ICYMI updates from the end of last year in our new Director of Cricket and new signings. New grounds updates in our new Nets Facility and Ward Park. We had several boys from our Youth section on tour to Chennai. We’ve new kit, new sponsors this season and much more from the off season!
Ian Butler named new Director of Cricket
Back in September, Bangor Cricket Club were delighted to announce the appointment of former New Zealand test cricketer Ian Butler as Director of Cricket on a long-term contract. This is a new role within the club and an exciting development as we seek to build upon recent progress towards becoming a strong and sustainable Premier League club.
Ian will combine his new role as Director of Cricket along with continuing his duties within the NCU, including assistant coach with the Northern Knights. He has extensive experience as a Director of Cricket and in coaching roles both locally and overseas. His most recent overseas appointment was as bowling coach to Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League.
Ian’s appointment will ensure that Bangor will be at the forefront of modern coaching practices which will be a significant advantage as we continue to develop the wealth of talent rising through our well-established youth pathway.
Clubhouse Redevelopment Begins
Recent images of the Clubhouse show that Phase 1 of the Redevelopment works are making great progress with the works including new self-contained female & youth changing rooms, upgraded toilet facilities, new passenger lift to ensure first floor access for everyone, new ground floor & player entrances and a new kitchen facility on the first floor.
The new ground floor rooms are now built with work now progressing to the next stage on the first floor. All being well, we hope to see this first phase of the Redevelopment Works to be completed at some point during the second half of the new season.
Our new Overseas and welcome back home Seb Yeates
Firstly, we’re delighted to announce the signing of 23-year-old Brodie Harrison as our overseas player for the upcoming 2026 season. Brodie plays his cricket for East Coast Bays CC in Auckland, New Zealand and is an all-rounder that bats in the top order and bowls leg spin.
Brodie will be jetting in from New Zealand next week in time for the last week of pre-season ahead of the new season beginning the weekend after.
We’re thrilled to welcome back Seb Yeates to Bangor CC & to Upritchard Park. The Yeates name is synonymous with Bangor CC and Seb did indeed begin his Cricketing journey here with us as a very promising youngster. We unfortunately lost Seb to CSNI where he continued his development to be the player is he today but with the Club back on the up, we’re delighted to welcome Seb back.
He’ll be rejoining us as a skillful cricketer who still very much has his best years ahead of him. He has gone on to play plenty of times in the Premier League for CSNI in the last few seasons, playing against some of the best talent locally.
New Nets facility
The club on the field has been thriving of late with an increase in Senior sides in both Men’s & Women’s sections with the latter only established back in 2024. Off the field the ambitious Clubhouse redevelopment has begun in earnest but our practice facilities are simply not up to the required standard of a club our size especially when you add in almost 300 junior members in our Youth section. To meet these needs, a bigger and better all-weather practice facility will help all our current and future players reach their full potential bringing in better quality training & coaching experience for all our cricketers for many years.
Late in 2025 & early 2026 we began to raise money for this new training facility and we were thankful to be approved to make use of Sport NI’s Olympic Legacy Fund where the fund would provide 65% of the funding but that was subject to ourselves raising the other 35%.
Thanks to the tremendous support of members, friends, supporters and sponsors we were able to raise our target of £15,500 in the necessary 6-week timeframe that we had, and this was even more remarkable given the time of the year around the Christmas period. With our part completed, we were then able to receive the £28,500 from the Olympic Legacy Fund which then opened up the opportunity to begin plans to make this facility become a reality.
The order has now been made for the 3 lane all weather training facility to be installed at Upritchard Park. Thanks to the BRFCC Management Committee for their cooperation on this and with their agreement this will be installed at the far end of the 3XV rugby pitch with that pitch now shifting some 10-15 yards towards the Upritchard Crescent end of the ground. Works began at the back end of March by Haffey’s and all being well we envisage to have this new & exciting addition to the Club in time for the new season!
We were also thankful to receive the support of the Minister for Communities Gordon Lyons who was able to visit a Youth training session back in January as he saw firsthand one of our off-season Youth training nights at Bangor Academy. He also got the opportunity to hear from our coaches and Chairman Peter McIlwaine on how the club has progressed over the last few years and on our successful Olympic Legacy Fund application for this new nets facility.
Ian Houston new NCU President
Our own Ian Houston at the end of 2025 was named the new NCU President and has had a long association with the club over the decades as a former player and supporter of the club. Ian more recently will be well known for overseeing the umpire appointments within the NCU and his commitment & service to the game has been immense. His appointment is thoroughly well deserved and everyone at Bangor CC sends Ian our best wishes for his term as president.
