March-ing into the 2024 Season - What’s on in March.

The ice is finally melting away and we are steam-rolling toward a bright and sunny spring. With cricket on the horizon you can find plenty of pre-season activity on at the club - here’s what’s happening this month.

Irby Seniors

This year has been the earliest the club have started the indoor winter nets. It may be thanks to the activity throughout the winter playing the indoor intra-club tournament leaving some players keen to get the ball rolling. With that being said, training has now dropped from its original two-hour sessions (6-8pm) to just the one hour(7-8pm) at Birkenhead Park Cricket club. Adults can enjoy an hour of netting at all standards and levels. If you’re a returning member for another year of action, then March may finally be the time you crank the old bowling arm or dust off the pads. If you’re a new player looking for either a change in scenery or a challenge, then Irby may be the place for you! Drop us a message on our socials or send us an email from the contact page for more info.
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March marked not only the start of our season prep, but also our social calendar, kicking us off with an incredible quiz night that made a great start to us raising the funds for some new club equipment. 

Whilst there now isn’t another social until April, we do have the Irby CC ‘Get Set’ weekend. This is a great opportunity to help out our club by prepping for the new season. Previous years have included painting fences, the decking, sorting out our new changing room on the front, temporarily surfacing the drive and much more. It’s a great couple of days where socialising is just as important as getting some great work done.

The Get Set Weekend will be the 29th and 30th of March.

Irby Women’s

The Irby Women’s have had a fantastic start to the calendar year. Just this weekend they placed 2nd in the L&DCC Women’s cricket tournament and have earned themselves a spot in the finals. Huge congratulations to them and we can’t wait to see how they do in a few weeks time!

The ladies train weekly at Bebington High School (Friday’s 7-8pm). Just like the men’s training, Irby encourages all players, of all ages and abilities to take part in this fantastic sport. It’s a lot of fun to take part in cricket, a challenge to fitness without the constant intensity plus a great way to improve your hand-eye coordination. Cricket offers a lot both on and off the pitch as well, the women’s playing XI have a great social side to add with the on-field success. 

If you fancy a new challenge, why not come along and give it a go? Contact the club for more information today to find out more.

Irby Juniors

Just like last year's successful campaign, this year we are hosting free U9 softball sessions at Bebington High School. Due to the great success of this event, we have fortunately increased the available spaces for any willing young cricketers to take part in this great evening. Last Friday was the first session, continuing for a further four weeks. If you are interested then please contact the club for more information, but be quick!

A few weeks back we posted on our socials about our All-Stars, which is another great Friday programme held at the club during the summer months. It is continually a sold out programme and our team work tirelessly to train and entertain the juniors that attend the nights. It is a sight to behold on a Friday evening in the summer, seeing the volume of people that flock to the club for a great cause. If you are interested and haven’t registered your interest, please get in touch with the club. A reminder: this is a busy event and the window of opportunity to register your child comes and goes very fast, please keep an eye out on our social media for when we release the details.

Just like our seniors, the juniors have also begun netting. Birkenhead Park Cricket Club also hosts our junior section on a Tuesday evening from 6-8pm. This will continue until the end of the month where hopefully we can then look to venture outside.

Club Events

As we ramp up toward the season opening we are overhauling a lot of things behind the scenes. For current members, you will see a slight change in registration, with our new membership card system coming into effect to offer discounts to all members at the bar. The Irby CC website has been updated to contain all the new pricings for this year to purchase memberships and more. Plus, members will also be asked for their help in registering for the new league setup within our 1st and 2nd XI. It won’t require every member to assist, however a handful of players will need to sign up using Play Cricket to the Southport and District league setup. What do you need to do? Not much, just await an email notification and follow the steps.

On our social media pages you will be seeing a fresh look this March. We are hoping to progress into a more targeted, focussed and streamlined approach with our posts. We’re aiming to have content out every day on at least one platform, with the exciting news of our YouTube channel launching officially at the end of the month. We have been working on the method throughout the winter and we’re hoping our hard work will pay off during the summer.

Don’t forget to order your Irby CC playing kit for this year, it does take a while to manufacture the material, so please ensure you place your order well in advance to ensure you have everything you need.