Scarborough Cricket Club's new committee working hard on North Marine Road upgrade
Scarborough Cricket Club's new committee has been working hard on getting the North Marine Road ground up to scratch since they took over in December 2025.
Scarborough’s six-man board of Tim Watts, Neil Fletcher, Darren Barton, Luke Jarvis, Robert Harrison and John Riley have all played for the North Marine Road club, and are eager to return to its former glory.
Fletcher said: "We have been very busy with the refurbishment of the pavilion, the room next to it is now a committee room but it will also be a hospitality room for hire and the bars have all been refurbished.
"The memorabilia is almost the last thing to do now. We have got to do a little bit more work with IT in the pavilion, the wi-fi is working brilliantly and there are a couple of tweaks to be made but the pavilion is basically done.
"We have had new systems put into the bar so it will work better, the Popular Bank Bar has had new systems put in so it works better, the tea room is being refurbished so that will be better and one big change is the fibre optics hadn’t been working for two years and that has all been repaired now.
"That doesn’t just help people get wi-fi it also means all points of sales machines work quicker as half of the problems with the bars last year was people waiting for the payment card to go through as the wi-fi was so slow and now the work we have done will speed up service around the ground.
"The outfield is significantly better than 2025, that has been improved, we’ve had two hybrid pitches put in this winter and new covers have been produced and all this has been at virtually nil cost to the club.
"As per the AGM the club was on the verge of bankruptcy so we have steadied the finances, money has been injected into the club and there is no issues with its solvency going forward whereas there would have been if the action had not been taken.
"The previous board had started moving contracts from work away from Scarborough, so we are bringing that back, the IT systems are now with a Scarborough company, cleaning solutions systems with a Scarborough company. We are trying to make sure that money stays in Scarborough and with Scarborough people.
"There was a lot of press about the £33 ticket price, a huge hike by the previous board, but we can’t just drop the price massively so we have done an early bird price of £26.50 with Yorkshire CCC.
"It is significantly lower than the £33, it is a week beforehand. We really don’t want to increase the £33 as we go forward, York and Headingley prices have gone up so that gap is closing.
"Headingley is a Test-match venue with Test-match revenues, York is a club ground without infrastructure that it has to maintain and support.
"Even without the North stand in use this club has a 6,600 capacity, all that has to be upkept. I got the shock of my life the other day when we got the cleaning bill in and there’s 50 toilets in this ground, the costs are immense.
"With the North stand in use this ground is half the size of AFC Bournemouth’s, it is a 10,000 seater stadium at full capacity. That is four times the size of the Scarborough football ground and it has to be funded by 10 days of Yorkshire CCC cricket.
"We have got to work hard, we have got to create more revenue streams throughout the year and that is why we have refurbished the pavilion to make it a venue of choice for people for events, and now with rooms of all sizes.
"We have different aims this year, atmosphere and attitude, it doesn’t cost anything for us to change the attitude of staff and members to create a better atmosphere in this ground, we felt over the past years the club had become detached from the local community and the spectators as customers and we have to change that and that costs nothing but time effort and goodwill.
"We have stabilised the finances and improving the experience of people coming in by doing the tea room, popular bank bar and pavilion. There is a lot more to do, but we are quite happy with where we are now, coming into the cricket season, with a view to facilities.
"We are in a good place to where the club was when we took over in December, it is a very different entity now, it is Scarborough Cricket Club version 2.0!”