News update from our Chairman, Steve Wennington:

Just a quick update on Hailsham Active’s meeting on the 12th October with MP Tracey Crouch (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism and Heritage), myself and Scarlett McNally (consultant orthopaedic surgeon). Also in attendance was our local MP Nus Ghani and her colleague, Josh Still.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a lack of connectivity to enable a co-ordinated approach by taking responsibility for the plan of having new schools as the centre of the community (whilst the principle is sound… it crosses too many departments … sport/health, schools), and it went down the route of ‘you need to contact the relevant department, rather than we can co-ordinate things…’

The bottom line is that the decision for sports facilities, health facilities and education facilities mainly rests with our local District Council, Wealden and East Sussex County Council.

The interesting comment being that the minister is unable to insist on the recommended actions they have. The relevant documents will be forwarded to us, but ultimately it is down to the leaders of these Councils to decide if they want to follow the guidelines. We will do our best to highlight these to the people/departments concerned and add our own local knowledge and views on how these can be implemented cost effectively.

I would like to add we are grateful to Nus for arranging this meeting and enthusiastically supporting us, now and for future work.

I will keep you updated on any follow up action we get.

HAILSHAM Cricket Club Goes From Strength to Strength.

At Hailsham Cricket Club we are extremely keen on getting juniors playing cricket, we have over 100 boys and girls who train and play matches for the Club between the ages of 5 – 16. Hailsham Cricket Club has been awarded the Clubmark status under the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Their development is supported by 14 ECB qualified coaches, this is as many if not more than any other team locally.

2016 has been a massive success for the club with the 1^st XI securing their highest league finish in division 1 in the last 50 years (4^th) and also retaining the Eastbourne knockout competition. The 3^rd XI secured back to back league titles as they won division 9 in fine style thanks to the leadership of Robin and Harry. Our juniors excelled with the U11’s and U14’s going unbeaten throughout the whole season and winning their respective East Sussex Leagues. The U16’s won the Sussex Junior Cricket Festival Plate, with a comprehensive victory over Arundel in the final to cap a remarkable season for all our juniors.

This has also been an extremely productive year for the club off the pitch with the 3^rd and 4^th XI having use of a brand new cricket pavilion at the picturesque Roebuck Park. Roebuck Park will be used for more junior and senior games in the coming years to allow all members the chance to play at this stunning cricket venue. We have developed links between the club and Tim Van Noort’s cricket academy Skillz, we look forward to working with each other in the future.

New players are always welcome from the age of just 4 visit Hailsham Cricket Club for more information.