Cricket: Picnic Cricket for kids in park

Junior cricket is set for a boost in Greerton with the announcement the popular Picnic Cricket in the Park will begin at Pemberton Park next week.PHOTO/ANDREW WARNER

A module of Picnic Cricket in the Park is set to see junior cricket return to Pemberton Park in Greerton during summer.

While Greerton senior club cricket has undergone a renaissance in recent years, the junior game has languished. Enter a partnership between the Western Bay Cricket Association and the Greerton Cricket Club to run Picnic Cricket in the Park at Pemberton Park, during term four.

Last year, the Western Bay of Plenty Cricket Association rolled out Cricket Picnic in the Park in conjunction with the Mount Maunganui Cricket Club at Blake Park. The initiative is aimed at introducing 4 to 7-year-olds to cricket.

Picnic in the Park Cricket is about parents rocking up to Pemberton Park with a rug to sit on the bank and watch kids get immersed in the introductory steps of the game. The games will finish with a sausage sizzle where parents and their youngsters can mix with other families.

The programme starts with the very basics of the game, starting with hitting, catching and bowling the ball. Step one is for the youngsters to learn to hit the ball from an elevated tee. The eight-week Picnic Cricket in the Park module will progress in simple steps, where in the last two weeks children will take part in six-a-side games.

In term one next year, it is expected that many of the youngsters will progress to playing Saturday morning division three cricket at Greerton Cricket headquarters.

In order to make the Pemberton Park module affordable, the cost has been kept to $10 for the eight weeks of the introduction programme.

A registration night is to be held at Pemberton Park on October 15 from 4-5pm. Further registrations will be taken on opening night, October 17.