South Barwon upgrades to help hit for six

THE South Barwon Swans Cricket Club can grow their junior and female cricket programs thanks to a $370,000 grant from the City of Greater Geelong and a further $100,000 invested by the Andrews Labor Government.

Last Friday, the Swans unveiled four new synthetic practise wickets and a new turf table facility which will provide a further six training wickets at South Barwon Reserve.

South Barwon Cricket Club president Simon Breur said the upgrades would play a vital part in improving the clubs’ operations and providing greater opportunities for all players.

“When the original nets were built on site, we only had five teams and that’s now up to nine senior sides plus the juniors.

“We had to grow and thankfully this grant allows us to do that and have all our teams training together and forming great social connections with each other.

“Obviously being a standalone club, we don’t share facilities and all the funding and sponsorship we tend to get is to the final cent.

“We are just rapt to have this fantastic environment for our training, it’s made things more professional and streamlined and we are very grateful.”

City of Greater Greater Geelong Mayor Trent Sullivan said the new facility would support South Barwon Cricket Club to provide greater opportunities for the community, including the growing number of females taking up the sport.

“The launch of the Barwon Women’s Cricket Competition and Geelong Girls Cricket League has seen the number of girls and women choosing to play competitive cricket increase significantly over recent summers,” Mayor Sullivan said.

“The City is delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Victorian Government in delivering facilities that will improve opportunities for these players.”

Along with increasing the number of training nets, funding has also been used for retractable roof netting on the turf wickets, lockable gates to secure the facility and the ability to bring the wickets forward to create more space for keepers.

Geelong MP Christine Couzens said the Andrews Government was proud to provide a $100,00 Sports Recreation Victoria grant towards the project.

“These facilities are what club members need and deserve, providing a safe, first-class training environment that will attract new members, and more women and girls to the club,” Ms Couzens said.