Associate Professor Declan Ryan receives Rose of Northamptonshire for delivering local community impact
Date 16.06.2025
16.06.2025
Congratulations to the University of Northampton’s Associate Professor in Physical Activity and Health, Declan Ryan who has been honoured with a prestigious Rose of Northamptonshire for delivering outstanding commitment to the local community.
The award recognises Declan’s work in going above and beyond to turn his local cricket club into the heart of the community in his role as Chairman of Old Cricket Club in West Northamptonshire.
While holding the position for three years, Declan has successfully fundraised for new club equipment to benefit the wider community, which has included installing a new artificial pitch to accommodate more games in all seasons, securing private sponsorships, investing into practice facilities, renovating the clubhouse, as well as securing outdoor furniture including marquees and equipment.
Declan has also been instrumental with steering the club to secure Clubmark Accreditation, a quality assurance scheme for community sports clubs to ensure they provide a safe and rewarding environment for participants of all ages.
Growing participation at every level of the club has been a particular priority for Declan who, throughout the previous three seasons, has launched a women’s cricket pathway, for which membership has split into three teams with around 30 regular playing members.
Declan explains: “We’re particularly proud of the women’s pathway we’ve developed at Old, which was identified as an early priority in recognition of a growing desire for women of all ages to get involved with playing cricket.
“Within the club, we already had girls playing at our junior level and we wanted to ensure there was a pathway for them into senior cricket, should they want to progress.
“We initially ran a few trial sessions which attracted a huge amount of interested players, so we established the pathway to pick up the pace and the rest is history.
“Women’s cricket has really accelerated within the East Midlands in recent years, and it’s great to have been a part of this positive journey at Old.”
The Rose of Northamptonshire awards seek to celebrate and acknowledge the hard work of volunteers who often go unrecognised, with the awards for 2025 recognising a diverse group of individuals for their exceptional service to the community – and Declan’s success is testament to his dedicated work off-pitch.
Reflecting on receiving the award, Declan said: “I’m very thankful to have received this acknowledgement of our local cricket club’s contribution to the community.
“My name may be on this Rose of Northamptonshire award, however I’m only one out of a huge team of volunteers and supporters at Old Cricket Club who make these achievements possible.
“There are countless people who work hard on a daily basis to make sport more accessible and provide real opportunities for local people to get involved.”
Old Cricket Club is celebrating over 150 years of cricket within the small rural Northamptonshire village, and warmly welcomes members of the public – of any age and experience level – to get involved and see for themselves why cricket is one of the country’s favourite sports.
Anyone interested in getting involved are invited to get in touch via the website or via the club’s Instagram (@old_cricket_club).
Declan Ryan is the first of two staff at the University of Northampton to have been awarded a Rose of Northamptonshire for 2025. NLive Radio Station Manager Martin Steers also received an award for developing NLive Radio into a successful and passionately local station, broadcasting entirely locally produced radio with only volunteer presenters.