Yorkshire Cricket Board

Barwick-in-Elmet is a well-established club situated seven miles north east of Leeds, West Yorkshire. It operates a comprehensive junior section alongside two senior teams in the Wetherby Cricket League.

The junior section has been operating for a number of years. Currently they have active league sides at U9, U11, U13, U15 and U18 level. Participation has been steadily on the increase in younger age groups via a combination of community engagement - especially gala days and a summer cricket camp, run via the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation.

Raymond Budd, one of the junior coaches down at the club as well as a new All Stars Activator, had this to say about the All Stars Cricket programme’s approach:

“The sub-U9 and new starters section was an area of particular interest to the club and, as a committee, we had discussed it at length over a number of years. How could we generate interest for ages 5-8 and not dilute the quality of the existing structure and in particular the U9 section (which has a proven pathway to producing elite junior cricketers)?”

All Stars Cricket was the perfect answer, providing a fun environment for those that enjoy the recreational side of the game, whilst allowing any stronger, older, slightly more focussed players to continue in the U9 section. Barwick ran the All Stars sessions alongside U9s training on a Tuesday night (6pm to 7pm) so the little All Stars and parents (who are encouraged to participate in the sessions themselves) can physically see the pathway.

To promote All Stars, Barwick focused on self-promotion via various social media channels. Personalised posters were also available on the ClubSpark system - which they distributed around local shops, post offices and even pubs to get the message out. All Stars Cricket postcards were dropped into local schools by Raymond and, heading into 2018, the YCB hope to work more closely with local schools by offering taster sessions and assemblies to increase participation even further. The promotion worked, and Barwick-in-Elmet managed 29 sign ups within the first four weeks of the programme.

Speaking of the All Stars Cricket Sessions, Raymond said:

“The sessions have been extremely FUN for both the All Stars Cricketers AND parents. Almost all the parents (and sometimes younger siblings) joined in with the sessions. Everybody kind of accepts that this is not elite cricket training but more of a fun engaging environment with a bit of a cricket theme.”

One of the key parts to the All Stars programme is training up parents and club coaches to become All Stars Activators. Barwicks’s sessions were all well-structured thanks to the experience of their Level 2 coaches combined with the easily available All Stars training online via iCoachcricket.

Barwick-in-Elmet was one of the many All Stars successes across Yorkshire in 2017 thanks to the fantastic work of Raymond and all at the club. When observing the first session in progress, everyone could see the impact All Stars was having on the club ethos: Parents were engaged, kids were running around, cricket skills were being developed and the best part was that the kids carried on playing with the parents after the sessions had finished!

All Stars Cricket is all about creating a fantastic experience and environment down at the cricket club as well as kids playing at home in their All Stars gear with Mum and Dad! We hope this equates to a lifelong love of the game and we are looking forward to seeing these little stars playing in years to come.

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