9
2018
Reach for the Stars
An article by Stephen Pritchard
All Stars Cricket is saving my cricket club.
In our second year of the programme we have half a century of All Stars with associated parents, grandparents and siblings. They offer help, hindrance and hilarity and a mixture of heartwarming and heart stopping moments – #bigmoments
We have 3 teenage Activators (to aid this slightly aging one) who were easily tempted to get involved – 3 hours of free training, hours to record for DofE, CSLA courses, and a finite 8-week commitment.
We have a growing number of ex-All Stars who want to move on to “proper cricket” and so are feeding into our U10 softball teams.
We have a buzzing bar and pavilion filled with all the “extras” that All Stars brings, buying drinks of all kinds. The bar is often staffed by All Stars parents when previously it would have been locked up.
We have a new community from outside cricket who now own the club on a Friday night. Un-stuffy, non-traditional, enjoying the green open space and reveling in the freedom that initially being encouraged (*forced*) to join in has brought. The biggest smiles happen in the hour after All Stars as families stay and play amongst themselves. Many do – two hours for the price of one.
We have a group of women who are taking their first, and increasingly confident, steps into cricket for themselves. Now numbering 20, 18 of whom are directly linked to All Stars (Mum Stars, Sister Stars, Friends of Mums Stars) they have taken part in their first soft-ball festival, and loved it, and formed a Whatsapp group, and organised a trip to see the Western Storm.
We have Dads of All Stars who are harking back to their days playing cricket at school and who have dipped their toes back in the water in friendly games – borrowing poorly fitting kit to give it another go and feeling comfortable doing so.
We have some challenges around how we cope with this growth, but these challenges are far better ones to have that those we had before.
Thanks All Stars Cricket
