A COMMUNITY cricket club has been delighted with the take up of a children’s programme it runs.

A total of 83 youngsters are taking part in the All Stars cricket scheme, run at West Bergholt Cricket Club.

The national programme is led by the England and Wales Cricket Board and allows youngsters to sign up to an eight-week course to learn the basics of the game.

It is hoped England’s stunning victory in the Cricket World Cup will trigger a generation of new players.

At West Bergholt, children can attend on Saturday mornings with the idea the friendly environment can encourage them into junior level cricket.

Club chairman Andy Mehen said: “It is quite an achievement for a club of our size to get that level of involvement.

“A lot of the larger clubs have got it and we are surprised at the sheer numbers of kids we have got. It also gets the parents involved.

“It is that community feel which we really want to have in a large village like West Bergholt.”

Mr Mehen said by comparison, a large town club elsewhere in the county had capped its All Stars programme to 70 children.

For each child, the club receives about £5 from England and Wales Cricket Board which it ploughs into junior section funds.

Mr Mehen said the All Stars’ popularity had been largely helped by Gareth Minter who runs the sessions with other coaches and who spread the word as he teaches at the village’s Heathlands Primary School.

Mr Minter said children came from all over Colchester to take part in the sessions.

He said: “We did All Stars last summer for the first time to try to get five to eight-year-olds involved in cricket.

“When we set it up we thought we would have 15 to 20 children and last summer we had 60.

“This summer I joked we would have more than that and we were quite surprised it kept going up and up.”

It is too late to enter this year’s programme but places for next year’s will be available via the England and Wales Cricket Board website, from this winter.