”Woolworths Blast” Cricket Raises under 10 Teams to New heights
The Cobbitty Narellan Cricket Club is now home to an increase in under tens cricket teams thanks to the Cricket yearly introduction event, The Woolworths Blast. Now in 2019, the event has offered children aged five to nine enough experience and skill to officially join the sport full time, which has led to the dramatic increase in younger teams. Now with a total of up to four under ten teams, as opposed to the usually 1 or 2, the cricket season is bound to be much more eventful and packed for the Cobbitty club this year.
The volunteer-based event, co-run by Mr Peter Rix, has been the main focal point for the emergence of increased numbers.
He continues the now 20-year-old introduction event made by Cricket Australia and has altered the event slightly to satisfy both children and adults. He said that ‘’ Cricket takes up a lot of time so a lot of parents don’t like that they lose their Saturday mornings so we try to make it enjoyable for both, more so for the children as they’re the ones that will make the parents come’’.
With the increased numbers, speculation came about whether or not the Camden area would be able to accommodate all teams at equal times in the near future. The Campbelltown and Macarthur area are home to 10 kids-sized cricket pitches with enough to fit a team each.
Research has shown however, that the Cobbitty Narellan Cricket club is one of the few clubs to still have consistent numbers in players while others have slowly started to dwindle. This will balance out the accommodation problem and hopefully not cause problems later on.
The event has been a sparking point for many aspiring cricket players, as Mr Rix’s
has said ‘’ children like to watch their heroes and then come out onto the grounds and do it themselves’’. Most of the helpers on the grounds were previously in the same positions as the kids and have grown into more hard-core cricketeers. Fellow volunteer and player for the club, James Price, has taken up a job as a cricket development officer, instructing kids in a similar manner to this event, clearly showing some influence and overall impact. He said that ‘’ working and instructing kids about cricket on a more teacher/student type of dynamic, is pretty much exactly like the style of teaching that this weekend cricket module taught’’.
The next Woolworths Blast will begin on the 19th of October which will correspond with the new cricket season starting around the same time, surely leading to a cricket-packed summer.