In the 2002 cricket season only four home games were possible at the Arns due to constant water logging of the ground and it became clear that a radical up grade of the ground drainage was essential to cope with the current climatic conditions if cricket was to continue. The Arns, which was adopted as the club ground in 1890, was visited by Richard Windows of the Sports Turf Research Institute in August 2002. He submitted an “Advisory Report on the Condition of the Cricket Field”. The recommendations in the report have been used as the specification for the contractors who have tendered for the drainage up-grade work. The quotations were analysed and a project with a total cost of £73,207 was submitted to sportscotland sports facilities programme. We were delight to hear that sportscotland has offered a maximum grant of 60 percent of the project cost amounting to £43,924. The remaining £29,283 is to be made up from the “Save the Arns” appeal (which is still open for local support) and other sources.

The aim of the project is to provide a well drained playing surface at the Arns which will allow quality cricket to be played safely through the summer and allow the use of the ground to be extended to other outdoor sports during the rest of the year. Our measures of the scheme’s success are:-
1. That 95% of our home cricket fixtures are completed unless rain occurs on the
day of the match.
2. That other outdoor sports can be played throughout the year (unless inhibited
by severe cold) without serious damage to the cricket outfield.

In partnership with Clackmannanshire Council the project will allow Clackmannan County Cricket Club to provide:-
1. sport and interest for 126 senior and junior cricketers and non playing
members.
2. a service taking cricket to the schools involving over 300 primary school
children and initially 30 to 40 secondary school children.
3. an opportunity for more children to adopt cricket as an out of school activity.
4. a venue for the development of elite performers. (The Arns was used by the
Forth Valley Cricket Development Group in 2001: Dougie Brown progressed
from Clackmannan County Juniors via Scotland and Warwickshire to become
a one day England internationalist.)
5. A venue for other outdoor sports, particularly football, so that the ground can
be used for sporting activity and youth development in winter and summer.
It is hoped that this partnership can be extended to include local commerce and industry.

The club’s longer term strategy will be to develop a multi sports venue to maximise activity, membership and income. Future projects will be researched and initiated to develop this strategy. There is, for example, space for all weather tennis courts in the south east corner of the ground.