Fareham & Crofton are the first senior Hampshire League side and only the ninth cricket club in the county to achieve the prestigious ECB ClubMark award for running safe, effective and child-friendly cricket for budding youngsters.

Hampshire Cricket Board development officer Richard Hindley (blue tracksuit) is pictured alongside several Fareham youngsters presenting the award to Richard Webb, one of 11 fully qualified coaches actively involved in hectic midweek training sessions at Bath Lane.

"We have over 100 youngsters from the age of eight upwards coming along to our Bath Lane coaching clinics at various times during the week and they are getting some excellent tuition," enthused Fareham chairman Bob Marchant.

"We've created some excellent links with several comprehensive and junior schools in the Fareham area and James Hobson, from Cape Town, who is spending the summer with us, is heavily involved with all aspects of the coaching."

Fareham & Crofton are running sides at under-9, under-11, under-13 and under-15 age levels in the South East Hants Colts League this summer.

"We've even got six and seven year olds coming along," said Marchant.

On the field, Fareham made a bright start to their Hampshire League programme, winning their opening two games, but losing to Fawley last weekend.