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300-year-old oak crashes onto Essex cricket club clubhouse

Summarised from 3 outlets · Updated 4 Nov, 23:34 · Archive

A centuries-old oak tree crashed onto Woodham Mortimer Cricket Club's Essex clubhouse on October 24, causing structural damage.

A 300-year-old oak tree crashed onto Woodham Mortimer Cricket Club's clubhouse on Saturday, October 24, causing extensive structural damage. The tree damaged parts of the building including the men's and ladies' toilet areas. The club has launched a GoFundMe fundraising appeal to raise money for essential repairs and to ensure facilities can continue to be used by players, visiting teams and the wider community.

George Verlander, the club's Development Officer, organized the fundraiser. He said the tree could have caused far worse damage: 'Thankfully, it didn't go through sort of the centre of the clubhouse, but, yes, some structural damage nonetheless that we're now sort of having to look at repairing.'

The incident has dealt a blow to the club's ambitions for the future. Woodham Mortimer, which dates back to 1784, is hoping to launch its first ECB Dynamos Cricket section next summer, introducing more youngsters to the game. The club has never had any kind of youth programme before. The fundraising appeal says completing the clubhouse repairs is an important step towards making this expansion possible.

300-year-old oak crashes onto Essex cricket club clubhouse
Image: Colchester Gazette

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In this story: Woodham Mortimer Cricket Club · George Verlander · Essex

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