Bradley Stoke Cricket Club: Update on the 2023 Season

Bradley Stoke Cricket Club is based at Baileys Court Activity Centre with a mission to promote cricket throughout the community.  It is home to seven senior teams, a Women’s Softball team, nine youth teams across six age group squads, All Stars cricket and Inclusion Table cricket. The youth section is supported by 13 ECB qualified coaches, six at Level 1/Foundation and seven at Level 2/Core.

Senior section

The Senior section fielded five Saturday teams in the Bristol and District Cricket Association (B&D) league and two Sunday teams in the North Somerset Cricket League (NSCL).

The Saturday 1st XI (pictured above) had an unprecedented season, winning the Senior (top) Division for the first time, with a game to spare, winning 10 out of 13 completed games (5 lost to the weather, 4 without a ball bowled). They have been promoted back into the West of England Premier League (WEPL) structure after relegation in 2022, and now look to consolidate there, using 2022’s experience. Not content with league success, they did the B&D double by winning the 20 over knockout cup for the third time in a row they have been able to participate, emulating 2019 and 2021.

The 2nd XI consolidated after promotion last year, finishing 7th from 11 in Division 3. Their season felt particularly stop/start with not only the weather impacting but the odd number of teams resulting in a further two less games. 

The 3rd XI had a similar season of consolidation following promotion last season, finishing 7th from 10 in Division 9. 15 players from the youth section represented this team, which bodes well for the future. For the first time they played home games on a grass pitch, at Oldbury-on-Severn CC, to whom the club are very grateful for accommodating them, also allowing a 5th XI to enter the league for the first time (see below).

The 4th XI were runners-up in Division 13, earning promotion into what will likely be the new 2nd regionalised tier (old divisions 10, 11 & 12), as part of a restructure of divisions 7 and below.

A crucial win was achieved in the penultimate game against Barrow Gurney who finished just two points behind in 3rd. The 4th XI fielded 17 different youth players through the season, largely from the Under 15 and Under 13 age group, once again showing that the club’s investment in youth is paying off. 

The 5th XI made their league debut, able to take the 3rd XI’s home slot at Bradley Stoke Community School, sporting a newly installed artificial pitch. They finished a respectable 7th in Division 15 with focus on development of players. 

The two Sunday teams are also primarily focussed on player development for Saturday cricket, each team at their relative levels (1st XI – NSCL Division 1 (top), 2nd XI – Division 3 (bottom)). Less results focussed, but for the record the 1st XI finished 5th from 9 and the 2nd XI 12th from 14.

Women’s Softball

This team was relaunched in 2023 and attracted a good number of players, many of whom were trying cricket for the first time. Thursday night training was fun focussed, whilst developing skills. They entered the league which included a number of established sides, as such they didn’t pick up a win but the key metric of enjoyment was met with room to spare – roll on 2024!

Inclusion table cricket

The club were delighted to launch table cricket sessions for 2023, taking place in the Orchard Room at Baileys Court Activity Centre on Friday evenings, alongside youth training. 

Free and open to literally anyone, it was particularly great to see those who couldn’t access our other cricket offerings taking part, but also coaches and players joining in during and after youth training. This culminated in a team being sent to Bradley Stoke Community School for a match against the hosts.

All Stars

50 children aged 5 to 8 signed up for Saturday morning introductory sessions at Baileys Court, supported by plenty of club members. The programme ended with a surprise visit from Twinkle, the All Stars mascot! We hope that many of the participants transition to our Under 9s group once they reach the requisite age.

Youth section

With a membership of over 100 reasonably spread across the age groups, two teams at Under 11s, 13s & 15s could again be fielded in Bristol Youth Cricket League (BYCL) league and cup competitions, as well as one each of Under 9s, Under 11s girls and Under 17s. Notably:

● The Under 9s played in a BYCL softball friendly league group, showing great promise in winning all five games, as well as enjoying several Sunday festivals.

● The Under 11s girls team (below) was officially formed and entered into a softball league after the success of attracting girls to the game and club via Dynamos cricket, and impressed the coaches with their improvement through the season, some of whom were playing against players 2 or more years their senior.

● The Under 17s reached the final of their competition for the 2nd year in a row, Bristol CC running out winners on the night.

So, another busy season has concluded! 

As ever the club are indebted to all its volunteers (eg committee, senior captains, coaches, groundstaff, bar helpers), sponsors, league officials and our landlords (Bradley Stoke Town Council and Bradley Stoke Community School). 

End of season presentations are on the horizon as we write this, and thoughts then turn to preparing for and making 2024 a success.

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