to take place and as a club we decided it was pointless in its present format. The situation is still being reviewed and a company has been instructed to see if we can achieve worthwhile netting. It remains my view that the only way any netting will be effective on the Green is if it is placed on the householder’s property but they have flatly refused to entertain this. There is the added complication that if the club were ordered to put up netting to protect all houses surrounding the Green, then frankly it would end cricket overnight. The time taken to put up and remove this netting would make it totally impracticable to have the time to play the game itself. The area is beautiful and quite rightly permanent netting is not permitted by the Parish Council; after all who wants to live in a cage?! This would also spoilt the view of those householder’s who do not object to cricket, which remains in my opinion the majority.

As a result of removing the netting there was a very unseemly incident this August involving one of the householder’s who ran on the pitch in the middle of our annual charity match swearing and abusing cricketers and then refusing to leave the pitch. It necessitated in the person being arrested and since that day the campaign by a few has gathered pace to effectively ‘put the cricket club in their place’. Despite an initial claim to fight this, the fine was paid for a Public Order Offence.

A smear campaign that has tried to label the village as living in fear of being hit by a cricket balls has been instigated and the Parish Council appear to have frankly ‘fallen for it’. One of the few protesting has claimed that two balls per game end up in their garden. I have never seen one go in that particular garden in fourteen years! It is just a lie! One of the other campaigners has also to my knowledge never even had a ball enter their property let alone cause damage or injury.

It is as a result of a request from a Councillor to stop playing cricket every third weekend this summer that I have created a Facebook Group called “Save Bearsted Cricket Club”. I know the name is not too flash! I have done this because I have now lost all faith in a ‘fair process’ as things stand. I also think that it will take this to make the Parish Council realise just how much support the cricket club has. I have been staggered by the support the group is receiving. Over eight hundred people have signed up in less than four days!

You can find this Group via this link

http://www.facebook.com/groups/211391872268331/

Thank you for your time.

Andrew Dampier (1st XI Captain).