Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2008 | Page 43

INTERVIEW

life

Photo left:
Brian Gardner
Right: The cricket
pavilion construction
is well under way with
completion due May 08,
subject to the weather!
Bottom Left/middle:
The roof is currently
going on the building.
Bottom Right: The
wicket was one of the
first jobs to be done
as it will take approx
one year to develop.

examine the site and the main road
outside the ground had to be widened.
Brian, who is one of the trustees, donated
the field and provided part of the funding.
More came from the National Sports
Foundation and the England and Wales
Cricket Board also provided guidelines
on planning the ground and pavilion.
Members of the public will be invited
to join the Friends of Newclose County
Cricket Ground – which is a registered
charity – and it is hoped to attract
corporate sponsors. Brian emphasises that
people are welcome to come to the ground
to see cricket and to use the restaurant
and the bar in the pavilion which will
have a main lounge and dining area, a
kitchen, umpires’ room, scorers’ room,
committee room, offices and stores.
Games will be held several times a
week during the season with games in
the evenings for adults and juniors.
The Isle of Wight Cricket Board
achieved minor county status last

Island Life - www.isleofwight.net

year and when Newclose is finished it
will become the only minor county in
Britain to have its own county ground.
The intention is to stage minor county
matches at the ground within a few years.
Organising the work is a full-time
job and there’s still a lot to be done on
the site before the ground opens for
the 2009 season – but Brian Gardner’s
dream will soon be realised.
He’s been coming to the Island all his
life and has owned property here since the
early 1990s. Brian has been fascinated
by cricket since he was eleven-years-old
and he was already a good organiser
when, with a few friends, he formed
the Wimpeyonian Cricket Club (named
after the Wimpey estate where he lived)
in Isleworth in the early 1950s.
“In those days there were no facilities
for playing cricket,” Brian says, “and you
were lucky if you owned a cricket bat.”
He made a cart of an old box from his
grandmother’s florist shop with wheels

from an old pram and used it to carry
their gear to the local park. The cart fitted
with shelves was their ‘pavilion’ with score
cards made from florist funeral cards and
his sister helped to sell jam sandwiches
and lemonade to raise funds for bats
and composition balls made of cork.
They played two innings test matches
with the adjoining council estate boys
and their Dads acted as umpires. Brian
picked up the rules of the game from ‘Play
the game’ books’ and television but says
cricket has always been in his blood.
Asked if he wished he had played cricket
professionally Brian said “It would be a
fanciful idea but I do wish I had played
more cricket at club standard.” But the
boy who played cricket in the park with
his friends in the ‘50s can say that he has
realised another dream. It’s taken four
years to achieve but Island cricketers
can now look forward to playing on
a Gold Standard cricket ground.

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