Lewdown and Bridestowe look forward to further juniors’ cricket success
Lewdown and Bridestowe cricket clubs are looking forward to building on a strong first year of combining their junior sections for the good of youth cricket in the West Devon Area. The two clubs have put aside any local rivalry and have the common aim of providing the best platform for young cricketers in the area.
The combining of the two clubs at a junior level, while the senior teams continue to field their own independent senior teams, meant that more opportunities opened up. Alex Jopling,from Bridestowe Cricket Club, said: ‘We had the support of both of our respective clubs to proceed with this since it was clear that what we could deliver was far greater combined than if we had continued to run our own independent junior sections.
‘The clubs are only four miles apart and rather than compete for junior players, it was far better to work together. This allowed us to embrace the ECB All Stars initiative for under 8s and also provide competitive cricket at various age levels. The uptake was tremendous, with sometimes over 50 children at our Friday evening training sessions.’
This season the aim is to build on that success and in addition to the Friday evening training sessions, cricket will start with indoor hardball training in March, leading to U11, U12 and U14 teams and U10 Friendlies and U8 cricket tournaments. They will also aim to run sessions to encourage even more parent participation and to demystify the concerns that helpers need to know about cricket to be able to assist.
The Clubs are going a step further and creating a joint logo’d kit for their juniors, to strengthen the foundation laid last season.
Nick Hayden of Lewdown Cricket Club said: ‘We really enjoyed last year’s joint venture and are grateful to everyone from both clubs for making it such fun and a great success and we can’t wait to get going for the 2018 season. For details please visit our Facebook page for regular updates and all aspiring young cricketers are welcome.’
Go to the facebook page Bridestowe and Lewdown Youth Cricket for more details.