Cricket Club News

The Season is now well under way, and the Club has been a really busy place. All the Senior sides are now well into their respective League campaigns, and it is good to see some new faces amongst the players, with the Club commitment to ‘mixed gender’ sides as strong as ever. It is also especially good to see two Frenchay ‘Hardball’ Womens Teams, playing midweek locally, and across Gloucestershire on Sunday afternoons. These are extremely welcome extensions of the Girls’ ‘Development Pathway’.

Numbers have exceeded previous years at Youth level, and most Squads are now full. It is terrific to see such enthusiasm, with the return of the traditional ‘Frenchay (Youth) Friday’, as we hopefully breakaway from the pandemic restrictions of the past two years. There have already been lots of matches, with the Ground fully used on most evenings of the week. The volunteer Grounds Team have been working flat out to provide the Wickets, and to keep the Ground looking good.

Early this month, the new ‘Non Turf (All Weather) Pitch’ is due to be installed on the ‘Top Square’ by suppliers Notts Sports. This will provide all age groups and Seniors with a different option for training, and for playing matches. This new facility is being provided primarily through a Grant from the English Cricket Board (ECB). In addition, the new ‘Flix Pitch’ portable Wicket is proving its worth. Part is being used as the ‘Batting end’ in the area at the top of the Ground used by the youngest Groups for training and matches. The other ‘half’ has improved the reliability/bounce performance of the area used for the Mobile Net training facility. This new piece of equipment was kindly partly funded by Councillors Liz Brennan and Ben Burton.