What a year!
We started out with bitterly cold snow back in March, worked our way through torrential rain and endured temperatures the like we’ve never had to endure before.
We’ve been to Shopping Centres, Retail Parks, Beaches, Festivals, County Shows and Cricket Matches, visited 18 Counties and driven 12,412 miles over some 212 hours.
We worked with great Coaches and met some amazing youngsters and adults along the way, many of whom visited us to experience their first taste of cricket.
Here’s what Essex Cricket Board, Somerset County Cricket Club and Kent Cricket Board had to say about their experience with Cricket Factory in 2013:
“using the cricket factory really helped us to engage with the local community around two specific outcomes of South Asian and Women and girls, it’s very engaging and easy to take part activities proved an outstanding success. The contacts made on the day have helped us to set up new programmes and support us in working towards our strategy of Inspiring Essex to Choose Cricket. We will be looking to use the Factory again in 2014 at similar and hopefully larger events thanks to its adaptability” Dan Feist, Cricket Development Manager, Essex Cricket Board
“In August Somerset County Cricket Club teamed up with the ECB Cricket Factory Road Show to hold a day of beach cricket at Weston Super Mare. The event was a real success and Nikki and her team were outstanding. A number of 1st XI players also attended the event and helped to ensure that those who took part had a truly positive experience. Local residents and holiday makers alike used the rig steadily throughout the day with universally positive feedback. These kind of events are what every FCC should be doing. It is vital to be able to give something back to the communities in which we are based. The Cricket Factory allows us to do this.
From the Club’s point of view, it enables us to capture data and interact on a much more personal level than is normally possible. Giving people the chance to meet the players and take part in cricket challenges is a vital element when it comes to generating an interest in the sport. This interest will hopefully be turned in to participation, whether that be by watching the match that they have just won tickets for or contacting the Board to find out how they can get involved.
Without the Cricket Factory it would be much more difficult to carry out the community engagement events that form such an integral part of what any FCC should be trying to achieve. The looks on the faces of the young people who had been able to take part in cricket challenges with their heroes was something that wont be forgotten for a long time. It is this sort of good will that such events create which will draw future generations to the sport. Cricket is fortunate in that it’s stars are still accessible to the public and events such as the beach cricket day are able to highlight this. Access to the players is what the public want.
Somerset CCC also lent a hand when the Roadshow supported SASP at the Taunton Marathon. Once again Nikki and her team were able to provide a tremendous “added value” element to the event.” Spencer Bishop, Media and Marketing Executive Somerset County Cricket club
