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Hampshire's £7m award opens door

By Charles Randall

August 12 1996


HAMPSHIRE have been awarded a £7.1 million grant from the National Lottery that should herald a surge of funds into county cricket over the next three years.

Hampshire are to press ahead with the move from their Northlands Road headquarters, in Southampton, to the edge of the city after yesterday's announcement.

Their success, after an arduous couple of years trying to satisfy the Sports Council's conditions, should encourage other counties, notably Nottinghamshire, who are to increase their application figure to £3.75 million for their Radcliffe Road development at Trent Bridge.

After the embarrassing ``deferral'' of all the Test and County Cricket Board member applications last winter, the Sports Council have softened their stance against the professional sector, though the accent will remain on participation rather than spectator accommodation.

Derek Casey, the Sports Council's chief executive, said: ``At non-Test match grounds we are likely to see substantial investment over the next few years.

``We need now to turn our attention with the TCCB to Test match grounds to ensure that they are ready for the World Cup in 1999 and, through them, to help the TCCB and the keenly anticipated English Cricket Board to develop grass-roots cricket.''

The Hampshire award is one of the largest made for any project. The scheme, costing £16 million, includes a 10,000-seat capacity stadium on land near the M27 at West End, though first-class cricket is unlikely to arrive there until 2001.

The biggest award to date was last month's £7.9 million towards a multi-sport complex for Central Lancashire University at Preston.

The average award in the 200 grants for recreational cricket made in the lottery's first 15 months was only £52,000.

Casey implied that the spectator accommodation schemes at Lord's and the Oval might now qualify on heritage grounds, a view effectively laughed out of court last winter.

Hampshire expect four more seasons at their present site, which will be sold, before their transfer to land previously owned by Queen's College, Oxford.

Tony Baker, Hampshire's chief executive, said: ``We must raise £9 million to match the lottery grant and we anticipate raising around £3.5 million from the sale of the County Ground to help us on our way.''

The scheme includes a self-contained nursery ground for second-team games, a cricket academy, gymnasium, nine-hole golf course, indoor and outdoor bowls facilities, an all-weather sports pitch and parking for 3,000 cars.

Brian Ford, Hampshire's chairman, said: ``The cricket academy will enable us to participate fully in the national development plan to establish regional centres of excellence all over the country.

``The provision of facilities for other sports will enable them to be used by the local community.''


Source: The Electronic Telegraph
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Date-stamped : 25 Feb1998 - 15:04