Players from Leicestershire County Cricket Club (LCCC) have been making use of the brilliant facilities at the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Leisure Centre (QEII) at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) as they push towards improving their on-field fortunes.
The cricket season has only just got underway and Leicestershire, who haven’t picked up a County Championship win in either of their last two seasons, will be hoping that their players can benefit from having the facilities at their disposal.
The £8 million QEII opened in 2012 and provides students, staff and members of the public with state-of the-art facilities including the swimming pool, sauna, climbing wall, fitness suite with free weights area and dance studio.
LCCC players are able to make use of the QEII thanks to a partnership between the club and DMU. The university is the main sponsor for the foxes this season, and as well as featuring on their cricket whites, the DMU Cricket team are allowed to play their varsity fixtures at Grace Road, the home of LCCC.
SIGNED: Vice-Chancellor Professor Dominic Shellard with LCCC CEO Wasim Khan
Members of the QEII will regularly be able to see some of the LCCC squad at the leisure centre, and club captain Mark Cosgrove is one of those making use of the top of the range equipment.
He said: “The partnership with De Montfort University works really well and it is great to have them as our Official Club Partner.
“All of our players use the gym and pool facilities at De Montfort University regularly and they are absolutely fantastic.
“I’d like to personally thank De Montfort University for their support, I have been in Leicester just over a month and using their facilities has been very helpful in preparation and recovery.”
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Dan Nice, Communications Manager at LCCC, said: “The use of the DMU leisure centre makes a massive difference to the players’ training because it allows them to go off site and with the great facilities there, they have everything under one roof.
“I think we’ve showed really good character in the two games so far, the team has been in really good positions but just not quite been able to make the most of the opportunities. There’s a good spirit among the players so as soon as the players get the first win they’ll be flying.”
The Leicestershire Foxes aren’t the only professional athletes to benefit from using the QEII leisure centre. During her time studying at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, world champion rower Emma Twigg used the centre to help prepare for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Posted on Tuesday 5 May 2015