Over the summer holiday, the Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation (GCF) provided 82 cricket camps across 27 days, delivering 434 hours of cricket that reached over 700 children and provided over 950 hot meals.
A summer of cricket
This summer the GCF have been busy providing a range of holiday cricket camps across our beautiful cricket region. From our flagship community festival CricFest, ACE HAF, Girls Engagement Days, All Stars and Dynamos Cricket to Zonal Camps, over 700 children have taken part in our summer holiday cricket camps.
With support from Bristol City Council, the England and Wales Cricket Board and community partners, the Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation have also provided some free holiday camps, of which some also provided a hot meal for children on free school meals.
Summer Holiday Cricket Fun Days
Over 500 children signed up to our Summer Holiday Cricket Fun Days. 22 camps were provided across 6 cricket clubs where children developed their cricket skills and took part in fun softball games. A huge thank you must go to Bishopston CC, Cinderford St. John CC, Cirencester CC, Hatherley & Reddings CC and Stroud CC for their support with the use of their fantastic facilities.
Zonal Days
The Zonal Day Camps provided playing opportunities for advanced age group players to take part in games with players of similar ability in preparation for the County Age Group trials for the winter training programme. 12 days of Zonal Day Camps were delivered where players were able to play 20-over or 35-over format games.
Girls Engagement Days
Following the success of the ICC Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup engagement through the trophy tour, school engagement days and the fixtures hosted at the Seat Unique Stadium in Bristol, 13 Girls Engagement Days took place. These provided soft ball cricket taster sessions for 239 girls to experience the delights of the game and direct them onto where they can continue to play cricket, either at a local cricket club or community cricket hub. Sessions took place at Aston Ingham CC, Poulton CC, Frocester CC, Ashton Keynes CC, Tewkesbury CC, Brislington CC, Chipping Campden CC, Chipping Sodbury CC, Huntley CC, Kings Stanley CC, Adlestrop & Daylesford CC, City Academy Bristol and Lockleaze Sports Centre.
Free holiday cricket camps
With support from the England and Wales Cricket Board, we were able to provide 10 free holiday cricket camps for children on free school meals in Bristol, Gloucester and Cheltenham, reaching almost 200 children. We reached out to SENCOs of the local schools the GCF deliver cricket in, asking them to inform their families who receive free school meals about the offer. In Gloucester, we received funding from the Julia Rausing Trust which allowed us to provide 240 hot halal meals with support from the Islamic Society of Gloucester.
“It was very reassuring to have a Halal lunch as this is very uncommon with other camps.” Said one of the parents.
CricFest
Our annual flagship community cricket festival brings together our free community cricket programmes, ACE, Street and Wicketz and youth sections from cricket clubs that support these programmes. 80 children from across Bristol join to take part to develop their cricket skills, play a softball cricket competition, glow-in-the-dark cricket and develop life skills. This year, food was provided by Nando’s and dessert courtesy of Marshfield Ice Cream.
ACE HAF
Funded by Bristol City Council, ACE HAF provided 11 days of activity for over 70 children on free school meals. Along with the 770 free hot meals, cricket was served everyday accompanied with other activities delivered by different providers which include Jumpstart Food and Fitness, Bristol Fun For Hire and Empire Fighting Chance.
Chris Munden, Head of Operations for the Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation, said:
“We often talk about ‘delivery with purpose’, and this summer has been a fantastic example of what that means in practice. We set out to make a real difference by supporting clubs to grow their youth sections and helping develop the county’s next generation of talent. Importantly, our free holiday cricket camps have helped take away the stress the summer holidays can impose on many households by providing free, accessible and enjoyable activity children want to come back to.”
For more details about our holiday offers, contact Chris Munden.
Email: chris.munden@gloucestershirecricketfoundation.org
Phone: 07557 924941
