24 Jun 2015 | Cricket
To celebrate National Cricket Week hundreds of school children have had the chance to take part in a range of activities at the SSE SWALEC, as well as playing on the outfield during the lunch intervals of the County Championship match between Glamorgan and Leicestershire.
Former Glamorgan bowler Mark Frost, who is now the Glamorgan Community Cricket Coordinator, has been influential in arranging the week's activities along with the Club's community programmes.
National Cricket week is happening this week during the game with Leicestershire and the Club is hosting over 500 children during the week, said Mark. We hope the children enjoy playing at The SSE SWALEC, watching a county cricket game, but most of all have lots of fun
As well as the daily visits by school children to the stadium, all across the country other cricketing events have been going, including many Kwik Cricket tournaments including one at Cardiff Castle.
Glamorgan in partnership with the Urdd host an annual cricket tournament held at the Castle for a whole range of schools. There are also other Kwik cricket tournaments happening around the country as well as cricket days at schools. The best thing about it is everyone is enjoying the sport and the weather.
One of the main rewards for hosting schools at the Club is the new skills and knowledge the children take from the day. Mark highlights how despite the experience being fantastic the most important feeling the children take away from the day is enjoyment and fun.
Lots of fun and enjoyment is the most important thing. They also get the opportunity to see what it's like to play on a first-class county ground surface, look around the CC4 Museum of Welsh Cricket where they have a series of class exercises and learn the history of the game. One of the main highlights is the basic coaching skills they receive from the Glamorgan community coaches as well as a tour of the Stadium.
With schools visiting proving a huge success Mark hopes the Club take big steps forward in increasing the participation and visits of school children over the next few years.
We want to promote this experience to schools up and down the country. This year we hope in 2015 we will treble the amount of school visits and club visits to the Museum andSstadium, but we want to go further than that. We want to have different schools visiting everyday whether it be a match day or a summer's day as we have received great feedback about the experience.
With children evidently relishing their trip to The SSE SWALEC Mark hopes that the children don't stop here but seek out further opportunities to play and increase their knowledge of the game.
Between Glamorgan County Cricket Club and Cricket Wales we want to help children find where they can play and train. The best bit of advice is to contact Cricket Wales and they'll be able to find a place for you to play near home