Fuelled by a love for the game and a desire to make cricket more accessible to his local community, Grant Manners has been a driving force in the growth of cricket at Ot\u016bmoetai \u2018Cadets\u2019 Cricket Club.<\/p>\n
A Cadets stalwart for over 30 years, Manners has worn just about every hat imaginable.<\/p>\n
His roles have included player, president, committee member, administrator, coach, PlayHQ lead and even electrician.<\/p>\n
As club captain, he has led efforts to transform the club into a hub of cricketing activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cUndoubtedly the highlight of my voluntary work is to see the growth of the club at the (\u014ct\u016bmoetai) Cadets,\u201d said Manners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough a number of initiatives and the efforts of some great people, the club has gone from struggling to fill two teams to fielding 13 teams across junior and senior cricket last season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noticing that many local high school cricketers were missing out on playing due to a lack of numbers, Manners helped open the club\u2019s doors to youth players \u2013 an effort that saw eight youth teams take the field last season.<\/p>\n
Manners also helped to introduce a Sunday League Competition, giving junior and youth cricketers another avenue to play and develop their skills.<\/p>\n
A couple of seasons back, Manners returned to the playing field himself. \u00a0<\/p>\n
He now turns out for the \u014ct\u016bmoetai 5th XI, captaining and mentoring the younger players.<\/p>\n
Beyond the club, Manners has contributed over three decades to Bay of Plenty Cricket both on and off-field.<\/p>\n
His r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes 79 Hawke Cup appearances and a decade of service across the Bay of Plenty and Western Bay of Plenty boards.<\/p>\n
According to Manners, being involved in cricket has benefitted him as much as it has his club.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying cricket again has been a huge boost to my fitness and mental health,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe camaraderie, the team spirit, and seeing others return to the game has made it all the more enjoyable,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pride in seeing how far our club has come, and hearing from parents about the impact it’s had on their kids, makes all the effort worthwhile,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m grateful for the many memories I\u2019ve enjoyed both on and off the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fuelled by a love for the game and a desire to make cricket more accessible to his local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-103284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}