Bolton’s jewel in the town

Mon 9th November 2009 3.56PM

AFTER more than two decades trying to form, and then maintain a cricket team for the Indian community, Bolton Indians Sports Club moved to its permanent site at Hacken Lane, Darcy Lever, back in 1985. Now branded “Bolton Indians Sports Club” [BISC] but originally called “Bolton Indians Cricket Club,” the site had previously been a patch of wasteland and it looked impossible to develop this into a cricket ground. Nevertheless a group of Indian Cricket players worked tirelessly on the site over many months shaping it up to what it now is today. The club’s location was in an ideal spot to engage the wider Indian community into positive activities; with its members keen to emphasize that “…the club was never exclusively for Indian players.“

This was confirmed as over time it attracted members from various nationalities, all of whom had an interest in positive activities using a sport they enjoyed, cricket, as a perfect platform for community cohesion. The club’s success at providing ‘positive activities for all’ has never been as relevant as it is today and just a quick ‘ad hoc’ tour of the venue gives a true indication of the club’s traditional sense of ‘community’ spirit. The club’s success meant that it could easily facilitate allyear- round sports provision, particularly for the development of its junior members. Over the years working with, and then aiming to meet, Sport England & ECB standards in sport criteria, the club earned ‘Club Mark’ status. This means that an organisation can be viewed with more approval when applying for grass roots funding. Eventually a grant came through from the “Big Lottery Fund” which helped build the new international standard sports hall.

This comprised of a state-of-the-art cricket-specific floor and associated venue that could be used to host various other sporting activities. This new development of bricks and mortar ran parallel with the development of the club’s sports development ambitions which encouraged the club to change the name of Bolton Indians Cricket Club to “Bolton Indians Sports Club.” Although the club maintained the ‘Bolton Indians’ for heart-felt cultural and traditional reasons, it is now a fully inclusive club with sports hall users being from all over Bolton, the wider northwest and different nationalities. Five years ago, the club’s ambitions, associated with its sport specific location as part of Darcy Lever’s ‘Sports Village’ attracted Bolton Hockey Club, who formed an association with BISC.

BHC uses the facilities as a base for their multitude of agespecific teams who play in a series of leagues throughout Bolton and the wider northwest