Following our recent announcement regarding our situation for 2025, we want to provide additional details and correct some misinformation that has been circulating including in the Banbury Guardian article that has recently been shared. To note we were not contacted for any comment by the paper.

This is a long read. However we were heartened by the many positive comments about the club from villagers and the wider community and to see how important the club is to so many people. We wanted to make people aware we would not be playing in Bodicote in 2025, and how disappointed we are with this because

i. we feel we have been very poorly treated by a Charity that exists for the benefit of the village and
ii. especially as it prevents us from running an additional team and which would offer more opportunities for playing sport for young people and villagers alike. We note comments from the village football club about their season in exile. We are sure these might have been different if it had meant their reserve team having to fold.

The aims and objectives of Bodicote Welfare Fund (BWF) who manage the field, are given in the document when Kingsfield was bequeathed to the village in 1945. “The acquisition of a playing field for all forms of sports including children’s amusements”. A copy of the document is attached. As we discovered, when requested, this represents the sole governance or constitution document for the Welfare Fund, there are none of the other policies you would think as standard for an organisation in the 21st century. It is easy to see that this isn’t fit for purpose 80 years after it was initially produced. However you would think that running an extra cricket team would be in line with the Charity’s aims.

Up until last season the cricket club had enjoyed a good relationship with BWF and supported them where possible. We moved games to support other bookings, always left the changing rooms as we found them, provided plenty of volunteers to steward the annual Firework display, and during our time playing and working on the square, generally kept an eye on the field removing dog waste, and keeping it tidy.

During 2023-24 the village football club had to play at Wardington due to planned groundworks at the field during the Autumn. This seemed unusual to us but we weren’t aware how much of an issue this was for the club. The Autumn is manifestly the best time to carry out ground repair / renewal works if this window is available.

However these groundworks, that involved the top football pitch goal areas, weren't carried out during the football season at all but started in June 2024. The goal area at the village end is about 35 yards from the square and very much in play during our games, too short a distance to have a boundary in front of it. This could be manageable as part of the infield, as it has been in the past, except that, as anyone who visited the field would recall, the new grass wasn't cut and grew very long to around 400 mm in places, meaning the ball was getting lost if hit into the undergrowth. Also all guidance highlights the need to cut new grass to a short length to strengthen it and encourage new growth. In early August we asked BWF to cut the one in play, they did to approx 100 mm but we cut it shorter to 50 mm, a reasonable length for new growth. However BWF were unhappy about us cutting it.

Unfortunately due to an internal communications error within the club, a small area was again cut by one of our grounds team to approx 50mm about three weeks later. Again a reasonable length for new grass but we accept we shouldn’t have done it.

BWF were very unhappy with this as we had not followed their request. We accepted we’d made an error, apologised, stressed we’d ensure that any future requests would always be clearly dealt with and as a gesture covered the cost of the work that they had contracted for both goal areas, £800 even though we had only cut one. This is a significant chunk of the reserves for a small club like ours. However we did this without accepting any liability and strongly refute that what we did had any material impact on the field.

We hoped that a charitable response would be that our apology would be accepted, there’d be an acknowledgement we had covered the costs, our previous good relationship taken into account and we’d move on. This was not the case. BWF decided to ban our three man grounds team for a season. The impact of this would be disastrous as without our volunteer grounds team, who we rely on, as do so many clubs up and down the country, we would not be able to manage the square and prepare wickets to the standard needed and certainly not for us to be able to run two teams which we had advised BWF we wished to do.

This frankly just seemed like unreasonable behaviour for a Charity whose very reason is to manage a field left to the village for sports. Punishing individuals who had apologised was a ruling that wouldn’t benefit anyone.

Over the next few months various meetings happened and attempts to solve the dispute were undertaken to no avail.

On 28 January, with 24 hours’ notice, we were disinvited from a meeting of the BWF committee, a committee that we are, as far as BWF governance goes, constitutionally members of. On 31 January we were advised that at the meeting it was agreed “due to the damage done to the grass …. a contractor to come back this year to carry out essential work on the field … will have to take place at the end of the football season … unable to offer you use of the field in 2025.”

So within three days and without any consultation, we had gone from a position where, as long as we had a grounds team who BWF approved of, we could play at the field to one where the field is damaged to an extent where the repairs needed means we cannot play.

