One more reason to love Mayow Park. This past week I took my two children along to Mayow to enjoy a few hours of professional cricket coaching from the wonderful people at Teachsport, who I understand, are in collaboration with Glendale to put Cricket firmly back on the map in SE26.
Banners went up around the park only a few weeks ago, cricket would beplayed each day for a week from 11-3pm, and it seemed the perfect summer holiday solution for my 10 year old lad, who plays cricket at school but could do with some more guidance, and his 8 year old sister who’s never played before, and wants to do whatever her big brother does.
Along with another 8 or so local children of mixed ages and abilities, they enjoyed a great day’s batting, catching, bowling and general running around in a very friendly and often competitive atmosphere. The coaches from Teachsport were brilliant; they teach games in the local schools by day and are passionate about helping our kids enjoy sport and my two came away having learnt a lot. The Park Cricket format (AKA Kwik Cricket) uses lightweight plastic bats and stumps, soft-ish balls (which means pads and gloves are not necessary) and simplified rules, which reduce complexity and increase the fun. You may see it played during the lunch breaks at International Test matches and it’s a successful format used by many schools to introduce the game to youngsters.
It’s early days for Cricket at Mayow, this time next year there should be a cricket team in residence (local cricket pitches are much in demand) and even more summer sessions for the youngsters.
Alex Nisbett
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