Club Cricket de l'Oust was founded in 2005 by a small group of British ex-pats who found life without cricket too much to bear! It is now a flourishing club and is a fully-registered French sporting association. Sinces its inception the Club has made great efforts to involve the local French community and to interest them in cricket. In particular Jon Ward (the Club's founder and current President) has visited several schools and local social and sporting associations to give talks, lessons and demonstrations on cricket. Although most of our members are British this hard work is, at last, paying off and we are now starting to recruit some young French players.
We play our home games at the Stade Pierre Guého in Sérent. On our Web Links page you will find a link to the ViaMichelin site which can give you detailed maps and routes to this lovely area of France.
Along with the other cricket teams in NW France (jointly known as the Association de Cricket Du Nord Ouest - ACNO) we have a busy fixture list from May until late August, which includes matches against touring teams and also a Cup competition which is sponsored by Siddalls, an independent financial advice company. Websites for the other NW France cricket clubs, including ACNO, and our sponsors are also on our Web Links page. During 2008 one of the touring teams from the UK that we were delighted to welcome 'found' us through a UK travel agent - Shire Sports Ltd - which specialises in organising cricketing tours. Click here to visit Shire Sports' website.
We share the stadium in Sérent with the local football team - La Sérentaise - and we have established a friendly rivalry with them. In May 2008 the two clubs jointly organised a family fun day which included football and cricket matches between the two. This was a great success and we plan to make this an annual event. In 2009 Club Cricket de l'Oust is to host the Siddalls Cup and Plate finals over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of August, and would like to combine this with the Franco-British fun day.