Another busy week at the Wick, the highlight of which was my visit with Dom Spray to No.10 Downing Street to meet Myles Stacey OBE, Communities Special Adviser to the Prime Minister.

We were invited to No10 along with our colleagues from Heathfield Primary School and others from the MCC, Chance to Shine, and the CEO of Fairbreak to discuss the model we have put in place to encourage state school children, especially girls, to play cricket and to give them access to competitive sport. We spent more than an hour with Myles Stacey and let’s hope this is the first of many steps to improve access to competitive sport in state primary schools.

And following International Women’s Day, I am appealing to all women who are involved in the club, whether as parents and guardians, supporters, or age group helpers. We want to appoint a women to join our Committee as Head of Women’s & Girls Cricket. I am very conscious that although our Committee has some diversity amongst the members from an ethnicity and age perspective, we are currently all male. I want to change this.

One of the club’s overriding priorities is to increase the number of women and girls involved in cricket at the club. We want to build on the success of our girls’ teams achievements last season with the help of the Heathfield crew.  We really need female presence as an absolute priority on the Committee to talk through ideas about how to increase female participation.

No cricket experience is necessary and the time commitment can be tailored to whatever individuals can offer.  We also don’t expect one person to have to solve all the issues or find all the answers; there are lots of ideas and resources available and the full (and considerable) weight of the whole club is behind this to help.

If you think you may like to get involved, in however small a way, please contact Dom Spray (juniorcricket@hwrcc.co.uk) Head of Junior Cricket or Sam Kemp, Club Chairman (kempsam66@gmail.com) to chat further.  We have also lined up a Wick Women’s team friendly for later in the season, so will be asking for anyone who fancies getting involved to come along and have a try!  More details to follow.