Keswick Cricket Club goes into the 2023 season knowing that where its Fitz Park ground and related facilities are concerned, they are the best in Cumbria.
This was acknowledged through an award, The CCL Premier Division Ground of the Year, made to KCC by the league in which it plays at the highest level, namely the premier division of Cumbria Cricket League (CCL), writes Keith Richardson.
This was the first time that the award has been made by the league and followed a series of inspections and, also, weekly reports made by umpires appointed for games during 2022 as to the standard of the on-field wickets and outfield.
Keswick was also considered to provide the best wickets for matches, a fact also recognised through the club and its Fitz Park ground being awarded top-level county matches under the auspices of the National Counties Cricket Association.
For the third summer running Keswick has been awarded a national counties one-day knockout trophy fixture, Cumbria v Lincolnshire to be played at Fitz Park this coming summer on Sunday, June 25.
The county has expressed an interest in staging a three-day game at Keswick, but the club currently takes the view that one-day matches are more within its remit, given the amount of organisation and back up that is required for the longer format. The club is run by volunteers.
But those volunteers have certainly made an impact because the club also won the separate Cumbria Cricket Award for the team (Keith Richardson, John Bryson, Chris Barker and Stan Atkinson) working on the Fitz Park ground.
The latest CCL award has a wider criterion and involves the entire club facilities from the pavilion, outdoor gazebos, seating, bar and barbecue, the provision of live commentary and the fact that KCC films 1st XI home games live for an internet audience.
The club also publishes an annual KCC magazine which, apart from recording yearly events at the club, also produces a contribution, along with other efforts, to the significant funding needed to run the operation.
The CCL award is also a nod to the fact that the league is destined to become an official ECB Premier league from the 2024 season onwards in the context of the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) operation throughout the UK.
As secretary/treasurer of Keswick CC, David Simpson is also vice chairman of the CCL, and he is delighted that Keswick is the first to win this new CCL award at the same time it lifted the Cumbria Cricket Board award.
“It says something very positive about Keswick CC that we are up there with the best,” he says. “And I am doubly delighted that we are setting a standard in the league at this important time in its development as it looks to establish itself as an official premier league nationally.
“A lot of hard work by a lot of people working across different areas at the club has gone into achieving the awards we have received, and I hope we can build on this, both on and off the field.”
KCC still takes great pride in the fact that it won a national competition, run by Wisden Cricket magazine, recognising the club as being the “Loveliest in the UK.” Keswick had to beat strong opposition to win that particular and timeless title.
But then the view over the Fitz Park ground towards the pavilion and with the purple, heather-clad slopes of Skiddaw towering above and beyond the trees, takes some beating.
