| The Gamston Cricket Academy was set up as part of the move of the club from its previous ground at The Chateau on Wilford Road to its purpose built facility at Regatta Way in 2008. We initially had only a handful of juniors as we were previously unable to offer good playing facilities, although we were always well placed in Division B of the Nottinghamshire Cricket League and boast 3 qualified coaches. The facility we now have has to be one of the best club grounds in the county.
We managed to achieve promotion to Division A in 2007 which was our first season on the new ground although we only played a handful of games there.
In our first full season at Regatta Way the first team consolidated their position with a top 4 finish and the second team secured promotion.
The ambition of the club is to play in the Premier League and to be able to do this and sustain this position for years to come it is imperative that we have an established junior section.
We have registered, and are working towards, Club Mark Accreditation and the junior sections have an integral role to play in our achieving this.
It is hoped that the club will be able to support and run a full junior section within 3 years of its move to Regatta Way and we currently have 3 qualified coaches assisting with the development of the academy. It is our intention to increase this number and already have parents expressing an interest in taking a coaching qualification.
We have recently carried out a mailshot of the Gamston and West Bridgford areas and at the Academy open night in February we had over 20 new youngsters attending aged from 4 to 14.
We have also secured juniors from West Bridgford Colts FC who share the facility at Regatta Way and several of these youngsters have broken through to the senior Sunday team.
The aim of the academy is to generate sufficient junior membership to run weekly coaching sessions at our new ground under the supervision of the coaches and have matches with other local junior teams until such times as we are able to compete in the local leagues.
We are committed to making the academy a success and will be looking to take the local juniors through our ranks to form the nucleus of our senior teams for years to come.
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