Kingsfield is well maintained however neither the cricket club or the football club play at an elite level. Up and down the country such village fields are happily used for the two sports with cricket taking place around well managed football goal area repairs in the summer. If the goal areas at Kingsfield are such an issue why had they not been roped off when the crowds enjoyed the annual firework display on 5th November? Anyone who visits the field today will see a typical village football pitch in March.

We have received tremendous support from Oxfordshire Cricket throughout. To try and resolve the issue they wrote to BWF to advise that, subject to an inspection, which they would cover the cost of, Bodicote CC could apply for a grant under their Grass Pitch Improvement Fund, for works on the whole field ie not only for cricket but also for other sports that use the ground including the goal areas. Support that “could significantly enhance the playing conditions at the Bodicote ground, benefiting multiple sports and ensuring its continued use for years to come.”

This was subject to us being able to play cricket at the field in 2025. BWF rejected this - yes the village Charity would rather decline financial support than let the village cricket club play. What possible motive could there be for this?

Back to the notification at such short notice about not being able to use the field.

The South Northants League AGM was 31st January and, as there was a waiting list for places, we had to formally withdraw our 2nd team from the league that evening as we had no ground to play on. We hoped we’d be able to find a one team club whose ground our 1st (and now only) team could use.

This came too late to influence any possible ground sharing, ie dovetailing home and away fixtures. We are really grateful to Broughton & NN for offering us use of their ground and to those teams in our league who have swapped fixtures around, however not all games are covered and we are still trying to make arrangements for these. Of course as Broughton’s one team play there, there was no option to host 2nd XI games too. Let’s be clear there is a lot more to sharing a cricket ground and the maintenance needed than sharing a football pitch during the winter.

We have seen comments about involving the Charity Commission and yes we have raised a number of significant concerns with them and they have written to BWF regarding these. However even though the Commission is clear on how disputes should be managed by Charities, by involving independent third parties or mediation, an offer by a local CDC councillor to meet both parties to try and resolve the issue was rejected by BWF.

As it stands we do not know if we will be able to practice on or even maintain our square in 2025 to allow us to return in 2026, even without the banned grounds team being involved. We have no knowledge of any groundworks beyond the football goal areas.

We thought we were clear in our statement that we can’t use the field in 2025. However as you will see from the facts above we don’t feel we have any guarantees for our further future given how we have been treated.

Six years ago the club came close to folding - we’d gone down from two to one team, we were scratching games and struggling to field eleven. A lot of other teams have sadly gone this way. However the core of the club were determined to try and ensure this didn’t happen. With a lot of hard work we turned this around. Membership increased and we were able to survive the impact of Covid and as well as fulfilling our league fixtures started to play some midweek friendlies to give more people a game. With youngsters from the village and Banbury CC to bolster our ranks we were excited about running two teams. This is now denied.

It is hard enough running a club but to see our efforts to grow denied by the very village Charity that should support sport in the village is pretty draining. On one hand we are all rightly cross when the football club’s goals are vandalised, on the other when we offer opportunities for more young people to play sport and be engaged in village life we are denied this. Is this really what we want from a Charity for Bodicote?

Frankly we’d rather be trying to prepare our club for the 2025 season than writing long explanations regarding the issues we have. We didn’t anticipate having to resort to social media to highlight these. All over a small area of grass cut against BWF's request - actions apologised for and paid for and that have had no material impact.

The Banbury Guardian incorrectly calls BWF the “Landowners”, you might think they act like that but they are not, they are the custodians of a vital village asset.

We’ll end with quoting further correspondence from Oxfordshire Cricket that fell on deaf ears of Bodicote Welfare Fund - our village Charity, to benefit whose welfare?

“As the governing body for cricket in Oxfordshire, we deeply appreciate the vital role that cricket clubs, especially grassroots clubs like Bodicote Cricket Club, play in local communities. Cricket is more than just a sport; it is a key contributor to social cohesion, physical health, and mental well-being. The benefits are far-reaching, from providing a healthy outlet for young people to promoting lifelong fitness for adults of all ages. The impact of sport on improving quality of life cannot be overstated. For Bodicote Cricket Club, the playing field is central to its ongoing success in fostering community engagement “.