Primary

Primary Activity

Primary School work

The GCB realises the importance of working with children as young as possible and giving them the skills which will enable them to grow older and play cricket for life. Other sports like Football and Rugby start club based work at under 5’s and under 6’s and yet cricket historically has not really driven the game until under 11s.

The GCB believes that in doing this many talented cricketers are lost to other sports or if they do get involved in the game they are playing catch up in terms of skill development because they have not had access to it early enough.

Across the County now the GCB are encouraging all Youth Associations to run under 9 festivals and for all clubs to start taking children into their club at a younger age. For this to really work the GCB needs to develop more coaches and to provide more skills delivery to schools across the County.

In 2010 the GCB delivered to the greatest number of primary schools yet. Delivery took place as follows:

Chance to shine – 53 Primary Schools
Sport Unlimited Gloucester City Project – 12 schools
Local Authority South Gloucestershire SSP project – 43 schools

On the back of this work the following was a result:

Increased partnership work with the Competition Managers of Active Gloucestershire and WESPORT.
Under 11 Girls Clubs festivals being introduced
Appointment of a Development Officer to work specifically in an area in need of support
An increase from 101 teams involved in the ASDA Kwik Cricket in 2009 to 166 in 2010
A new Gloucestershire Youth League being set up at U11 for the longer version of the game
Christchurch (Downend) won through to the Boys Regional Finals at Exmouth
Hempsted (Gloucester) won through to the Girls Regional Finals at Exmouth (picture)
Several young cricketers were identified as having talent and went on to play District U11 Cricket

If you would like your school to be involved then please make contact with This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it