Sheffield Collegiate
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“I joined Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club as
a junior. It was the local club to me when I started
playing and I still play at the club now. I recently
relinquished the 1st team captaincy after twelve
years. I enjoyed being captain of the club and as
always it came with its ups and downs and various
headaches but I thoroughly enjoyed captaining my
home and first club.
The 1st XI evolved over the years but latterly
was made up of Sheffield Collegiate juniors coming
through the ranks. Some have obviously gone on
to bigger and better teams! The club has a thriving
junior section from under 9’s to under 17’s, as well as
Friday night coaching. There are often 100+ kids at
the Michael Vaughan Academy learning the cricket
basics on a Friday night - it is great to see that many
kids learning to play cricket.
The club also promotes juniors and volunteers to
carry out their ECB level 1 and 2 coaching badges.
MD Law has been a sponsor of the club for four years
now since its own incorporation and we currently
have an advertisement board at the ground.
I would just like to wish the club all the best in
the future and hope Sheffield Collegiate can keep
producing not only England captains but players who
continue to play whether that be at club level, county
cricket or international cricket.”
Matthew Dixon – MD Law
from University each week to come
and represent the club. We also have a
long tradition of bringing through our
own coaches. Over the winter six have
qualified as Coach Support Workers and
three more are just completing Level 2 -
all of these are 18 or under.
One of our biggest objectives in 2019
is to launch and sustain a Womens and
Girls section. We have a co-ordinator in
place and we are just about to appoint a
Ladies Head Coach. Initially, we expect
to enter local softball leagues but our
aim is to have a hard ball team in place
within three years.”
Youth
“Youth development is absolutely
massive for us; we are running twelve
junior teams again this year in the local
leagues plus additional teams in the
three age group Cup competitions.
Our biggest advantage is that despite
many clubs seeing falling numbers we
have sustained five senior teams on
Saturdays across a wide range of playing
abilities and we also offer senior cricket
on Sundays and in the local midweek
league.
There is therefore always a lot of
cricket available. A key to our success is
not only getting players turning out buy
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also getting them heavily involved with
batting and bowling responsibilities to
keep their interest.”
Community
“We are situated in the heart of the
local community and welcome both
existing and new members working
very well with local schools where our
coaches deliver Chance 2 Shine sessions
and after school clubs.”
Challenges/Ambitions
“The biggest challenges in the coming
years are to reverse falling numbers and
to avoid more clubs folding. A secondary
challenge is to keep cricket affordable. A
final challenge is to make sure the cricket
offering is what the player want in terms
of length of games, when matches are
played etc.
Our ambitions are to continue to
attract junior cricketers of all ages from
five upwards, develop a strong and
sustainable Womens & Girls section and
from a wider aspect continue to improve
and upgrade our facilities within our
financial budgets.”