IN WITH THE NEW

HOWZAT! ARMSTRONG CREEK BPCA BID

A GROUP from Armstrong Creek is planning an audacious bid to field a team in the BPCA this season.

More than 30 people attended a meeting held in the growth suburb on Tuesday night, including BPCA president Ian Caldwell.

Barry Mills, a resident of Armstrong Creek, is one of the men behind the push to see the new cricket club up and running by the start of the 2017-18 season and said the early signs were that there was significant support for the move.

“Our meeting was very fruitful, and it looks like we would be able to put two senior teams into the BPCA and have an under-17s team as well,” Mills said.

“So to go from having nothing to that in a couple of months, we’re pretty excited by it.

“We think we’re on the right path and the way the BPCA is going with its new clubs . . . it makes the association a lot stronger.”

Little River, Inverleigh and Winchelsea were recently admitted into the BPCA at the association’s annual general meeting, where applications for affiliation are considered.

If the group submits a formal application to become affiliated with the BPCA, a decision would be made at a special general meeting next month on the same night as the association’s delegates meeting.

Caldwell said it was exciting a new club had expressed its interest in joining the association.

“There have been discussions about the likelihood of a cricket club in the Armstrong Creek area and reports given to the delegates of certain progress in that area,” he said.

“The delegates will hear the (potential) application but they haven’t had an opportunity to question the representatives of the (club), so they will be in a position to do that at the special general meeting.

“But there has been a level of enthusiasm that a new cricket club starting from scratch would be able to join the BPCA.

“In the Armstrong Creek area there are a number of players available due to the rapid expansion of the housing, it’s just a matter of the fledgling club being able to make contact with potential players and being able to recruit them.”

The Geelong Advertiser understands that the new club would be looking to field teams in the BPCA’s one-day competitions.

Mills said the club was hopeful of playing its games at the community sports facility in Sovereign Drive if the bid was successful.