Cyril Leonard - Leisure Development - Finchley, East End Road

Date: 02 Apr 2002

Middlesex County Cricket Club and the stars of the future will have a good reason for celebration later this year - the opening of a brand new sports hall at East End Road in Finchley for the highly regarded MCCC cricket academy.

The new centre is actually built on the site of the original academy, the redevelopment having been carried out by LA Fitness, together with authoritative project management from London-based chartered surveyors Cyril Leonard.

The finished split-level building will house the academy on the first floor with an LA Fitness swimming pool and health complex beneath. The MCCC have a ten-year lease on the hall in which they are installing some of the most modern facilities anywhere in the UK.

John Emburey, coach and former England all-rounder says: "The opening of the new academy will be a big bonus for us. The centre will have a new surface that minimises the differences between outdoor and indoor cricket while being equally suitable for both bat and ball."

Although the fitting-out of the facilities is still underway, Cyril Leonard's project management is almost completed and, according to one of the partners, Simon Blausten, will enable MCCC to run a benchmark academy.

"The closure of the original academy was unfortunate but necessary," states Blausten. "Although there are a number of cricket schools around the UK, the new facilities will allow the MCCC to compete with them on the very highest of levels."

With the support of high-calibre coaches such as Emburey behind the project, the new centre will represent a substantial income boost to the club when it opens in Winter 2002. Emburey concludes: "One of our main targets is to become an official ECB academy - the opening of the new school can be seen as a very definitive first rung on the ladder to achieving this."

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