News

Giving back through sponsoring rising stars!

Our Clubs can often be a catalyst for members to re-engage with their local sports club and this is certainly true in the case of our Uphill Castle and Bridgwater Clubs, run by Somerset Cricket Foundation, as they have recently sponsored two young cricketers!

The Sporting Memories sessions are held at Uphill Castle Cricket Club and Bridgwater Cricket Club, with older people from the local community enjoying the weekly gatherings to chat about sport and play games.

However, it was through this enjoyment and gratefulness of both cricket clubs hosting these sessions that our members decided to give back to a young player at each club!

Wanting to give back

We caught up with Nathan Rose, who volunteers at both Sporting Memories session that Somerset Cricket Foundation run, as he detailed how the opportunity to fund two local, young crickets came to fruition.

“Some of the Uphill Castle group decided to go and watch some of the Cricket Club’s games last summer; and they’ve got their own WhatsApp group where they often put in messages saying ‘I’m going to the cricket, does anyone want to join?’.

“A few of the members used to be involved at the Cricket Club, so when they found out about the sponsorship requests (from Uphill Castle CC) for their young players, they felt it would be a great idea to support as it meant giving something back to the Cricket Club for hosting the sessions since they started – which I thought was a really nice touch.

“I thought I would also mention the idea at our Bridgwater Club as well and now they also sponsor one of the Bridgwater players, which is brilliant. It shows how the Clubs can not only help the people who attend but also give back as well.”

Reconnecting with cricket locally

The Sporting Memories’ members engagement with the cricket clubs has heavily increased over the period since the sessions have been running, with Nathan added how this is helping the members to re-engage with sport once again at a local level.

“There has been a growing interest in the cricket at both Club from the members because of this. They now have fixture cards listing when all the games are being played, so they are planning to now attend more games this Summer.

“What this is doing for them is great as it’s getting them back into a sporting setting, so it shows how coming along to Sporting Memories can help get them back involved with something locally, in this case the cricket Club.”

“Another factor of them attending the cricket as group members is they’ll be in amongst people they know which can also help ease them into getting back into watching the sport regularly.

“One of them said to me ‘I hadn’t been to the cricket club in 40 years’ before coming along to Sporting Memories, which shows the impact we can have in bringing people back into the local community through sport!”

Our Uphill Castle Cricket Club session runs every Tuesday, from 10am to 12pm, whilst our Bridgwater Cricket Club session runs every Wednesday, from 10am to 12pm. To find out more about the sessions and how to join, email steve.gass@Somersetcricketfoundation.org