Sidley Cricket Club

- The clubs story

Formed in Sidley in 1901 at the Newham pub, Sidley Cricket Club has in the past hundred and twenty-two years helped hundreds of people to play cricket. And this continues today.

Surviving a global pandemic and being homeless, the club has had its fair share of hardships. Despite the setbacks, the club is positive about the future. They are keen for more people to be involved and be part of a long innings. This includes plans for developing a hub at St Mary’s Recreation ground and building a brick-and-mortar clubhouse which will be home for the club.

The club continues to keep the community of Sidley at the heart of everything they do,  giving everyone an opportunity to play cricket. For many, this is more than just cricket.

Helping people to start playing and developing cricketing skills.

St Mary’s story has already begun with junior sessions piloted last summer and a new eight-wicket grass pitch developed to start adult play this summer. 

Despite not having a home ground in Sidley, the club currently has senior sides and junior sides. This has come from dedicated coaches and volunteers who have focused on encouraging people into cricket and keeping those involved playing. There has been a focus on developing younger players and building up coaching resources. The club does encourage those of all ages and abilities to be involved, including a link with the Sidley Walking Cricket team for older or less mobile residents.

Working with Active Rother, the club has seen ten members undertake training to qualify as coaches. Ensuring that those partaking receive good training and that the club continues to be a community led club.

With all this in place, the club boasts of over 40-50 junior members aged 7-16 and over 70 active members for players aged 16 all the way to 74.

Jamie, the vice chair who has been with the club for over 24 years, comments:

“The club has a simple but powerful motive. To Do what we can in the community, and encourage others to join in”.  

For young people, the club has linked with schools including All Saints & Bexhill Academy, running Holiday Programmes including last summer with the Heart of Sidley. Indoor training takes place at Bexhill Academy with outdoor sessions taking place at St Marys Rec. 

The St Marys Rec project has been supported by several partners including Rother District Council to develop the playing surface at St Marys club.  Over 140 tonnes of soil were dug out and re-laid around the pitch to create a hard-wearing surface and a further 200 tonnes of topsoil were then laid and left to settle over the winter. Club members themselves were involved in a community-led project under Jamie who as well as a player and vice chair is an expert in sports pitches.