Skip to content

Wiltshire cricket club remodels pavilion as more women join

BBC A one storey wooden building with a sign for Box Cricket Club and a blue skyBBC
The "tiny pavilion" has been remodelled to get its first women's changing room

A cricket club has expanded its numbers of female members enough to have to put in a new changing room.

The club in Box near Corsham had one woman join two years ago, but now has 37 women on the books.

Lynda Ormandy was that lone woman: "I think they feel welcome, safe and valued here."

There was no changing room for women in the pavilion, but now one is being constructed.

Ms Ormandy explained women had to turn up with their clothes already on: "I was at a match, there were no facilities - the men made a little human shield around me so I could protect my dignity."

Lynda stands in front of the pavilion smiling wearing a red winter coat, brown boots and woolly hat
Lynda Ormandy was once the only woman member at the club - now there are more than 30

Now - with a lot of teamwork - the inside of the pavilion has undergone some remodelling.

"At the end of October we came in as a team and took lots of infrastructure of the building out, then our team of contractors came in and we've worked alongside them," she said.

"Personally, I wanted to be a real part of it and I wanted the team to be part of it so that we leave our fingerprints in the history of this building."

Working alongside the builders, Ms Ormandy has learned to put up plasterboard, done lots of painting with the other women at weekends and the men have joined in too.

It is not quite finished, but the women now have a changing room with views out to the field, with a shower and sink being installed.

A new room going through building work - benches round the edge, white walls
The new changing room for women has a view of the field and will have a shower too

She explained the once large kitchen was not used much, so that has been made smaller to make way for the new room.

The men were willing to make their changing room smaller is an already "tiny pavilion."

However, Ms Ormandy said: "We managed to make some changes to the design and make the whole space bigger for them as well, so they have a new and bigger changing room."

Presentational grey line

Follow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]