Baseball took centre stage at the recent Waltham Abbey Town Show when the new and improved facility at Townmead Leisure Park for the Essex Arrows Baseball Club was officially opened by Waltham Abbey Mayor, Ricki Gadsby.

Gadsby was joined by Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing, Waltham Abbey Town Clerk Kathryn Richmond, Councilor Syd Stavrou and Council Leader Stuart Pryde. All these dignitaries and many more members of the community came out to witness the ceremony, which included speeches and a ribbon cutting on one of the two new brick dugouts at the baseball field.

The new Essex Arrows facilities are now officially open for the business of playing baseball.

Long Gestation

The improvement work at Townmead Park has been five years in the making. Plans were originally approved in 2005, but only came to fruition in 2010 thanks to several grants (including a Sport England Small Facilities Grant administered by BaseballSoftballUK) and the support of DBMS Ltd, the Enfield builders who took on the ambitious project.

The baseball club's goal was to have new dugouts built before the season began and Simon Cranstone from DBMS took on the project with no promises to meet the deadline. However, despite wind, rain, mud and an unseasonably cold month of March, Cranstone's team worked relentlessly to make sure that the Arrows and the Archers had their dugouts for opening day on April 18 against the Mildenhall Bulldogs.

As well as new dugouts, the facility improvements include a 150-seat grandstand, a permanent batting cage (72' x 12' x 12') and a club storage container. None of the development work would have been possible without funding received from the Epping Forest District Community Initiative Fund, The Grange Farm Trust, Waltham Abbey Town Council and Sport England with help from BSUK.