QUEDGELEY & Hardwicke are a picture of a thriving and vibrant cricket club, yet it was not too long ago that there were real fears for their very existence.
Ed Martin, who joined ten years ago at the age of 16 and is currently fixture secretary and head groundsman, recalls that things were not looking good at all.
He said: “Basically, we were running out of money and there was a general feeling that we would have to fold within a couple of seasons.”
Fast forward to now, and the club are for the first time in their history running three Saturday sides, All Stars, Dynamos, junior sides from U11s through to U15s, a girls U11 side and women’s softball squad who recently clinched their first league win of the summer.
It’s been a quite remarkable turnaround but one which could serve to inspire other clubs that are worried for the future.
Ed said: “We moved to Kingsway six years ago and that has worked out really well for us. At that time we had about ten U11s and one coach while now we’re up to between 60 and 70 youngsters and eight or nine coaches.
Quedgeley & Hardwicke’s U11 girls squad
“Our location has been a big factor as lots of people walk past the ground and see what we’re doing, while more and more houses are being built around here. We’ve also tried to promote ourselves on social media and that’s definitely helped too in terms of our profile locally.”
Numbers are increasing at such a rate that there have been serious conversations about the potential need to run a Saturday fourth team next season.
Ed added: “Things are definitely heading in the right direction. We used to lose a lot of our better youngsters to other clubs but they’re now staying with us and starting to feed into our Saturday sides which is brilliant to see.
“As a club, we’ve put in a tremendous amount of work in behind the scenes to be as inclusive as possible and it’s definitely starting to pay off.
“We see it also with our youngsters. We’ve got probably double the number of girls than boys in our U11s, and three of those girls are now in the Gloucestershire squad, including Eloise Maggs who recently scored her first 50.
Quedgeley & Hardwicke’s first team
“We also recently secured ECB Clubmark accreditation for the first time. It was something we were keen to do and show that we are on the right track.”
For more information on the club, visit http://qhcc.play-cricket.com/home while the club can also be found at
https://www.facebook.com/QuedgeleyHardwickeCricketClub and on Twitter at: @Qued_hardcc