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Latest: Harrow St Marys CC won the 2006 MCC Spirit of Cricket U-13 National Club Championships, in their 125th year, which was the culmination of reaching finals day for three consecutive years. Fast forward four years and how many of those boys still play for the club? Around half is the answer and therein laid the problem for a club that played in the local park.
HSM were derided as being a park side by rivals. Saints were looked down upon despite their colts section being one of the strongest in Middlesex. Time after time, the colts section would produce talented players only for them to disappear to a bigger club, playing in a higher league with better facilities. Even the current club chairman's son, England U19 and Middlesex spinner Ravi Patel moved elsewhere to further his career. And it was a never ending circle, as the adult teams couldn't improve their league position without retaining their best youngsters, so something had to give. Either the club became a nursery club for bigger clubs or they had to move.
In 2009 the club took the monumental decision to leave the 'The Rec' after more than a century of being home to take up a lease at the Old Millhillians Sports Ground in Hatch End. At last their own ground and not something be to be shared with the usual inhabitants of the local park, both welcomed and un, and the football club that was part of the same sports club.
Much work had to be done to get the set-up at Old Millhillians up to scratch and fit for purpose. It's an impressive site but needs a lot of love and attention spent on it. With the assistance of the Middlesex Cricket Board, HSM were recommended to the ECB to be a showcase club for the NatWest Cricket Force 2010. Having been chosen the club has earmarked a huge project to totally revamp the facilities, which will leave no part of Old Mills untouched. The bar will be ripped out and rebuilt; the changing rooms are having a total refurb; the kitchen will be remodelled; the tea-bars repainted, recarpeted and brought back to life. A new electronic scoreboard will be installed; a new artificial track laid for the much vaunted colts section; new mobile covers are on order; and new net facilities need to be built.
The club has worked hard to make NatWest CricketForce a success. A substantial donation has been made by Akzo Noble, the owners of Dulux, towards the work being done, but the biggest boon has been a five-figure grant aid from The Foundation of Sports and Arts. Sadhna gets us £19655. And no, she has not just been rummaging around in her pocket for a bit of loose change. This is a grant from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts that she has secured for us for covers, the artificial wicket, changing room refurbishment, and an electronic scoreboard! Latest from Dave Leighton from the ECB!
England Women are coming to HSM!!! On the Friday of CricketForce weekend, not only will the Middlesex squad be helping us out, but also the England Cricket team with the likes of Charlotte Edwards (captain of the Ashes winning side and 2009 World Cup), Isa Guha (recently won the Sports Personality of the Year at the British Asian Sports Awards),Beth Morgan (coming back to her home town!), Laura Marsh (who last year hit the two runs needed to secure England their first one-day series win against Australia since 1976). Also we've recieved a £1,000 donation from Akzo Noble, owners of Dulux. Alex Rae from the company presented the cheque at a recent U13's training session at Nower Hill School!
