Lanky handing over the cheque.

It has been a very busy and successful 2011 at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, which is good news for Macmillan Cancer Support.

 Over the last 12 months The Point, the ground’s conference and events centre, has raised £1,604.00 for the Macmillan charity through its wine sale donations and from the Player of Year raffle, held in the venue to celebrate the club winning the County Championship outright for the first time in 77 years.

Sarah Page, Area Fund Raising Manager for Macmillan said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this donation from The Point. The money raised will allow Macmillan Cancer Support to continue to provide practical, medical, emotional and financial support for local people affected by cancer.

Sarah adds: “Cancer is the toughest fight most of us will ever face. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed, you need a team of people in your corner supporting you every step of the way.”

Peter Ash, Sales Manager for The Point said: “ Macmillan Cancer Support has been our preferred charity this year and we are very proud to have been involved with them. The work they carry out is amazing and we know that the money we have helped to raise will be put to very good use.”

The cheque handover took place in the foyer of The Point with the club’s mascot Lanky joining Macmillan’s Sarah Page for the photo shoot.   

If you would like to support Macmillan Cancer Support please get in touch on 01925 846744 or email spage@macmillan.org.uk

For further information on The Point please contact the Events Team

on: 0161 282 4020 or visit www.thepointatlccc.co.uk

Weddings at The Point

 Potential clients can now witness The Point, at Lancashire County Cricket Club, transform from a blank canvas into an extravagant wedding reception in a stunning new film which is available to view at http://tinyurl.com/bpwr2kb. 

The film, produced on behalf of catering specialists Payal Group by We-Cre8, enables potential clients to see the venue transformed from initial build up to the entrance of the blushing bride and groom.

Commenting on the video, Sales Manager for The Point Peter Ash said: “As our preferred caterer for Asian weddings we work very closely with the Payal Group. We are delighted with the production of this film that truly captures the versatility and shear size of The Point, and allows the venue to be viewed as an event organiser’s dream.”

Peter added: “Whether you are looking for your dream venue for a civil wedding or partnership or a stunning room in which to hold your wedding breakfast and evening reception The Point can supply all your requirements.”   

Payal Groups joint Managing Director, Raj Somaiya said: “With over 19 years of delivering this type of production, I can honestly say this concept will be most sought after by couples to re-live their momentous day.”

The Point, with a capacity for up to 1,000 guests and stunning views of the famous Old Trafford pitch is the perfect venue for those requiring a wedding on a larger scale.

The Payal Group consists of Payal Catering, Payal Prestige and Payal Events and have offices in Manchester and London  

For further wedding information please contact our experienced Events Team on 0161 282 4040 or events@lccc.co.uk for further information

The Point

The Point at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, the new iconic conference and events venue designed by Manchester based BDP, was voted the ‘people’s favourite’ out of a total of 95 competing projects at the annual Manchester Society of Architects (MSA) Design Awards at Cube Gallery last night.

The MSA’s ‘People’s Prize’ is open to every project, in every category, that has been nominated for a MSA Design Award. The winner is decided by a ballot of visitors who have attended Cube’s exhibition of the shortlisted entries between May 5^th and May 12^th.  

BDP’s combined spectator, conference and hospitality facility also took top prize in the Design Awards Leisure & Cultural category, beating off stiff competition from a number of high profile projects.

Gavin Elliot, Chair of BDP’s Manchester Studio and the chief designer of The Point, said: “While it’s great to have won in the best Leisure & Cultural category, I’m really proud we have scooped the MSA People’s Award this year.

Gavin adds: “When the scheme was first announced the designs definitely raised a few eyebrows in both cricket and design circles, so the fact with nearly 100 top class projects to chose from the Manchester public voted The Point as their favourite is a fantastic endorsement of a truly innovative design.”

This is the second prestigious award BDP’s Manchester Studio has won for The Point this year. In March it won in the Lighting for Leisure Category at the national Lighting Design Awards. It has also been shortlisted for the RIBA awards that are announced this week.

Peter Ash, Sales Manager for The Point says: “We are delighted for the team at BDP that The Point has been voted The People’s Favourite. It is an eye-catching and thought-provoking building that works so well for events and is worthy of such an accolade.”

The Point Digital Movie

If you would like to know a little bit more about The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club’s stunning new £12m Conference and Events Centre, all you need to do is sit back, relax and click onto www.thepointatlccc.co.uk and let the new digital movie   give you a tour of Manchester’s most exciting new venue.

 Click here to view the movie.

This short movie gives a glimpse of The Point during its first few months of opening, showcasing its facilities for Conferences, Gala Dinners, Weddings and Hospitality. Viewers will see Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff MBE bowling people over with his cooking, the Halle Orchestra performing with a background of dazzling fireworks and chart topping girl band The Saturdays preparing to take the stage.

 Peter Ash, Sales Manager at The Point says:

 “We have hosted such an array of events since the opening on June 27^th 2010 that we wanted to create a snapshot of The Point that would show what we have achieved and demonstrate the size and versatility of the venue.”

