Pontefract Cricket Club

Looks like I only just beat the developers, though there is a football ground at the back.

Article from the Pontefract & Castleford Express

CASH-STRAPPED Pontefract Cricket Club - one of the longest established in the district - could close unless it gets urgent financial help.
Pontefract and District Cricket League has ruled that the club can no longer play matches at the Skinner Lane ground because facilities are so bad - there is no electricity or water and the graffiti-covered pavilion desperately needs repairs.
The club - founded in 1863 - has been given eight weeks to come up with an action plan or it will be axed from the league next season.
Club treasurer John Cookson said: "The league is behind us but we have to comply with its regulations in order to continue.
"We had a meeting to see how we go forward. We don't know who owns the ground, so we need to find out. We've applied for a 2,000 Community Chest grant from the council so we need to push for that, find out how much will it cost to reconnect us to water and electricity and who will support us.
"We intend to speak to the MP Yvette Cooper and the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation that we believe may lease the ground from the Duchy of Lancaster.
"We have eight weeks to come up with an action plan or we will be dropped from the league altogether."
Club captain Darren Green said the pavilion was regularly attacked by vandals that had smashed windows and the roof, ruined carpets, trashed boundary fences and damaged sight-screens and the score board.
He added: "We now have only one open age team here that was relegated from division two last year straight down to division five of the league, but we have a lot of good lads and we'll keep on playing.
"We are broke and we desperately need Wakefield Council to help us financially.
"The pitch here is one of the best in the league but everything else is falling apart. To make things worse we have been ordered to play all home games at away grounds and on Sundays instead of the normal Saturdays."
Pontefract councillor Jack Kershaw said he would do everything he could to keep the club in existence. He said: "We realise the club is one of the founder members of the league and I will do all I can to make sure it remains in business.
"None of us wants to see this fine old club with a great tradition fold. We realise the seriousness of the vandalism problem and that it needs to be sorted out so that cricket lovers aren't denied the use of this facility."
Pontefract and District League secretary Mike Crossland said he and his colleagues were fully behind the club in its search for survival and would do all they could to help.

They still have a presence on Facebook