Newton -le- Willows
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Newton-Le-Willows
CRICKET CLUB
N
ewton-Le-Willows is a fine example of a progressive,
forward thinking establishment that plays an important
role in their local community. Cricket Club Magazine
recently caught up with Club Representative Ian Walkden to find
out more about the good work they’ve been doing lately.
Involvement Youth
He told us, “I’ve been with the
club for around 38 years; my father
played and was captain so I played
straight from school. I was probably
on the management committee from
the age of 16 and captained the first
team for more than ten years and my
brother has been captain as well so
it is very much a family involvement
with my mum doing the scoring for
the first XI as well.
“It is a local club with some
fine facilities and what helped my
involvement was that our sports
teacher at school was the first team
captain so it was quite a natural step
for us. It has been established since
1868 so has a very good reputation
and I was happy to join.” “We’ve
worked
hard
to
improve the links with the local
primary schools through the All
Stars initiative and get quit a few
young players attending on a
Friday evening now. It has grown
substantially in the last ten or fifteen
years and youth development is
now an important part of what we
do. We play in a competitive league
with quite a lot of money knocking
around and we wouldn’t be able
to compete at that level without
developing our own players.”
14 Issue 49
Sports Club
“We are part of Newton-Le-
Willows Sports Club which has
football, rugby league, rugby union
and tennis so it’s a multi-sports
club. The football and rugby league
clubs have grown substantially
in recent times and it works well
with space being at a premium.
We’ve committed to investing in
our facilities to be the best that
they can be as we believe that that
is key to making sure that we are a
sustainable club for the long term.”
2019
“We’re currently in the first
division and whilst we would like
to step up to the Premier League it
is important that we do as well as
we can whilst remaining financially
sustainable. Whilst we play in a
semi-professional league we are