New manager in place at The County Ground, Beckenham
Thursday 10th November 2016
Anna Spencer is settling into her new role as General Manager of The County Ground, Beckenham, writes Peter Burrowes.
Anna, who lives locally, has a passion for cricket and is keen for the sports and function facilities to be used by the community.
Born in Lancashire and brought up in Yorkshire, Anna gained a Business Degree at the University of Manchester and has worked in advertising for ITV and Sky since she moved to London.
She is relishing the challenge of fronting Kent’s Beckenham project which provides facilities for the club to play first XI, second XI and Kent Women’s matches at the ground.
The new indoor school is also used by age group and disability squads as well as the Kent Cricket Academy which has already produced Kent players Daniel Bell-Drummond, Alex Blake, Adam Ball and Ivan Thomas from the north of the County.
Anna started playing cricket herself at primary school, went on to represent Yorkshire and currently plays for the oldest women’s cricket club in the world, (Purley) Redoubtables WCC.
She has captained them, coaches the club’s girls team and at the end of last season had a batting average of over fifty. She also plays hockey for Tulse Hill & Dulwich.
One of her main tasks is making the facilities at Beckenham as accessible as possible to the local community and it is already being used extensively by local cricket, netball and football clubs as well as Crystal Palace FC whose first team train next door.
The County Ground, Beckenham also has top class facilities for receptions, banquets, business meetings and parties.
Catering partners Centerplate have permanent staff on site to provide refreshments and catering for events and functions.
Anna said: “The word is getting around about what we can now offer at The County Ground.
"We are already very popular and busy but there is still plenty of scope for more activities both sporting and commercial.”