Cricket: Club goes to bat for juniors

Max Taylor, 6, running hard at Pemberton Park's Picnic Cricket in the Park.

Greerton Cricket Club officials are hopeful Western Bay of Plenty Cricket's introduction of Picnic Cricket in the Park at Pemberton Park will help build a strong junior playing base.

About 60 youngsters aged 5-7 turned out with their families on Friday to be put through their paces by junior coaches and have a picnic dinner at the home of Greerton cricket.

While the Greerton senior club cricket has undergone a renaissance in recent years, the junior game has languished in the wilderness.

Greerton Cricket Club president Steve Wineti said the initiative was important for the club.

"It is great for the club to have junior cricket back at Pemberton Park," he said.

"The initiative is fantastic and will assist us to grow our club.

"The link with our local schools has been the key and Don Warner from Western Bay of Plenty Cricket and Darren Leef from Greenpark School have been the driving force behind this.

"We want to make this work and this is really positive for the club."

A number of the club's premier players will be lending a hand and the club aims to field junior teams in Western Bay of Plenty competitions next season.

Warner said the weekly sessions were an extension of the Western Bay's "Introduction to Cricket" programme that were taken into local primary schools. It starts with the fundamentals of the game - hitting, catching and bowling.

Step one sees youngsters learn to hit the ball from an elevated tee, throw a ball and be taught the windmill technique for bowling.

"Friday nights at Pemberton Park are about reinforcing the basics of cricket in simple repetitive steps, then transferring the youngsters new-found skills to fun games of six aside cricket," said Warner.

The sessions run weekly on Fridays from 5-6pm.