WELLINGTON Cricket Club has won the support of town councillors once again to bring winter cricket to local youngsters.

The club has been putting on winter coaching sessions for children since 2010 and they have been growing in popularity ever since.

Last year more than 100 local children took part – including 16 girls – at sessions held at Court Fields Community School sports hall.

Club stalwart Simon Spalding, who has been involved with Wellington CC since 1974, told members of Wellington Town Council’s finance committee that the coaching sessions were extremely worthwhile.

“What is good to see is looking at the senior teams and seeing the youngsters coming through,” he said. “But we’re not necessarily looking to bring on youngsters to play for Wellington, we just want to get youngsters playing cricket.”

The club asked the council for a grant of £1,050 to help pay for the hire of the community hall and councillors heard it had been awarded £1,000 for each of the previous four years.

Ten three-hour sessions are planned at Court Fields at £105 a session, and children pay £2 a session. It was suggested during the meeting that the children should perhaps be asked to contribute more.

“The sessions are for the many rather than the few and we think £2 a child per session is right, especially as some families have two or three children attending,” added Mr Spalding.

Cllr John Thorne said: “I’m not a cricket fan but I appreciate the brilliant job they do in the town working for the youngsters.

“But I’m aware that the club keeps coming back year after year for funding. I don’t mind giving the grant this year but I think the club could do a bit more in meeting the costs rather than relying on our funding.”

Cllr Marcus Barr suggested the application be turned down as a request for funding from Wellington Squash Club was recently rejected and it would ‘be fair’.

Cllr Thorne, in reference to the squash club application, said it was not quite ‘apples for apples’ in comparison as the squash club was looking for capital expenditure, while the cricket club was looking for funding for coaching purposes.

Councillors voted in favour of awarding the club £1,050 but requested information at a later date on where the children taking part in the winter coaching sessions came from.