Barnawartha-Chiltern Cricket Club awarded a $150,000 grant to replace nets and wickets

In a huge boost for the Miners, funding from Cricket Victoria, Cricket Albury-Wodonga and the Indigo Shire will pay for new pitches at Barnawartha as well as new nets at both grounds.

Trip hazards at Chiltern had threatened to leave the club without a training base and weeds coming through the turf wicket at Barnawartha had left CAW bosses concerned for the season ahead.

So the grant represents a lifeline with pre-season already under way.

"We're proud of the facilities we've got now," vice-president Mat Winchester said.

"We've got two great club rooms which we share with the football club and now we've got training facilities which, we hope, can attract not only interstate players but local players too.

"If you saw our training facilities at the moment, you'd be worried about injury.

"It's not good for the development of young players if they're playing on a dangerous wicket but this now gives potential for the club to grow and be on par with the Provincial sides like Lavington and Wodonga Bulldogs and their training facilities."

Work on the nets is due to start in July and the centre square at Barnawartha will be ripped out as soon as the football season is over.

It's been a turbulent 12 months for the Miners, who were forced to consider a merger, or even folding, last year.

"We didn't have enough players or enough sponsorship to run the club" Winchester recalled. "But everyone was adamant we weren't going to fold because we'd probably never come back from that.

"Both towns got right behind it and we ended up fielding three teams: A, B and C-grade. All three teams made finals, the first time in club history that's ever happened.

"We've pretty much signed up everybody from last year and we're looking at putting a fourth team in this year. At this point, we're sitting around 45 players signed up to play this year.

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"Players that only had a part-time commitment last year are coming back full-time.

"Mark Doolan played C-grade this year because of work commitments but he'll be playing A-grade this year and we're trying to get blokes from the football clubs back into it.

"Instead of competing with football training, we train on Wednesday night now. We don't want to compete with football because that's when we lose players.

"We're working with both clubs to make sure we don't step on each other's toes."

Anyone keen to play for Barnawartha-Chiltern in 2021-22 should contact vice-president Mat Winchester on 0427 931 285.

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