The past week saw around 300 children from local primary schools visit the SSE SWALEC as Glamorgan Cricket moved towards completing its programme of community engagement activities for 2015.
In particular, Glamorgan CCC has hosted, in conjunction with Communities First, a series of transition days for a group of Year 6 pupils from primary schools situated in south-east Cardiff who will be attending Willows High School from September 2016. A group of players, including Dean Cosker and Graham Wagg, plus members of the Club's support staff joined forces with the Cricket in the Community team and the staff coaches who work in the National Cricket Centre, in providing a range of activities and skills-based drills.
During their visit, the primary school children had a chance to partake in Q and A sessions with the Glamorgan players, besides listening to presentations about healthy diet and exercise from the Club's physiotherapist (as seen above) plus the strength and conditioning coach. There were visits as well to the Media Centre and the commentary boxes to hear about how cricket games are broadcast, plus an extended session in the National Cricket Centre to enjoy a number of skills-drills with the Club's coaches, besides a chance to train alongside the professional players who had just commenced their pre-season preparations.
The purpose of these days at Glamorgan Cricket is for the youngsters to make new friends with pupils from other primary schools before their move to High School next year, to look at the various career options associated with the club as well as having a good time, said Sarah Lucas, Deputy Cluster Manager with the Communities First team based in the STAR area of Cardiff (Splott, Tremorfa, Adamsdown and parts of Roath) The action-packed days saw children developing new skills as well as being introduced to a wide range of jobs at a professional sports club, such as Glamorgan Cricket. Staff were on hand to answer any questions the children had relating to their role within the Club and how they might pursue such a career
Without the support of the Community team at Glamorgan Cricket, the majority of these youngsters would never have had the opportunity to visit such an outstanding sporting stadium. The facilities at Glamorgan Cricket's headquarters in Cardiff are first-class and we look forward to hosting a number of other sessions with the enthusiastic and well-motivated team based at Glamorgan Cricket.
These transition days were a great way for the Cricket in the Community team at Glamorgan Cricket and Cricket Wales to round off a year which has seen over 4,500 school pupils and college students visit the ground, as well as a host of highly-acclaimed projects during the lead-up to the opening Test of the Investec series between England and Australia, including the Ashes Partner Schools Project which saw the winning film entry from Thornhill Primary School played on the big screen at Glamorgan's headquarters during the tea interval on the third day of the Test Match.
115 groups from schools and colleges in the UK and further afield visited Glamorgan Cricket during 2015, and the calendar for 2016 is already very busy for visits, with groups from France, Belgium and Switzerland also scheduled to visit the home of Welsh cricket, alongside dozens of school parties from throughout the Principality and neighbouring counties of England as Glamorgan Cricket continues to open up the doors of the SSE SWALEC to the wider community and to make Wales proud.