BACA hosts half-term holiday camp as part of Aldridge Foundation girls' project

During the half term holidays, the Sussex Cricket Foundation were able to run a girls’ only holiday camp at The Sir Rod Aldridge Cricket Centre at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, through the Aldridge Foundation girls’ project.

Funded by the Aldridge Foundation, the girls project is in its fifth year of running and involves the Sussex Cricket Foundation delivering cricket in primary schools across Brighton and Portslade, delivering community sessions in the area, working with the two Aldridge secondary schools and providing support to local clubs who have a girls set up.

The aim of the project is to engage, develop and increase the number of girls in Brighton and Portslade playing cricket, but also to bring awareness and encourage them to attend Brighton Aldridge Community Academy as their secondary school choice and to join the Aldridge junior pathway so they can get their education and continue with their cricket with the first-class coaches at the Aldridge Cricket Academy.

Twenty-five girls attended the half term camp last week, with all of them being from the local schools in the area and the majority of them being girls who have been coached by the Sussex Cricket Foundation coaches in the schools through the Aldridge Foundation project.

This holiday camp was the first time the Sussex Cricket Foundation have promoted the camp exclusively to the schools they have either worked with or are going to be working with in the local area through the project. The camp was fully booked.

With the exception of one participant, all the girls who attended the camp do not play cricket outside of school and was the first time they attended a cricket camp in the community, where they played lots of fun games and learnt some new skills.

Sussex Women & Girls Development Officer and lead of the Aldridge Foundation Girls project, Charlotte Burton said, “It was fantastic that we were able to engage with new girls from the community and see so many attend from the schools we have been working with, it shows what great work our Foundation coaches have been doing in the schools recently to inspire girls into cricket and the great relationship and support we have from the local teachers who have helped promote the camp.

“We have hopefully inspired more girls to continue to take up cricket at the local cricket clubs, but also because the camp was held at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, it has given us an opportunity to show the girls and the parents the amazing cricket facilities at the school and showcase what BACA has to offer them as a secondary school and the partnership the pathway and Sussex Cricket have together”.

There will be further Aldridge Foundation girls holiday camps through the summer being held at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, Southwick CC and Lewes Priory CC, dates and sign ups for these camps will be released at the end of June.

For further details on the Aldridge Foundation Girls Project and how to get involved in community sessions please contact charlotte.burton@sussexcricket.co.uk.