Templepatrick Cricket Club joined up with members of the Grange Women’s community group in Ballyclare to take part in a table cricket challenge. Table Cricket is the latest Cricket Ireland venture to promote alternative forms of cricket in the community and encourage participation, socialising and activity through cricket for relevant groups.

Cricket Ireland’s Active Communities Coach, Michael Hingston has been coaching the Women’s group over the last number of months and when Templepatrick Cricket Club were made aware of the opportunity to get on board they jumped at the chance.

Both groups rose to the challenge and thoroughly enjoyed the games which were quite close and competitive with both groups looking for the win.  However, the enjoyment levels of both groups were the main winner and everyone is looking forward to the next challenge match. 

TCC’s Peter Shepherd commented that " As a club we are looking to involve all aspects of the community in cricket, with the recent introduction of our ladies team and an over 45s men’s social team as well as all the youth cricket and links with schools we already offer, this development was another logical step in bringing cricket to the community".

Pamela Davis, the Health Coordinator for Ballyclare Neighbourhood Renewal area stated “The ladies thoroughly enjoyed learning the skills of Table Cricket. This is a great form of physical activity for the group. Now the partnership has been established between Grange Women's Group and Templepatrick Cricket Club we really would hope to hold further tournaments in the future.”

If there are any organisations in the Newtownabbey area that feel they would like to introduce Table Cricket to their members or have any other cricket queries, please get in touch with TCC Development Officer Andy McCrea on mccrea.a@sky.com.  More information on Templepatrick CC can be found on their Facebook page or on Twitter @tpatrickcc Active Communities Cricket Coach,  Michael Hingston added, "After working with both the Grange Women's Group and Templepatrick Cricket Club over the last number of years through the Active Communities programme, it was great to be able to bring the game that I love to the Women's Group, which probably would have been otherwise impossible without Table Cricket. I look forward to helping to further develop the links between the cricket club and the women's group and also looking at other opportunities to grow Table Cricket in the Newtownabbey and Antrim area through Active Communities.”

Active Communities is a Sport Northern Ireland, National Lottery Funded, initiative that aims to increase participation in sport and physical recreation in Northern Ireland, especially among underrepresented groups.

Sport Northern Ireland has invested £13.1m to the employment of 116 Active Communities coaches and each week these coaches deliver over 1,200 coaching sessions in a variety of settings like schools, sports clubs and community settings like leisure and community centres, youth clubs and residential homes.
For further information on Active Communities in Newtownabbey and Antrim, please contact Anna Boyle - anna.boyle@antrim.gov.uk

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