Even a wet summer can’t dampen enthusiasm of Buckley’s cricketers – Grassroots North Wales | Championing Local Sport | Dave Jones Sportswriter | nwsport.co.uk

ANOTHER GREAT ARTICLE FROM CEIDIOG PR

The summer weather may be dismal but batsmen and batswomen as well as bowlers at a thriving Flintshire cricket club are making the very best of it.

Buckley Cricket Club not only run three senior teams, a midweek side and four junior sides but now also have 30 ladies in the Buckley Belles squad.

They have also just received a £450 donation from Denbigh-based Lock Stock Self Storage who have a thriving storage park in the town, part of their network of self-storage centres across North and Mid Wales and the border counties.

Their neat and tidy pavilion just off Chester Road is a renovated World War One Canadian Arms hut from Kinmel Camp and it is flanked by a smart new electric scoreboard on one side and all-weather practice nets on the other.

Chairman Mark McManus said: “The club is doing very well with the number of sides we have playing and the junior and ladies’ sections are particularly strong.

“We have so many matches and lots of people enjoy coming down here to watch the games but we couldn’t do it without the kind of support we’re receiving from businesses like Lock Stock.

“It’s very much a volunteer-led club and this is a great community but we couldn’t provide the kind of investment we have done without the support of local businesses and Lock Stock are one of 20 that have got behind us.

“We run an All Stars programme for children between the ages of five and eight, an under-Nine, Under-11, Under-13 and Under-15 junior sides in the North East Wales League and Friday nights here are junior nights with over 30 young people here playing cricket while the Buckley Belles play in the women’s softball league on a Sunday.

“I’m a football man myself but my daughter, my son and my wife all play here and it’s very much a family club which is why I became involved and across the teams there are so many families represented.”

Buckley CC has produced so many fine cricketers over the years, many of whom have progressed to play at higher levels. The latest success story is Bucks product Romano Franco, a left-arm spinner who recently made his debut for Wales and turns out for Glamorgan seconds as well as Northop in the NWCL.

Lock Stock Area Site Manager Rob Jones said: “We have a real commitment to the areas where we operate and are always glad to help out where we can so when the cricket club got in touch we were delighted to do our bit.

“We have a site in the town on Globe Way which opened nearly two years ago and is very busy so we have been happy to get involved in supporting local schools and organisations including the cricket club.

“The game is clearly flourishing here and it’s great to see so many young people playing regularly and women’s cricket is on the up as well and the Buckley Belles are evidence of that.”

The Under-15s chalked up a good win over Pontblyddyn with a good spell from medium pacer Harrison Windel and he said: “It’s a fun place to come and play and being with your mates here is great.”

North Wales Under-15s batsman Beau Rushton added: “The Under-15s just started this season and a few of my mates play. It’s just a great environment here.”

Lock Stock, founded in Denbigh in 1999, is the UK’s largest containerised storage company with 60 per cent of their units rented by people moving house or keeping treasured possessions but up to 40 per cent, almost 2,000 used by small businesses for storing materials.

They offer a choice of 10 and 20 foot unit at their smaller sites going up to 40-foot units at their larger sites.

Those sites stretch from Holyhead and along the North Wales coast at Caernarfon, Bangor, Llandudno, Abergele and Rhyl, on the Dee at Flint, Saltney and Deeside and inland at Denbigh, Mold, Wrexham and Newtown in Powys, and at Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Craven Arms, in Shropshire, and Brimfield, in Herefordshire.

There is a growing market from students looking to store possessions outside term time and Lock Stock also specialise in the off-site hire – and sale – of containers, delivered to location by their specialist lorry which can even bring a unit to your premises to fill or empty and store it at any of our locations.

For information about Lock Stock Self Storage, including off-site container hire, contact them on 01745 817178 or go to