Concordia

Concordia Winter 2023

Julian Hill Cricket Centre

for match teas, events, fitness classes, meeting rooms, or an escape from the elements for hockey spectators. Leading outside from the Long Room is a viewing balcony overlooking the hockey pitches that will provide the perfect vantage point for hockey spectators and filming of matches. We are so excited to show you this wonderful building, and we can’t wait to see it busy with cricketers and spectators. We are so glad to be able to provide such a facility for the whole community, and expect that the lanes will be busy all day and late into the evening seven days a week, providing all cricketers in the area with the chance to train in a world-class facility. Once up and running, lettings income from the Centre will support bursaries, opening access to Merchant Taylors’ – and the Julian Hill Cricket Centre – to those who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford the fees. We are so grateful to Governors for making this possible and for creating an ongoing philanthropic entity long after the proverbial ribbons have been cut. This last benefit is one that the Development Team are particularly passionate about. Until this project, bursaries have always been our top priority for fundraising – and rightly so. The fact that we have been able to combine the two has been an extra motivation to us, and to many people who have supported the campaign. It is this element that makes completing the fundraising for the Centre all the more important. Only when we have raised £2.7m will this be possible. The Merchant Taylors’ community has been so generous so far, giving £2.2m to the campaign. You only have to look at the rooms named, and the members of each individual giving club to see how many people have got behind the project already. We still need your support to get the campaign over the line, so please do consider a donation to the Centre – as outlined here, your support will do so much more than build a world class cricket centre. For more information and up-to-date campaign information, please visit https://development. mtsn.org.uk/cricket-centre. Thank you so much for your support!

The last twelve months have been hugely exciting, and progress with both the construction of the Julian Hill Cricket Centre, and the associated fundraising campaign has been amazing to see. From the patch of scrubby ground we first dug into on 31st October 2022, to the magnificent building that is now nearing completion, the progress has been astonishing. As you can see from the photos, the Centre is almost complete. What strikes you first on entering the building is the sheer scale of it. The main hall, housing the five lanes, with full length bowler run-ups, is enormous. The high ceilings, with lighting installed to exacting ECB requirements for an elite centre, makes it a very bright space. The exposed Glulam beams are a really striking architectural feature. These lanes, equipped with a range of different bowling machines, and a variety of surfaces to suit pace and spin bowling, will provide a truly world class training environment for cricketers to hone their skills. Analysis equipment will aid our coaching team, as well as providing instant video feedback to players, enabling them to self-coach too. We have installed a system of netting that has never been used in a centre of this type, specifically developed for our project. It enables the space to be adapted to the sessions planned, including making fielding practice possible, on a softer, more forgiving turf, even while the lanes themselves are in use with bowling machines. Overlooking the main hall (which has yet to be named) is the Alvan Seth-Smith Viewing Balcony. From this vantage point, coaches and spectators will have a perfect view down each of the five lanes of the Centre. The benefits of the building do not end with the main hall. As well as the Mike Grimsdick and Brent Richardson Team Rooms – high quality changing rooms, primarily for cricketers, but also adjacent to the hockey pitches – there is the Mahesh Mehta Room. This is a flexible space that will be used as a classroom, but will also serve as a video analysis and team briefing room, and can even adapt to being a team warm-up area. Upstairs, the Geoffrey Cox Long Room provides a flexible space and kitchen that can be used

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