Plenty to celebrate at Gelvandale club event

THE Gelvandale Cricket Club continued their 40-year celebration with the Vernal Charles Youth Challenge at their cricket club in Gelvandale at the weekend.

Fontein Primary, Hillcrest Primary and a hubs team from various other teams in the club played a T20 format challenge against each other in the semifinals on Friday. Fontein Primary came out victorious against Hillcrest Primary in the action-packed T20 on Saturday.

Winners of the challenge Fontein, who also have bragging rights, will now go up against the club’s academy on April 30.

“It brings us great joy to see local schools from the Gelvandale community feed into our hub. The talent these youngsters have is amazing and we want to take it further to national colours.

“We do, however, work hand-inhand with schools because we strongly believe education goes together with sport,” club president Gary Dolley said.

The Club hosts the various schools on a weekly basis for intensive training sessions where the upand-coming cricketers from the club’s academy are trained using hard and soft ball techniques for advanced and intermediate skills.

Vernal Charles started the Youth Challenge programme three years ago in attempt to develop cricketers in Gelvandale. About 60 have since joined the annual event.

The club hosted a family day on Saturday in an effort to promote cricket in the Gelvandale area and encourage parents to support the aspiring cricketers.

“We are trying by all means to give young children an equal opportunity through sport within a club setup.

“We want the children to get the best coaching from experienced experts in the industry,” Dolley said.

The Club is looking to reach into more primary schools and high schools in the northern areas as part of their development goals and improve the quality of coaching in the club.