Primary School children in East Bergholt are being encouraged to take up club cricket after six weeks of coaching culminated in a kwik cricket festival.

Primary School children in East Bergholt are being encouraged to take up club cricket after six weeks of coaching culminated in

a kwik cricket festival.

Each feeder school in the Ipswich and South Suffolk Schools Sports Partnership had the opportunity to receive free coaching from East Bergholt Cricket Club's Brian Wilsher for school years five and six.

At the end of the coaching, all the schools came together to play in a kwik cricket festival, the aim of which was to develop and establish a strong school-club link with East Bergholt Cricket Club.

The festival proved a huge success and provided positive opportunities and learning experiences for over 50 students on the day.

In total four schools took part including, Capel St Mary, Copdock, East Bergholt Primary and Stratford St Mary.

The day itself provided saw some outstanding cricket played by all schools, with the eventual winners East Bergholt Primary School now being invited onto a regional Kwik Cricket tournament where they will represent the East Bergholt area.

Wilsher said: “With cricket, schools can be poorly supported in terms of the coaching that is available, but it is fundamental for the future that we provide these opportunities.

“The junior section at East Bergholt only started at the start of this summer and already we have 55 children registered which is probably double what we expected.

“One or two children from the festival have already started to come along to the club's junior training sessions on a Saturday morning, so the signs are looking positive.”

School sports co-ordinator Shaun Broom said: “A special thank you goes to all the feeder primary schools that took part, as well as Brian Wilsher and John White for all their hard work and effort that they have put into setting up this community cricket club.”

Those who are interested in finding out more about joining this new exciting community cricket club can contact Brian Wilsher on 01206 298456 or 07803120596.