Npower Opens New Urban Cricket Facility
Released
on: May 12, 2009, 4:11 am
Author: npower
Industry: Sports
The
new npower Urban Cricket facility in King Edward Park, Nottingham,
has opened with a huge six from England cricket international
Stuart Broad marking the opening.
The
new facility, which has transformed a disused area of the park,
is the fourth of five purpose-built cricket facilities to be opened
across the country as part of the Urban
Cricket initiative. It provides a permanent space for children
in Nottingham to learn and practice their cricket skills, turning
them into possible stars of the future.
In
addition to the facility, five school playgrounds in the Nottingham
area have also been redeveloped into Urban Cricket Zones. These
zones will help children with an interest in cricket to practice
and develop their skills.
Working
in partnership with Nottingham City Council and the Nottinghamshire
County Cricket Board, the development of the facility and its
five supporting zones, creates a tiered community development
programme with a clear route for children to follow, from learning
basic skills all the way up to playing club cricket.
Stuart
Broad said: "It's fantastic to see initiatives such as npower
Urban Cricket giving youngsters the chance to get out there and
play the game. It's going to make a real difference to the local
community and will hopefully produce plenty more first class cricketers
for Notts."
Chris Broad, Stuart's father and an ex-Nottinghamshire and England
cricketer himself, who also attended the opening, commented: "The
npower Urban Cricket facilities are a great way of developing
a legacy for the game and allowing children in the area to practice
their skills."
Councillor
Dave Trimble, Portfolio Holder for Communities, Leisure and Culture
said: "We're thrilled to be a part of this fantastic cricket
initiative and can't wait to see local young people making the
most of the facilities and developing their game. Nottingham has
a great tradition for cricket with Trent Bridge central to our
sporting landscape. Let's hope this will ensure some more home
grown talent playing for Notts soon."
npower
Urban Cricket, a grassroots project run in conjunction with
the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), was launched in 2006
with one clear goal - to get more children playing cricket. Since
its launch, npower and the ECB have distributed over 60,000 Urban
Cricket kits to children in the UK. The scheme plans to distribute
a further 10,000 kits in the summer of 2009.
More
recently the focus for Urban Cricket has shifted to the development
of five facilities with five Urban Cricket zones in school playgrounds
surrounding each of the facilities. The first facility was opened
by Monty Panesar in South London in August 2007. The second, in
Sheffield, was opened by Ryan Sidebottom in April 2008 and the
third, in Birmingham, by Ian Bell in August 2008. The fifth and
final facility in Manchester will be opened by James Anderson
later this month.
About
npower:
npower is one of Britain's largest electricity
supplier and supplies gas, electricity and related services
to 6.6 million customers across the UK. npower is a market leader
in renewable energy and sources the green
energy for juice directly from renewable sources, at no extra
cost.
npower
sponsors the Test Match Series in England, Women's Test Series,
the Twenty20 Cup and the Village Cup organised by the Wisden Cricketer.
RWE
npower has been awarded the prestigious CommunityMark from Business
in the Community (BITC). npower is the only utility business,
amongst 21 other companies in the UK, to receive this accolade.
The CommunityMark is a new BITC standard which has been created
to recognise companies that are good investors in local communities
and who have brought about real and positive changes.
PR Contact:
Tim Percival
npower
Oak House
WR4 9FP
Worcester
+ 44 (0) 7920 545 325
www.npower.com
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