Bega Angledale announced as NSW Volunteer Cricket Club of the Year

Club president Rod McDonald attended the black tie event with A-grade captain Jay Trevaskis, A-grade player Cody Hazlegrove-Danvers, and club secretary and player Jo Lever.

Although some NSW cricketing clubs have had paid staff, the Bega Angledale club has been run entirely through the support of its many valued volunteers.

Mr McDonald said it was due to their strong base of membership before COVID hit that they had kept the club relatively sustainable and actually increased numbers despite the challenges.

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"We've got families involved and through word of mouth they're bringing their friends along.

"We've also been pretty active in running programs by Cricket NSW and Cricket Australia so we're not trying to reinvent the wheel, we're doing programs under those designs because they just work really well."

The club's A grade captain and volunteer Jay Trevaskis works as deputy principal at Sapphire Coast Anglican College, which allowed the club to continuing running its Woolworths Blast program after school to teach children aged between five and seven.

Many of the club's junior members had also been given the chance the volunteer, with their under 13s and under 15s players having helped coached the Woolworths Blast.

The award recognised the incredible support of all the volunteers - including managers, coaches, scorers, umpires, those who prepared the turf pitch, or assisted with driving or preparing food.

"For our juniors we get a lot of help from the parents, and then we do have some senior players that volunteer with the juniors, and then the seniors also volunteer during their own games," said Mr McDonald.

The club also successfully gained over $100,000 in infrastructure grants last season to improve net facilities at George Griffin Oval and upgrade the nets, storage facilities, and grandstands at SCAC.

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"Improving the wicket and also having some storage at SCAC will mean we can use those grounds, especially in female cricket because there's toilets there, which some of the council grounds don't have," said Mr McDonald.

Although the funding was sourced by the club, the school community has gained the ability to utilise the new grounds once they have been completed.

The club has also announced they were celebrating its 25^th anniversary next season, with a range of special events planned to mark the occasion.

Mr McDonald said the club was also hoping to improve its female participation.