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Glos to spend 10 days at pre-season training camp in South Africa

30 January 2024

Gloucestershire will travel to South Africa in March for a pre-season training camp ahead of the start of the 2024 LV= Insurance County Championship campaign.

Made possible thanks to support from Shire’s Official Tour Partner, ETS Group, the Gloucestershire squad will spend 10 days at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport (SAS) from 12th – 22nd March. Led by its Managing Director and self-proclaimed cricket fan, Mark Cole, ETS Group are passionate about sport and understand the importance of a pre-season tour for Gloucestershire.

The state-of-the-art Stellenbosch sports complex, located just 40 minutes outside of Cape Town, has played host to the likes of England Rugby, British Athletics and Saracens in recent years, and is exclusively an elite sportsperson training facility.

During Gloucestershire’s time at SAS, the squad and coaching staff will be able to focus entirely on pre-season training and preparation without the risk of adverse weather conditions that can often effect the UK in March.

SAS, which has 62 rooms, a restaurant and multiple gyms, also boasts top class indoor and outdoor cricket facilities. Glos players will have access to two nets equipped with pitch vision cameras, an outside oval, two bowling machine nets, four full run-up nets, five outdoor synthetic nets and nine turf nets. While in residence at Stellenbosch, Shire will play in a number on intra-squad friendlies alongside net, field and gym-based training programmes.

Following the warm weather training camp, Gloucestershire’s squad will arrive back in the UK less than two weeks before the start of the County Championship curtain-raiser at Derybshire.

Will Brown, Chief Executive at Gloucestershire Cricket, said: “The opportunity to spend time abroad in condition that are akin to the British summer is incredibly important in terms of our preparation for the early weeks of the season. As we saw last year, March can be extremely wet which can severely impact how much cricket we can play ahead of the return to competitive cricket.

“Stellenbosch is an incredible sporting facilities that will provide the players and coaching staff with the opportunity to put the finishing touches to pre-season training. We are extremely grateful to our Official Tour Partner, ETS, for their support in helping us to make this trip happen, one which will hopefully give us the best chance to prepare for the start of the season in April.”

A family-run business established in 1979, ETS Group supply temporary and permanent electrical installations, refit programmes, mechanical and engineering and construction services to the industry. With offices also in Cardiff and Taunton as well as its HQ in Bristol, ETS Group are renowned for providing efficient and tailored services for any refurbishment or construction project.

Mark Cole, Managing Director at ETS Group, said: “We are delighted to support Gloucestershire with their pre-season preparation for this very exciting upcoming season. The team and I at ETS Group look forward to supporting Glos with our family, friends, colleagues and business partners. We wish all the team a very successfully trip to Stellenbosch.”

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