YOUNGSTERS will be treated to weekly beach cricket sessions in Weymouth courtesy of a new initiative run by the Dorset Cricket Board.

Using the high water mark, the free sessions will run on the sand every Thursday this summer from 4.15 to 5.45pm.

Sessions are primarily skills based, with the potential to use a mat on the sand and practice hitting power shots out to sea, culminating in a 40-minute game at the end.

ECB coach Sean Fitzgerald will lead sessions, along with input from Weymouth skipper Harry Mitchell.

The scheme is led by organiser and coach James Mitchell, who successfully runs the popular Chance To Shine cricket sessions at Weymouth College.

He told Echosport: “We’re going to give it a go and see how we get on. Most of it’s skill based and then we can play a 40-minute game at the end.

“We’ve got the space, so we’ll do things like hitting out towards the sea. Weymouth Town Council have been really good with us, they’re keen to get community groups going, which is really exciting.

“We really want more kids playing. It’s a really good opportunity, it’s free, you don’t need any kit, you can just rock up.

“We wanted to be a bit more visible, so the beach was the first choice. We met Steve Davies (from the council events team) and he’s really keen to get it started.

“The message we want to send out to people in Weymouth is to come down, give it a go. Just come along – we’ve got three or four coaches coming and we want to run this for the rest of the summer.

“It’ll be good fun, playing cricket on the beach in the summer is pretty ideal.”