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Darfield Youth “Youth cricket has got to be massively important to any club and we are no different. Cricket in general seems to be struggling to attract and retain junior players in my opinion. Unfortunately, we have struggled with the U13 to U17 age group and are unable to run teams between those ages this season. We have however retained a number of the players for adult cricket. We have a successful allstars programme that to date has 24 kids signed up and an U9s team and an U11s team. We are just in the process of writing a 5-year development plan that looks to take the current U11s all the way through to U17 and on into senior cricket. The aim is then to filter teams in at every age group year on year. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take one forward.” Integration Here for you A bereavement is never easy to bear. So it’s good to know that when you need advice and care, there are local people who can help with what comes next. In Wombwell, Rachael, Holly & Paula will be here for you. Just as they have been for generations. You can contact us anytime at your local funeral home. Wombwell Funeralcare “We are keen to push our eligible juniors onto senior 28 High Street, S73 0AA cricket. The first thing is a conversation with the player 01226 759 596 and parents to see if they are ready to have a go. If the answer is yes then usually they will be selected to www.coop.co.uk/funeralcare play for our Sunday Team. In that team are a number of experienced players who can help the youngsters Co-op Funeralcare is a trading name of Funeral Services Limited, a registered society registered in England develop their confidence in the adult game. Once they and Wales with registration number 30808R and registered office at 1 Angel Square, Manchester, M60 0AG. have their confidence we will then look to push them to VAT registered 403 3146 04. Part of Co‑operative Group Limited. be considered for selection for the 2nd Team. We also try to encourage them to attend at our senior training so money out there for sponsorship, companies just don’t that they can get to know people and be integrated into have the spare cash. That said the sponsors we currently FNC0619439438-001_Wombwell_Ad_June_2019.indd 1 18/06/2019 the set up.” have are fantastic with us and without them we couldn’t Community “Whilst we have players from all over the area, I would say that we are a community club. We are the only sports club in our village except two Sunday football teams. It’s important that over the next couple of years we put our club right at the centre of the village and get the message out that we are there for the community. We are currently trying to build links with local schools to further our standing in the community and to get more juniors involved to hit our development goals.” Challenges survive.” Ambitions “Our ambition is firstly to have a full Junior Section with a team in every age group, this is a must. I would like to see our first team promoted and I believe that it is a realistic prospect if we put the groundwork in now. To continue running the three adult teams we have is also an ambition, we have seen local clubs fold sides and we don’t want to do that. Finally, we want to get the club out there and people in the community to know about us and it be the first place they bring their kids when they want to try sport.” “I think the biggest challenge is getting people playing the game. Life has changed and people are busy and seem to have less time. I agree that the level our first team are at should stay at 50 overs per side but I do think there are tweaks that need to be made to engage people further. Our 2nd team currently play 46 overs, personally I think this should be reduced to 40 overs per side also on a Sunday I believe that 30 overs per side is enough. I think these are all ways that we can make cricket more appealing and attract people to the game. Funding is also an issue; we are lucky to have our own clubhouse that helps us financially and we are grateful for that however, there seems to be less and less www.sportip.biz 41 13:46