Crossflatts loving the All Stars experience.
With the opening day of All Stars Cricket 2018 a mere 18 days away, one club in West Yorkshire is a prime example of how the programme can be used as a springboard for wider club development.
Crossflatts CC in Bingley have two senior teams playing in the Craven League and, until recently, didn’t have any form of junior set-up. All that changed when they decided to run All Stars Cricket at the club last season.
Lee Bailey from the club explained how this came about:
“We were late sign ups last year for the All Stars programme but loved the concept. Three years ago, we had no junior set up or plans for the future as a whole. Although we had some older kids and a few under 9s, we had no way to keep those players coming into the club, so All Stars Cricket seemed to be the perfect way to attract the younger boys and girls.”
With help and advice from the Yorkshire Cricket Board, the club embarked on a programme of extensive refurbishments and investment in new equipment. The clubhouse and general facilities started to improve, and the club was starting to become an exciting and family-friendly place to be.
By May 2017, Crossflatt's first All Stars Cricket programme was underway and, despite being hampered by poor weather conditions (sounds familiar!!), the 16 little All Stars whacked, bowled, ran and threw their way through the summer, just like more than 3500 other children across Yorkshire.
All Stars Cricket has also encouraged more volunteers to get involved. Lee said:
“With the help of the YCB, five of our senior players have done their ECB Coach Support Worker course to complement our three existing Level 2 coaches; enabling us to run U9's, U11's and U17's teams in the 2018 season. We will also have four other people trained as Activators for this season’s All Stars Programme.
The one thing we've noticed is that if you put the effort in, the rewards are there for the taking. We hired Bingley Grammar School sports hall for two consecutive Sundays in February and offered free coaching sessions for any children aged between 5 and 11 years old. The response we got was fantastic. Over 35 children attended on either one or both Sundays and we received some lovely feedback from the parents.
The benefit of those free sessions is now there for all to see with new players signing up and bolstering our U9's & U11's teams and 23 children signed up for our All Stars programme so far!”
Steve Archer, Cricket Development Manager for West Yorkshire said:
"It’s been an amazing effort by a really proactive club. They are working steadily towards Clubmark accreditation also, which signals real intent and commitment to becoming recognised as a safe, child-friendly and progressive club. Stunning progress in a short amount of time!”
Well done to Crossflatts CC! We’ll let you all know how their summer goes.
It’s not too late to sign up for your local All Stars Centre at www.allstarscricket.co.uk!