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Nawton Grange FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/SPORTYORKSHIRE 1 Nawton Grange CRICKET CLUB Nawton Grange CC is a fine example of the important role that a cricket club can play in their local community. Sport Yorkshire Magazine recently caught up with Club Representative Jonny Pickard to find out more about how the club has been getting along lately. Involvement He told us, “I have been involved with the club for nearly twenty years. I was first attracted to the club because it is a beautiful ground, and a lot of my friends were already playing for the club. We have a lot of strong characters within the 1st XI, many of whom have previously played and captained at a high standard, so it is sometimes a challenging role, however I find it extremely rewarding to know that we have fielded the best possible XI players in any given week, especially when the result goes our way.” Atmosphere “There is a real buzz feeling at the club at the moment. We have worked 26 Issue 01 hard over the winter to secure funding to develop the ground, to include a dual bay enclosed net facility which we hope will be completed by June, along with the addition of a large electronic scoreboard which we hope will be in place by the end of July. It has been incredibly humbling to see the efforts of club members and supporters to raise the required funds to get these projects over the line. We have also received significant support from local businesses, which have helped to secure the financial stability of the club for years to come.” 2019 “The 1st XI are hoping to challenge for the Scarborough Beckett League Premier Division title this year, and the 2nd XI look to have a strong squad under the new leadership of Darren Smith, so I am sure that they will be the team to beat in Division 3 of the Scarborough Beckett League. Our Junior coach George Bentley will have a busy season, having entered four teams into the local Junior leagues for 2019.” Youth “Youth Development is key to the present and future of our club, and we regularly have over seventy juniors attending coaching on a Wednesday evening. We also run the national All Stars programme on a Saturday morning, which sees approximately 25- 30 young cricketers between the ages of 5 and 8 take part. We have entered an evening league team into the ‘Ryedale Development League’, so that when players have