Meet Bear Flat Cricket Club’s player and coach Ollie Cox

By Fi Isaacs, Bear Flat CC Secretary: Bear Flat Cricket Club (The Bears)

has always been proud of the strength of its ties with the local community.

In 2019 The Bears participated in the ECB All Stars cricket programme for 5-8 year olds. At this early stage the club decided to raise sponsorship to offer places to children who would not ordinarily be able to participate due to a lack of funding.

The club worked with heads of schools to identify those children it was thought would benefit most. Five schools were offered two places each and that has continued throughout the time we have been facilitating the All Stars programme.

Three years on, The Bear Cubs was launched. Bear Cubs is for 9-11 year olds and the programme consists of coaching, playing games and participating in youth tournaments across Somerset.

Never a club to rest on its laurels, The Bears considered what could be done to further enhance the cricketing experience of youngsters in the local community.

The brainchild of Mark Gunning,

Club Captain, and Schools coach, The Bears opted to fund a programme which would provide an introduction to cricket in local schools to give children the chance to experience the beautiful game of cricket. Mark is well known across Bath and has done much to promote the Bears in schools. “What we wanted to do was raise awareness that cricket is an inclusive sport open to all, and wanted to give children the opportunity to try cricket and hopefully fall in love with it”.

Enter stage right Ollie Cox; a Bears player and coach, with a passion for cricket and a desire to coach. Ollie started off coaching the All Stars as a volunteer in 2019, progressing to Assistant Coach in 2021.

Ollie is studying sports coaching and exercise science on a course run by Gloucester University.

When pressed as to why he chose that particular career, he thought for a while and said, “When I realised I couldn’t be a professional footballer, aged 12, I thought how next best I could be involved in sport. That’s when I decided to become a coach”.

Ollie now delivers regular sessions to Oldfield Park Infants, Combe Down Primary and St Philips schools, all free of charge.

Ollie works closely with class teachers with the aim that children learn the skills of a cricketer in curriculum time.

“I deliver a fun session, with warm up games, cricket practice, team games etc, but also teaching life skills such as good communication skills and team building.

“It would be great if some of the children decided to join us for the All Stars programme in May up at The Glasshouse”.

Reaction from teachers and pupils has been complementary, supportive and positive. If successful at the end of the trial period, it is likely this programme will become part of The Bears youth programme strategy going forwards.

Ollie is a qualified ECB coach, DBS certified, first aid qualified with safeguarding level 1, level 2 underway, prevent training and safe hands club child welfare.

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Stars cricket register here: https:// ecb.clubspark.uk/AllStars/ Course/408400bd-ec66-44c6-a93c279b45c088e5

There is more on the club at https://bearflatcc.org.uk/

Our Monthly Talks

Monthly Talks are usually held on the first Thursday in the month and start at 10.30 a.m.. Doors open at 9.45 a.m. for coffee. Admission is free for members but a donation of £2 for non-members.

Talks take place at:

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Upcoming Talks are:

6 April 2023

FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE by Chris Mackenzie RIBA

4 May 2023

DROPPING THE HABIT - A NUN’S STORY by Marion Dante

1 June 2023

THE HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE NORTH SOMERSET COAL FIELDS by Shane Gould

Royal award: An ex-Bath schoolgirl has been awarded an MBE by King Charles III for her work on climate change.

Camilla Born (pictured with the King) attended Hayesfield School in the city before reading Geography at Edinburgh University.

The daughter of Alison Born of Widcombe was awarded an MBE for her work on climate change in the Queen’s Jubilee honours, and received her award at Windsor Castle on St valentine’s Day.

Her work was recognised for her work with Alok Sharma the CoP 26 President and she continues to work in the field working on climate finance and investment. Camilla is also chair of an Oxford based charity, Climate Outreach.

Bus News: A bus company running a depot on an island artists want to take over will not be leaving “for a considerable time.,” writes local democracy reporter John Wimperis.

First Bus currently uses Weston Island in the River Avon in Bath as a bus depot but has said it is planning to move the facility.

There are plans, which have the support of local MP Wera Hobhouse and Bath and North East Somerset Council leader Kevin Guy to see the island transformed into an arts space when the bus depot moves.

Local group Bath Arts Depot urged the council to let the site be developed for arts, with hopes to set up a gallery, studio space, sculpture park, and education programme there.

But it is set to be some time before the island is free for the artists to take over. First still has not found a site to relocate the depot to, and the bus company is currently investing in new solar panels for the site.

A First spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are installing PV panels on Weston Island depot.

“At some stage we will be looking to relocate. However, at this stage we have not found a suitable location and, if we did move, this would not happen for a considerable time yet.”

The bus company is currently planning to install 99.2kW of solar panels across the roofs of the depot buildings.

When the island does become available, Bath and North East Somerset Council’s local plan partial update, which was passed in January, states that there may be opportunities for “public facing uses such as creative, arts-based activities” on the island.

Nicola Turner, director of Bath Art Depot, welcomed the inclusion in the local plan, saying: “This is an important stepping stone for our long-term vision for the island, and means that we can start building the funding needed to purchase the island, and create an exciting, innovative, relevant and transformative creative destination for the South West.”

The group’s vision for the island is inspired by the NDSM wharf in North Amsterdam, a former shipyard which now houses one of the Dutch city’s most vibrant and arty neighbourhoods.

Ambulance delays. The BBC reported on a Bath woman Emma Mogg who said ambulance delays led to her husband’s death.

Paul Barltrop and Dawn Limbu reported: “Last July, Garry Mogg, waited for an ambulance for 1 hour and 43 minutes at his home in Oldfield Park in Bath.” Emma Mogg said if the ambulance had arrived faster, her husband would still be alive. It comes as new figures show how bad delays with the region’s ambulance service got to their peak in December. South Western Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) have apologised to the Mogg family and offered their sincere condolences.

For younger readers

Our spring pond is teeming with life. Find the differences between the pictures then colour them in