NEW CRICKET PITCH TRANSFORMS CRICKET OPPORTUNITIES IN FELPHAM
A long-awaited project to replace the unusable non-turf cricket pitch at Felpham Community College has been completed, thanks to a joint effort between Aldwick Cricket Club and the school itself. The new pitch will benefit both FCC students and members of Aldwick CC, strengthening a partnership that has been building in recent years and aims to benefit the wider community.
The existing artificial cricket surface had fallen into serious disrepair and had been deemed unsafe to play on, forcing the school’s cricket teams to play all of their fixtures away from home. Lack of a usable pitch on site has been a major barrier to participation and development of a sport growing in popularity amongst students.
Aldwick Cricket Club, which relocated from Aldwick to Felpham in the early 2000s and is based just metres from the college, has worked closely with the school to make the replacement possible. Many of the boys and girls who attend FCC already represent Aldwick CC at youth and senior levels, making the project a natural collaboration that supports cricket from grassroots to adult league level.
Ollie Smith, Aldwick CC Chairperson, commented:
“Aldwick Cricket Club is committed to giving more children opportunities to play cricket. Supporting our most local state secondary school with improved facilities is incredibly important to us. This new pitch will help hundreds of young people access the game.”
Bryn Hauxwell, Curriculum Leader for PE at FCC commented:
“Cricket is popular at Felpham and it’s a great opportunity to be able to give students good facilities to learn a new sport, or develop skills they already have”.
Aldwick CC successfully accessed £10,000 of funding through the ECB County Grants Fund, so the facility will also help support the rapid growth of the club, whose membership and range of playing offers has expanded at remarkable speed.
Lara Johnson, Junior Cricket Coordinator and Women’s 2nd XI Captain; explained:
“This project is game-changing for us; our home at Brooks Lane is already operating beyond it’s capacity and our teams have been playing ‘home matches’ as far away as Chichester. This will bring all our teams back onto our doorstep and enable us to provide even more cricket. We ventured into women’s and girls’ cricket in 2021 and already we run five girls’ teams and four women’s teams across a range of soft and hard ball formats. The momentum behind the female game continues to build and the new pitch ensures the club can keep expanding in this area. The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is happening here in England & Wales next summer, and if the recent booms in girls’ football and rugby are anything to go by, we must be ready to welcome even more girls through our doors. The project is a great example of how clubs and schools can work together to grow the game locally. Young cricketers have already had their first look at the surface, with excitement growing ahead of the 2026 season”.
Year 8 students at FCC – Harry and Pearl – commented:
“It looks amazing, I can’t wait to finally play some school matches here”, “It will make school cricket so much better.”
The pitch installation marks a significant step forward for cricket participation in Felpham and with the first matches scheduled for the spring, both FCC and ACC look forward to bringing cricket to even more people.
