Last year, the GRACE Action Plan 2025 supported the GCF in their mission to get bats and balls into more people’s hands.
RAG rated GRACE Action Plan 2025
Overview of GCF GRACE Action Plan 2025
In 2025, there were 99 actions that supported the Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation (GCF) to enable the game in our region to be more equitable, diverse and inclusive to support our mission to get bats and balls into more people’s hands.
The table below gives a topline of the amount of work the Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation achieved in 2025 in providing opportunities for more people from different backgrounds and cultures to play the game in a welcoming and safe environment.
RAG rated actions from GRACE Action Plan 2025
| RAG | Q1 Jan - Mar | Q2 Apr - Jun | Q3 Jul - Sep | Q4 Oct - Dec | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3% |
| Amber | 0 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 15 | 15% |
| Green | 20 | 30 | 20 | 11 | 81 | 82% |
| Total actions | 20 | 37 | 37 | 16 | 99 |
Highlights of achieved successes
In the first quarter of the year, the GCF became the first county organisation to achieve ECB Gold Standard Governance, an achievement we are incredibly proud of. This not only shows the ECB the level of work the GCF does but also offers confidence and reassurance with potential external partners and stakeholders considering partnering and collaborating with us to enable more of this work. Read more here.
With the season fast approaching in the second quarter of the year, Gloucestershire saw its first Senior Women’s Team for players aged forty-five and over play against Wiltshire’s Senior Women. Read more here.
In quarter three, the season was in full swing, but despite all the opportunities to play, there are several children in our region who are living in challenged circumstances and find accessing team sport and physical activity difficult. For the third year, the African Caribbean Engagement (ACE) Programme delivered HAF, providing activities, cricket and hot meals across 9 full days during the Easter holidays and 18 full days during the summer holidays. Our ACE HAF programme provided 810 places and reached 324 ethnically diverse children and young people, many of whom had never played cricket before, access the sport and be signposted onto one of our 22 free community cricket hubs to continue their enjoyment of the game. Read more here.
Even though the season has come to an end, cricket never stops, but we took a moment in the final quarter of the year to reflect on a landmark year for Women’s Cricket in Gloucestershire, with 354 matches played, 1,202 wickets taken and 26,068 runs scored. This had to be celebrated, and we hosted the Gloucestershire Women’s Recreational Cricket Awards. Read more here.
Continued areas of work from 2025
Feedback we received through community engagement and consultation was there is a desire for a Tape Ball offer during the off season, particularly within the South Asian communities of Bristol. Having such an offer would support us in reaching more people, as traditional summer scheduling of cricket fixtures is not compatible with many cricket lovers’ weekly routine. Having a shorter version of the game in the winter requiring minimal equipment would accommodate many people who are unable to play during the summer. Therefore, it was our ambition to deliver our inaugural Tape Ball tournament in the second quarter of 2025.
Challenges with funding and recruitment had pushed this ambition back, but with Bristol now an ECB Cricket City, we were invited to submit two teams into the ECB’s National Indoor Tape Ball Championship: a male team and a female team. Despite being our first step into adult Tape Ball, both teams reached the semi-finals. This engagement has provided a solid foundation for us to appreciate and understand the desire for adult Tape Ball provision in the city and shape what that offer can become through 2026. Read more here.
2025 was to be the year our community Table Cricket offer was to be trialled, but challenges with resource and funding delayed this, so we were unable to begin this process in the final quarter of last year as planned. However, 2026 presents new opportunities and we are excited to explore how Table Cricket will support the wellbeing and health of people living with disabilities and long-term health conditions.
If you have not seen our GRACE Action Plan 2026, which outlines our plans for making the game more equitable, diverse and inclusive, click here to find out.
