Cricket heroes bowled over

Pride award nominees (from the left): Paul Scholes, Peter Sunderland and Kevin Du Feu at the Austerlands Club they have helped transform

THE leaders of a youth cricket club have been nominated for a Pride in Oldham Award for transforming it into a thriving part of the community.

Mum Nicola Stanton is so impressed with all the hard work that’s gone into making Austerlands Youth Cricket Club a wonderful facility with a brilliant atmosphere she nominated it for the honour.

In particular, she picked out Peter Sunderland, Paul Scholes, Andy Green, Phil Young and Kevin Du Feu as the driving force behind the success.

They worked hard to put in successful bids for grants and then gave up their time to put up fences, carry out maintenance, organise top coaching and get youth teams set up.

There are now five youth teams — Under-9s, 11s, 13s, 15s and 17s — with around 60 youngsters involved.

Mrs Stanton, from Diggle, said: “They have taken the club from a building that no one wanted to be in with no proper youth facilities and put in hours of work during their own time to transform it.

“It was originally a pig-sty but they have taken it from a club that everyone looked down on to people’s jaws dropping open when they go up and look at Austerlands now.

“It’s such a wonderful place for the lads to develop their character and their skills and no one is left out.

“They have developed a really strong team ethos. It’s been a great place for my son to be in his developing teenage years. The drive and motivation to improve the club and coaching and the commitment is immense.”

Her son Jack (16) has been involved for four years and it has led to him doing a cricket studies course at Lancashire Cricket Club that’s the equivalent of three A-Levels.

Mr Sunderland (50), from Greenacres, said: “It’s brilliant to be nominated. Quite a few people have put a lot of time in and we like to think it’s a team award.

“We started it up to get youngsters involved in sport. The work has ranged from painting to building to cutting the wicket to everything. One person can’t do it all, that’s why we did it between us.

“All the parents get on and all weigh in with something. If you ask someone to do something, from umpiring to making tea and butties, it’s not a chore for them.”