Garstang
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well run, well organised junior section
your club will be in a really healthy
position for years to come.”
Community
“We consider ourselves to be a
community club. We are based at the
Riverside sports ground in Garstang
which also includes football, rugby,
running, tennis, canoeing and crown
green bowling, so it really is the sporting
hub for Garstang.
As well as the three Saturday teams,
one Sunday team, two 2020 mid-week
teams and four junior teams we also
offer woman’s cricket and disability
cricket. We offer our facilities to the
local school games organiser for the
Wyre cricket festival as well as any of
the local primary schools in the area.
Myerscough College cricket academy
team use our facilities to train and play
as well as Lancaster University men’s
and woman’s cricket teams.”
Facilities
“Out on the field, we are very lucky
to have really good facilities. We have
two big grounds, plenty of practice
facilities, all the training and
coaching
equipment
you
would
ever
need and top of the
range
machinery
to prepare the
wickets, square,
outfield etc.
However, we
do require the
club house and
changing
rooms
to
be
updated
and expanded. We
are a member club of
Garstang Sports Club,
along with the other clubs
mentioned above; they own and manage
the club house and changing rooms for
all the clubs. These facilities have had
very little investment over the past 20
years.
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It has got to the point where they
are nearly no longer fit for purpose.
Garstang Sports Club are currently
looking to address this through grant
funding which would give all the
associate clubs new changing rooms
and a brand new club house/social area.
These improvement are desperately
needed and would bring the off
field facilities in line with the
on field ones.”
Challenges
“The
major
challenge
that
we worry about
at the moment
is another flood.
We had a once
in 50 years event
twice
in
nine
months, another one
would really knock the
stuffing out of us, not only
financially but also in terms of
the amount of physical effort it took to
recover the previous two times.
Other than that I don’t think we
have any other major challenges that
are limited to just us as a club. The
general decline in participation in cricket
will always be a challenge, national
campaigns such as All Stars Cricket are
a start and have been very successful.”
Ambitions
“We have lots of ambitions for
the next few years. We’d like the first
team to win the Palace Shield, which is
something the club has never done. We
have been close a few times but never
quite got over the line. We’d like to have
all three Saturday teams in the top 3
divisions; we are currently in Premier,
Division 1 and Division 4.
A recent link has been created
between our league (Palace Shield) and
another local league (Northern League)
to create a pyramid structure with the top
two teams in the Palace Shield Premier
League given the option of going up to
the Northern League. As a club we’d like
to give the Northern League a go and see
if we can compete at that level.
As mentioned previously, the
club house and changing rooms are
in desperate need of redevelopment,
hopefully within the next five years that
will be completed.”