Seymours Haslemere Encourages Team Sport With Chiddingfold Cricket Club

Our Haslemere team has a fantastic relationship with Chiddingfold Cricket Club in Surrey, helping to support the junior members and grow the youth section over many years.

We understand how important access to team sport is to our local children and that is why we are proud to sponsor the club and help to ensure that more young people can take up cricket.

Here Ian Spicer, Chiddingfold Cricket Club Chairman, and Steve Benbough, Junior Cricket Coordinator, provide an insight into the history of the club and how it has become such a vital part of our community. They also highlight how the support of Seymours is so beneficial.

Chiddingfold Cricket Club in the community

Official records show that Chiddingfold Cricket Club was established in 1804 when we played Marylebone Cricket Club, but we are older than that, as we know of a man Called William Dibblesfold who died in 1789 aged 66 who was said to be one of Chiddingfold’s leading cricketers.

What is clear is that the club has been an important part of village life for well over 200 years. In more recent times, we’ve worked really hard to reach out beyond our traditional support and we now hope that all sections of the community feel proud of their club. During the summer months, the cricket club is at the centre of local sporting and social activities – something to be enjoyed by everyone.

Growing junior section

Increase in membership has been incredible as we’ve gone from having about 50 players (mainly boys) ten years ago, to over 250 girls and boys playing each week. Much of the growth comes from the explosion of girls playing the game and we have been thrilled to be part of that.

Team sport offers so many lessons to young people and whilst our teams have performed really well in recent years, it’s not really about that. Our boys and girls learn about supporting each other, treating opponents with respect, and playing within the spirit of the game. You don’t win or lose; you win or learn!

We’re cricket lovers at Chiddingfold and we have all made great friends through this wonderful game. Giving others the chance to do the same is so positive.

Vital support from Seymours

The support of Seymours is amazing and as the junior section has grown, the sponsorship has allowed us to continue to invest in our facilities and equipment to make sure that the standard of our coaching offer is maintained. It also allows us to keep our junior membership fees as low as possible as we want cricket to be available to everyone in our village.

Seymours have allowed the club to plan ahead. Many sponsors come and go for entirely understandable reasons, but Seymours have been a rock that we have been able to rely on for many years. They are more than just sponsors; they are club supporters. Seymours follow our teams’ progress on social media channels and often like our posts and send encouraging messages.

Cricket provides a positive focus

I remember when we emerged from the first lockdown in the summer of 2020, we were allowed to start cricket back up that June. The boys and girls had not been in school and cricket was the first group activity that they were allowed to participate in. The logistics were complicated as they had to play in small groups, but going to the efforts that we did is probably the most important thing that we will do in our lifetimes.

Looking back still makes us quite emotional, but we have never seen such big smiles on young faces. It was quite humbling just to be able to give them an opportunity to play with their friends again.

We receive so much positive feedback from parents and the boys and girls about how much they love playing cricket at Chiddingfold. That’s all credit to our coaches as they provide a place for children to play cricket in a safe, fun, and enjoyable way.

Surrey junior cricket champions

We’re open to everyone and that’s what we’re all about, but that isn’t to say that we don’t celebrate our successes. Only this year, our Under 11 and Under 13 teams both won their Surrey Junior Cricket Championship league titles and our U14s finished as runners-up in theirs. Our U11s even got to the County Cup final for the first time.

If you would like to find out more about Chiddingfold Cricket Club and how to join, please visit https://www.chiddcc.uk/

Read more articles on Seymours in the Surrey community here

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