New Artificial Wicket at Little Bardfield
After getting every last drop of cricket out of our previous Astroturf wicket over the last 25 or so years, we felt it was time for an upgrade.
The key driver for this is to improve on the Junior Cricket offering the club re-introduced back in 2022 for 7/8-11 year olds. This has been a tremendous success, and we've seen the numbers attending grow. The club is committed to continuing to nurture and grow this in 2024 and beyond, but we now want to extend the offering to a slightly older group (12-15 year olds) with a view to creating a pathway into the Senior Team for those who want to play. The club will be investing heavily to make sure we have the right equipment (helmets, pads, bats, balls, etc.) and coaching to provide a safe, fun, and enjoyable environment for that group to thrive as they are introduced to hard ball cricket.
To that end, the club felt we needed to improve our artificial wicket for the group to practice on. Last week, our approximately 25-year-old (older than a couple of the players in the Senior Team) Astroturf wicket was ripped out, and a shiny, new artificial surface has been laid. This will give the Senior Juniors the opportunity to practice their batting and bowling in the net on a surface that is fit for purpose.
"Little Bardfield Village Cricket Club has a strong history of promoting physical activity, teamwork, and sportsmanship among the youth of our community, with a significant proportion of the current senior playing cohort having arrived at the club as young children, learning their trade on the previous artificial surface, including myself. Unfortunately, this hasn't been possible in recent years due to the deterioration of the surface, so we are absolutely delighted to be able to offer this all-weather facility to local residents once again," said Club Chairman Will Slemmings.
It's amazing to be able to improve the facilities around LBVCC, especially when it helps improve our Junior cricketing offering. We couldn't have done it without the support of local community funding, so we would like to extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation to the below organizations, as without their support, this would not have been possible:
- Little Bardfield Parish Council
- Uttlesford District Council Youth Initiatives Working Group
- Stansted Airport Passenger Community Fund
We'd also like to give a massive thanks to ClubTurf Cricket for installing the new surface. They've done a fantastic job, took an amazing amount of care when ripping out/laying the new track (especially so close to the start of the cricket season), and we're over the moon with the results.
We'll share more information in the next week or two on Junior cricket - dates/times, etc., so keep an eye on LBVCC.co.uk, our Instagram (@littlebardfieldvillagecc), or Facebook (Little Bardfield Village Cricket Club) for more information.
