A partnership with Long Sutton Cricket Club and coaching club, Sport2Day proved a great success for getting children involved in cricket, thanks to Sport England’s Together Fund.

Active Lincolnshire distributed a Together Fund grant of £3,700 to Long Sutton Cricket Club to support cricket sessions for children aged 5-11 in the local area.

Working together, the Long Sutton Cricket Club and Sport2Day have been running free coaching sessions for after school clubs across five schools in Lincolnshire throughout the summer 2023, with the hope of some joining the Cricket Club as members after getting a taste for the sport. Long Sutton Cricket Club have already had great success with encouraging girls and women into the sport and in 2021 was awarded the Active Club Award at the Lincolnshire Sport & Physical Activity Awards in recognition of their work to engage the local community in the sport.

However, since the Covid pandemic, the schools have reported a decrease in afterschool club participation and an increase in children on free school meals. The Cricket Club also reported a drop off in members, especially children.

Working closely with the schools, Sport2Day were able to deliver the sessions and signpost them to the clubs. The schools were able to highlight and ensure that the families who met the criteria for highest need were represented, making the sessions accessible to children from all socio-economic groups.

Sport2Day Lead Coach Josh told us,

“The project was one we were really looking forward to with our connections between cricket clubs and some of our coach's being experienced cricket players. The project saw some really amazing cricketing talent emerge. The basic skills were a real strong starting base for them to really shine when it came to the games.’’

During the project, Long Sutton Cricket Club welcomed eight new junior members, with three making it into the team for some of the last matches of the 2023 season. As a direct result of the sessions, two others joined a club in Wisbech and one in Moulton, as these were closer to them.

Two coaches have been trained to ECB Foundation Coach standard, and they will continue to work and deliver the sessions to a high standard as connections have become stronger between all involved, with the hope that the relationship will continue into 2024.

Sean Hughes from Sport2day told us,

"Our Together Fund project enabled us to provide access to families to sporting opportunities they may not have otherwise had and develop a strong school-club link that will benefit both and have a lasting impact on participation and activity levels for those families. By utilising our school contacts, we were able to reach a number of students within the local area. Without the fund the sessions would not have reached many families and through participation in the school sessions the club has seen an increase in members and new families joining the already well-established teams."

Sport England’s Together Fund existed to help reduce the negative impact of coronavirus and help community groups working with target audiences to grow and help more people. The Fund was a continuation of the Tackling Inequalities Fund that was set up in April 2020, as part of the support package to help the sport and physical activity sector through the Covid-19 crisis. £20 million of National Lottery funding committed to helping groups that were being disproportionally affected by the pandemic and was significantly impacting their ability to physically active. This included lower socio-economic groups, culturally diverse communities, disabled people and people with long-term health conditions.