 The Point, a purpose-built facility able to accommodate conferences, weddings or formal dinners for up to 1,000 people, is already proving a popular venue with bookings being taken upto 2015.

 The digital movie was produced by Manchester based Capture1

 For further information on The Point contact: 0161 282 4020

see the arty reflection shot....

Obviously, what was needed was a proper test. Well, you will be relieved to know I am sure,  that following a determined assault, by none other than Steven Croft, the glass remained undamaged. A toughened double-glazed unit was set up on the pitch, and the popular Lancashire all-rounder, dressed in his whites of course, put bat to ball, and ball to glass, without a crack. This came as a great relief  to the manufacturers, M Price, as their reputation was on the line.

 These amazing glazed units are Argon-filled, giving low emissivity – which, in case you were wondering, means a reduced carbon footprint, which is good for the planet . They also have a special coating which reflects solar radiation and reduces solar gain  – this helps to maintain a comfortable temperature inside.the suite.

So, the catering staff have been reassured that flying cricket balls won’t mean them having to pad up prior to commencing their silver service duties. We will have over 100 of these glass units in The Point, weighing a hefty total of 21 tons, and that is an awful lot of glass……. it’s a lot of glass to clean as well – anyone fancy a window cleaning job?

Where is everyone?

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for those working hard on The Point. With the opening just a few months away, the process of booking events and selling the facility has started to take priority.The sales team from LCCC spent a tiring but fun week at Earls Court in London, taking part in Confex. They were part of the Visit Manchester stand, and took a special guest with them: Lancashire mascot Lanky the Giraffe! The response to The Point was great, with many people asking for the facility by name, and several enquiries for events for 700-1000 people!

 During that week of Confex, staff attended an event at Kensington Rooftop Gardens. 400 buyers wanting to host events in Manchester were present – as were ‘The Voice’ Russell Watson and, strangely, 2 flamingoes walking around!

In the same week, an exciting announcement was made – celebrity chef Paul Heathcote MBE has joined Lancashire as a catering consultant. He’ll be working hard with our fabulous catering team to make the food offerings at The Point the best around.

Lanky & pals at Confex

To mark the occasion of joining forces with Lancashire, Paul and Gary Bates, Managing Director of Heathcotes Outside, attended The Point’s stand event at Confex. People were invited to the stand for a glass of Pimms and scones with jam and clotted cream – ooh lovely. Paul and Gary answered questions while Lanky came into his own! He entertained the audience and got them involved with a cricket game on the Wii. At the same time, our PR company Bird were discussing the progress of The Point with the media.

Stretching the point maybe?

Back in Manchester, The Point has had a topping out ceremony! The roof is now complete and to celebrate this landmark in the building programme,  LCCC Commercial Director Geoff Durbin, Vice Chairman Geoffrey Shindler, Head Coach Peter Moores and Morgan Ashurst’s Tony McCabe were all in attendance.

Give it a good whack!

All-rounder Steven Croft has also been busy helping us out yet again. This time he had the task of testing out the glass used for the enormous windows of The Point. Heaven forbid a ball thwacked firmly for 6 should give conference/event guests the fright of their lives! The good news: the glass is not for breaking.

Hard hat tours continue apace. If you’re interested in visiting this stunning new facility, contact the Events Team on 0161 282 4020.

It has been an aim, ever since construction started on The Point, to showcase the flexibility of the buildings as a venue. Walk around the site and there are hoardings which advertise meetings, conferences, awards ceremonies and dinners, and of course, weddings!.

Of course I will. silly!

Not only is it a fantastic and unique suite, but – as LCCC player Steven Croft and model Abigail Bentley showed – the tremendous views will make for terrific wedding day photos as well.

Abigail. who was wearing a beautiful wedding gown (kindly lent to us by Pronuptia in Altrincham), and Croft, in his whites, had great fun, and it was definitely different to anything the all-rounder had done before. Players are not usually asked to get down on bended knee and woo brides with roses! Maybe that is why Steven had conveniently forgotten to tell his team-mates about the shoot. He would have got away with it as well, were it not for bowler Kyle Hogg walking past the site and having to do a double take.

For me?

Model Abigail was in Hello! magazine last week. However, she probably felt lesss than glamourous as she made her way to the balcony wearing a hard hat, working boots, high vis. jacket and goggles! Could have done with a jumper though as it was absolutely freezing. Ever the true professional, our bride managed to smile, despite the icy conditions.

All in all, it was a good day, a bit of fun, and another excellent showcase for the versatility of The Point.

Is this Manchester with a blue sky?

