BRATTON RECREATION GROUND REPORT TO BRATTON PARISH COUNCIL FOR TUESDAY 13th JULY 2021 PITCHES The pitches remain in good condition. Soil sampling, as the next stage of research by Cllr, and maintenance team member, Noel Kew has been delayed because the ground has been too hard but should take place shortly. We do not expect that we could or should do any significant work to improve drainage further until September or October. FOOTBALL The Ground continues to be used for club and individual training. The Three Daggers FC is now sponsored by The Duke pub and has renamed accordingly. They include at least one Bratton player. A young coach, Todd Slade, is holding individual and group training sessions and these involve a lot of Bratton youngsters. One sessions comprised seven players all from Bratton. He plans to hold more of these in late-July and August. These provide a very useful additional income. A newly formed club, Westbury Celtics will be using the Ground as their home for the 21/22 season. The Ground has become popular for booking inquiries from various local clubs. CRICKET The cricket square continues to be in very good condition and has played well when rain allowed play in May. Four cricket games were played in June (two by Bratton CC) but two were cancelled due to rain. Bratton CC have also held some training sessions and the Club is growing in strength with a good core team and about 30 players in total. EQUIPMENT Almost all of our equipment is still in very good condition. We have recently purchased a wheeled strimmer, primarily to cut the banks alongside the new French drains but this was supplied with faulty bolts and it failed after a lot of use. New bolts are on order. FINANCE Our reserves remain at about £7,000. Some of this will be used for further drainage improvements in the autumn. Operating income is always weather dependent but we hope that the unexpected income from new football training will enable us to make an operating profit in this FY. Mike Manson M P Manson Chairman, Bratton Recreation Ground Management Committee