Bridlington Cricket Club's first year of All Stars.
Bridlington Cricket Club is a well-established club situated on the East Yorkshire coast. It operates a comprehensive junior section alongside two senior teams in the York and District Senior Cricket League and Scarborough Beckett League. The junior section has been operating for a number of years and currently has active league sides at U11, U13 and U15.
One of Bridlington’s primary objectives for the coming years is to launch an under 9’s section and generate future players for the club all the way up from under 9’s to under 15’s. All Stars Cricket was the perfect solution to get things going as it provided a fun, exciting environment for those of a young age to enjoy the game.
To help spread the word about their All Stars programme, Bridlington were very proactive and chose to undertake a good deal of self-promotion via various social media channels. The club distributed leaflets and personalised posters and organised a cluster of All Stars taster session for the local area. All Stars Cricket postcards were dropped into local schools and community centres by activators, Harry Burton and Elliot Traves; who have both subsequently worked with schools to deliver further sessions with older age groups. Thanks to the fantastic work of the Bridlington team, the club had over 20 kids signed up by the third week of the programme!
Speaking of the All Stars programme, Harry and Elliot said:
“Personally, we think it's great. Getting children involved with Cricket as young as five years old is brilliant. Without All Stars, some of these children may not experience cricket until their early teens or may not experience cricket at all. Getting them involved with cricket at this age will improve their chances of playing when they grow up. I think it’s great how the children receive kit, equipment and badges for completing the programme, it all adds to the enjoyment and keeps them involved”.
Parents were also encouraged to get involved with Bridlington’s All Stars programme. This was a real success for Brid and allowed the parents to see their children development week by week. The increase in parent participation also helped the club develop more volunteers who were happy to contribute in different club activities.
So much of the feedback from parents has been on just how quick the time goes by and how much fun they are having together with their child! One of the highlights for the Brid activators was seeing the kids carry on playing with the parents after the sessions had finished!
Seeing a small, rural community come together to experience and enjoy All Stars Cricket is fantastic for grass-roots cricket in Yorkshire and should prove ideal for the club’s aspirations to launch an under 9’s team in the future. Bridlington look to have set a great foundation, and all involved have done an excellent job. Hopefully they’ve inspired a lifelong love of the game in some of the kids and we hope to see these little stars playing in years to come.