Clayesmore hopes new gym will prove advantage on cricket field

Pupils making the most of upgraded facility

Cricket at Clayesmore has benefited from the installation of a refurbished gym facility.

Dan Conway, the director of sport, explained that its addition has had a major impact on students at all levels of the sport.

The gym has a spin studio attached, as well as a performance room with squat racks and functional training areas. And Clayesmore’s pupils are making the most of it.

"We've developed a health and wellbeing programme with it, and the gym is for everyone," Conway said. "But with this performance area, it hits the sports scholars and athletes, and it also caters for the educational side of it.

^{Cricket is now the principal summer sport for girls at Clayesmore}

"We all know that when you finish school, gyms are a big, scary place – not many people know what to do in there, how to do it safely. So, it is all about giving them confidence for when they leave. As long as it hits all categories of student, then happy days. It has been a major overhaul, which has contributed to the training programme."

On top of that investment, four artificial nets have been added to the four turf lanes that were already in place.

Both those and the gym form part of the school's winter cricket programme, which is offered to sports scholars and pathway players. 

"Those programmes are technique-based and then also health and fitness-based," said Conway.

The gym add-on has proven particularly popular so far, with maximum numbers being reached "every day".

^{Health and wellbeing forms part of pupils' cricekt education}

"Uptake has been quite good because it's all brand new," he added. "But the challenge for us is to maintain that commitment. I'm sure they will because they all want to be in there at the moment."

From a cricketing perspective, that has been further aided by uptake from boys and girls alike, particularly since rounders was replaced as the principal summer sport for girls.

"Having four senior teams at a small school like ours is fantastic, and we go and play some bigger schools who only have two teams," said Conway. "It just shows the strength that we can offer. And with the girls playing cricket in the prep school too, having done away with rounders, that is only going to help the programme too.

"We have to manage the facilities on games days – if we have fixtures, then all the squares are being used – so there is some logistical working out to do, but the girls are joining the winter programmes as well. Girls' cricket is in a very good position at the moment."