Walking Cricket: 11 months and not out!

Walking Cricket Subject Advisor, Mac McKechnie, discusses how walking cricket has grown over the last year

I suppose this is a bit of a roundup of the year 2019 with regard to Walking Cricket. By the time you read this, it will be almost exactly 12 months ago that I had the germ of an idea, leading to the very first game of Walking Cricket held in Yorkshire, at Barnsley U3A on January 9th 2019

Since then this new sport has grown out of all recognition, with partners Yorkshire Cricket Foundation (YCF) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) supporting and helping financially with funding and with Trophy’s and equipment, and Twenty 20 Cricket of Surrey even sponsoring match kit, it has been a bewildering path of doors opening everywhere.

From a cricketing perspective the highlight for me will be winning the Yorkshire Walking Cricket Shield for Barnsley U3A against Doncaster U3A in the summer. (see photo) Currently the Walking Cricket world is alive and buzzing, with teams at various stages of preparation in Sheffield, Doncaster, Wakefield, Sandbach, Matlock, Oldham, Ripon, and Cleethorpes and Grimsby U3A’s, as well as working with non U3A teams and organisations like Cricket Scotland, Nottingham County Cricket Club, Just Active UK, and Stockholm Cricket Club in Sweden. – And other enquiries steadily coming in on a weekly basis.

As of a few days ago I can now confirm that for U3A day on June 3rd a team from Cricket Scotland Walking cricket All-stars team – are coming across the border to play a friendly but serious match against U3A Yorkshire at either Headingley, Lord’s or Worcester Cricket grounds. Now that will be a 2020 highlight to remember!

Mac McKechnie - U3A Subject Adviser – Walking Cricket