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When I joined Priory Park Cricket Club, Chichester, West Sussex when I was 10 I was very nervous going to nets each week.
I was always trying to be as good as the other boys (who were always very good), in my age group. We had many people who were heading to cricket stardom through their county trials.

The team I played in did well each season, I can always remember enjoying my days where I was able to stand in the sunshine, fielding the summer hours away.
A highlight for me when I was 12 was meeting David Gower when he came to open my Secondary School's new Sports Hall which we used for cricket nets.

As the seasons went on the team got to know each other even better which meant that team morale was high and the other teams wickets were falling… or mine were!

Fitness levels

Cricket for me isn’t the most straining of sports but I found that playing cricket every Saturday over the summer was very good to keep me fit. I had a knack of not scoring centuries but staying at the crease for a long time which meant a lot of running in between the wickets.Ìý Also with training twice a week the whole team were able to keep active and enjoy playing a traditional summer sport.

I think I was fortunate as my Dad started to manage the team for a few years when I was about 14, which allowed me to get better as I played... if he picked me!

Now at Staffordshire University I am part of the Cricket team, we went on tour to Malta last year and I opened the batting for the 2nd team during the season. Hopefully this year I might just move into the 1st team.

If anyone is thinking about joining a team and is having doubts, my advice would be to just go for it, teams are a great way to meet new people and do something that you enjoy doing competitively or non-competitively.

There are many teams in and around the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Stoke and Staffordshire area and some of these can be found on the keeping fit A-Z in the entertainment section of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ local website.

Tom Evans