It’s all been happening here at LCCC and The Point in the last week. Not only is the new suite almost entirely red (fits in well with the Festive Season) but events around the Club have been happening thick and fast.

even Santa has to wear the proper safety gear

Christmas parties are in full swing in the suites around Old Trafford, but there was one very special Christmas dinner. Morgan Ashurst, the builders, held the inaugural festive gathering in the new facility, and they were lucky enough to be paid a visit from Santa when he dropped by to say hello. The interior of the building may not be finished yet, but the view is pretty  spectacular. The Point will be available for Christmas Parties in 2010 – contact the Events team events@lccc.co.uk for details.

After the resounding success of Key 103′s Jingle Ball earlier this month, it was followed up with their Mini Jingle Ball, which took place in the Gold Marquee (Full story at http://www.lccc.co.uk/index.php?p=news&id=3365). The children got to meet head coach Peter Moores, captain Glen Chapple, several other players and our very own mascot, Lanky the Giraffe.

say, 'cheese' everyone....

We had a lot of visitors last week, when the Club welcomed Year 7 pupils from our neighbours, Stretford High School. The children were taken round in small groups, to view the diverse aspects of LCCC. Their tour included the Old Trafford Lodge, the Indoor Cricket Centre, Gold Marquee, members’ suite and the famous honours board. The one place that really got them buzzing was the home dressing room, especially Freddie Flintoff’s locker (hope the place was tidied up before they went in).

Following the tours, the pupils will start to think about what items should be stored in a very special LCCC Time Capsule, which will be placed inside a wall in the main reception of The Point. What items would you put in our time capsule? Leave your ideas below.

You can keep up to date with the fast-paced building work by checking our webcam   http://www.lccc.co.uk/rebuild/cam.jpg .

As always, you can also follow us on twitter, www.twitter.com/thepointatlccc for all the latest shenanigans.

Would not want to be a window cleaner here....

It is the biggest taste so far of how the stadium will look going forward, and how good it will be next summer when The Point is in use and there is cricket on the pitch. It also shows just how far advanced the building work really is.

In a week when our Gold Marquee hosted the star-studded Key103 Jingle Ball, celebrities were greeted not only with a red carpet, but some red walls too. Yes, the coloured cladding that will make The Point such an iconic building, has started to be added. The appearance of the red panels answered a much-asked question in the office – would the red have to be painted on by some unfortunate soul with a roller?

It's definitely turning red

The Jingle Ball by the way was amazing, deemed to be a great success by all, and a demonstration of LCCC’s ability to host big events like this. Once The Point is up and running, we will be in an even better position to do this, and we will hope to welcome more famous faces regularly to Old Trafford.

Those of you as excited about the hard hat tours as we were a couple of weeks ago (see previous blog –  a day at the office ), will be pleased to know that they are due to start in January. If you would like to be one of the first people to take a closer look at The Point, send Hannah an email at hjones@lccc.co.uk  for an invite.

In the meantime, you can keep following us on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thepointatlccc  for the latest pictures and goings-on.

The lovely Shaun helped sign us in, and then we traipsed up the stairs to the main Morgan Ashurst office. There we were greeted by the sight of their fish tank containing two goldfish,  named, rather imaginatively, Morgan and Ashurst!

Are you Morgan or am I Ashurst?

MA’s Mark Comaish gave us a run through of safety issues on the site and we started to get kitted up. This involved wellies and boots  (size 5 being the smallest available), high-vis jackets, hard hats, gloves and goggles. Those with glasses had some extra-large goggles to wear on top of their specs!

Fully equipped, we headed out onto the site and were immediately struck by the size of the place. The building has sprung up so rapidly, and even though we work in an office right next to the site every day, the sheer size of it was still a surprise. Sales Manager Peter showed us where the main entrance and reception would be, and then we ventured to the lift shafts to head upwards. Unfortunately there are no lifts in yet so we had to use the temporary stairs!

First on the agenda was picking out our offices and giving everyone there a wave what is it about being higher up than other people makes you want to wave? Not sure if anyone saw us, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Peter was enjoying his time as a tour guide showing us all the storeroom areas and toilet space – lovely!.

Our point of view......

Entering the main event space for the first time was impressive. It’s very large (as you can imagine, it will hold 1000 people) and the view was amazing. Not only could you see the entire stadium surrounding the lush green of the pitch, but you could see for miles. It was a drizzly day (typical in winter) but the hills were still visible in the distance, as well as lots and lots of trees. It felt as if Old Trafford was surrounded by countryside. 

New recruits

We also had a look up to the roof. One of the green elements of The Point is that the roof slopes, so any rainfall can be collected and used elsewhere, such as flushing toilets.

It was good fun to head up to the mezzanine bar. From here you get, not only a fabulous sweeping view of the suite below, but of the ground and its surroundings as well.

Despite wearing some less-than-alluring gear (Gucci or Armani it is NOT), we all made sure we had a few pictures of us with the pitch in the background.

With that, we headed down the stairs and back to the MA site office where we gladly returned the wellies and goggles!

You know, even in the week since we went round, the building has changed dramatically and we can’t wait to be invited up again – next time hopefully with walls and windows in, so should be a bit more cosy.