Knaresborough CC's All Stars experience.
Knaresborough Cricket Club has always had a tradition of junior player development. With the introduction of All Stars Cricket in 2017, Knaresborough felt it only natural to take on the All Stars scheme at the club. All at Knaresborough were unsure at what to expect but hoped that the local schools would come up trumps!
What followed was quite remarkable. Knaresborough were delighted with the response from the local community! Lots of volunteers came forward to help and Knaresborough’s John Sixsmith went for training as the new All Stars activator. Georgina and Alyce came forward to help with the girls and went and did their Coach Support Worker courses to help with coaching.
Knaresborough’s expectation levels were quite low for sign-ups. But, they got to work with leaflet drops into schools amongst their other promotional efforts. One of the major factors for getting more sign ups was the amazing efforts of Georgina and Alyce, who got their siblings’ friends down and involved at the club. In total, 49 children signed up to Knaresborough’s All Stars programme!
Following the activator training (just before the first session), the club received a training plan, and prepared for the big launch on the first Friday of the programme. True to form, the English weather tipped it down… But, Knaresborough moved quickly and set a new date and once again were ready to go! The kit was set up on a glorious summer evening and the activators took the kids through the sessions. What delighted Knaresborough most was seeing the kids interacting with each other, doing the drills and making new friends, all with smiles on their faces! The club committee were also very grateful to the parents for their contributions to bar profits on these evenings too!
Just to show how popular the launch event was, Knaresborough saw more children signing up a week or two after the launch! As a club, Knaresborough decided to let the children be part of the full junior set up as well, so they weren’t restricted to the eight sessions only. The All Stars were all invited along to all the junior sessions (fifteen in total), which really helped with late starters and created a great community feel at the club on a Friday evening.
Of the 49 children that took part in All Stars, 22 were girls - a fantastic number and something the club are keen to develop in 2018. This year, the club are planning for more children, with more activators in place as well as more parents willing to help! Knaresborough would love to see twenty new faces down to All Stars in 2018 - meaning the club would have 140 + children at the ground each Friday doing what All Stars was set up to do: deliver the cricketers of tomorrow!