Our New Captains
Congratulations to Gareth McCullough who will become the new Men’s 2XI captain. More attention will be placed on the side from this year with it being the main entry point to the Men’s 1XI side and to also regularly train as a Men’s 1XI & 2XI squad. He will be taking over from Conor Cox who he himself had a very successful stint as captain leading the side from Junior League 3 and to a 2nd placed finish in Junior League 2 last season. We wish Conor all the best as he moves to London and look forward to seeing him back at UP when his schedule allows.
We also congratulate Adam Purce who will take over the reigns of the 3XI captaincy from Stuart Johnstone with a big year ahead for the side after their league winning season in 2025. The 5XI side will be led by Rob Girvan with help from other parents when he’s unavailable and the side will continue to provide an entry point into Senior Cricket for our junior members.
BCC Boys on Tour to Chennai
Back in February we were delighted to see four youngsters from our brilliant Youth section get invited on the second NCU tour to train at the Chennai Superkings Academy in India. A strong Bangor presence made the trip to India with Felix McMillan, Michael Girvan, Oliver Campbell & Teddy McIlwaine being part of an 18-man touring party along with Ian Butler as one of the coaches.
It was a fantastic opportunity for our young boys to experience a new culture on the other side of the world and to train at a phenomenal facility at the Chennai Superkings, pick up new skills and improve their own games on spin friendly pitches.
New astro at Ward Park
After years of effort, we’re delighted to share that an astro wicket has been installed at Ward Park. This has been long sought after and will be a fantastic addition to the popular ground which has a storied history with Bangor CC. This will help continue to support the growth of Men’s, Women’s and Junior cricket at the club and indeed nearby at our partner Bangor Academy in their continued development in Cricket.
With playing numbers increasing, the need for a third ground has become more important than ever. The new astro surface will provide a high-quality, low-maintenance option alongside our main ground at Upritchard Park and Bangor Grammar.
Thanks to Ards and North Down Borough Council for their continued support of the club and making this come to fruition. We look forward to having the new astro in action at Ward Park for the new season!
Fixtures for the New Season
The new season starts on Saturday 25th April and see’s the Men’s 1XI host Armagh in the opening league game of the season at Upritchard Park. There are two more league games on Saturday with the Men’s 2XI and Third XI getting their seasons underway in Belfast against CSNI 3XI and Instonians 3XI respectively. A few days later on Monday night the Women’s 1XI get their season underway at home to CSNI 2XI in the league.
For the complete set of fixtures for 2026, checkout out the website and socials for those including a brand-new team in the Bangor Masters in the newly formed NCU Masters League for the over 50’s!
New Sponsors
We’re delighted to welcome some new sponsors to the club from the 2026 Season onwards. Firstly. we have a new well known platinum sponsor in CricketEurope who are renowned for their coverage of local cricket in the NCU and across Ireland as well as coverage of cricket further afield in Europe and indeed in International Cricket on the world stage. This is in addition to our ongoing fantastic support from Legacy Wealth Management and The Nines.
We have a few new gold sponsors in Barista Bar who are a well-known name in Northern Ireland as the largest coffee brand in the country, Regency Carpets who are a local carpet manufacturing firm based in Balloo and Resilico is a mobile app available for iOS and Android devices which helps homes and businesses enhance their flooding preparedness by creating custom plans and receive alerts for future flooding events.
We also welcome Teamwear Ireland and the Bangla as official sponsors of the club but they aren’t new to the club and have had a number of years association with the club.
New Kit
This year will see our new Wildwing playing & training kit being rolled out across all Senior & Junior teams thanks to our kit supplier Teamwear Ireland. The kit will continue to have that classic blue & yellow look to it but also have a striking new design on all kit with some new items available to order as well. The shop is currently closed but is expected to reopen again for any further subsequent orders in the next few weeks. We expect those orders that were made in February to be delivered from April 20th, in time for the new season.
To access the shop simply click on this link.
Annual Curry Night
A reminder that this years Annual Curry Night at the start of the season is being held at the Bangla with the Clubhouse redevelopment works continuing at Upritchard Park. It will take place on the evening of Saturday 25th April and will coincide with the season opening fixture at Upritchard Park as the Men’s 1XI take on Armagh earlier in the day. More details to be communicated out very shortly on this and check out our socials or the Spond app on how to attend in the coming days.
Safe to say this has been one of if not the busiest off seasons in the Clubs history but thankfully we can now get back to what we love to do and that’s get back to playing or watching cricket again at our Club!
