NatWest CricketForce weekend is becoming as much a fixture of pre-season as outdoor nets.

It's where members go along to their clubs, some of which won't have seen a lot of action since the previous September, and generally give their grounds a spring clean.

Craven League club Denholme certainly entered into the spirit of things in their first CricketForce day, and involved not only club members but also community groups.

Under project manager Linda Wear, the turnout was great, and the jobs list included painting, gardening and housekeeping, thereby ensuring that things were shipshape for the start of the campaign.

The highlight of weekend was the new memorial garden, which included a Denholme Cricket Club-engraved stone.

Although the Denholme Action Group, led by Brian Church, had prepared a garden area in the week leading up to the event, the action really began at 8.15am when five tonnes of topsoil, donated by Clayton's Phillip Summers, was deposited in front of the club gate.

This was gradually barrowed' by numerous juniors, under the guidance of the adults, into the new garden.

The juniors, aided by members of Denholme Scout Group, then helped with the planting and watering, as well as cleaning the pavement afterwards.

Days like this wouldn't be possible, however, without the help of groups and companies, and Denholme Cricket Club would like to thank Denholme Environmental Group for all their hard work, Bingley Fencing (for the trellis and log roll) and Abbey Stone Products of Keighley for the commemorative stone.

Of course, giving juniors a paint brush each can be a chore as well as a pleasure, and although they set about painting every bit of white building or wall within the ground, they sometimes painted everything else that got in their way!

The upshot was though that a great time was had by all, some of the scouts helping out by making a fence around the grass-cuttings area.

Despite drills and saws and hammers and nails, the only injury over the whole day came when 67-year-old batsman Rod Green broke a fingernail in the process of cleaning a moving mower blade while doing the seemingly harmless job of mowing the outfield.

Meanwhile, inside the tea tent' all the cupboards were cleaned out, the crockery washed and put back in the cupboards, fridges and freezers were cleaned and tables and windows wiped down. As at all good cricket grounds, however, there was lunch, which consisted of pie and peas, burgers and much-needed hot drinks.

Other important tasks included Susan and Brian Mottram making a superb job of painting the sight screen, David Wear clearing the drains and groundsman Peter Baren working tirelessly on the square.