Cricket was a huge success this summer, with our R66T Academy coaches out and about working directly with around 500 enthusiastic young players up and down the country. To continue our support for grassroots cricket, we maintained the initiative across the season, which saw us reach a further 2,000 players!
Coaching Camps
Our coaching camps at Sheffield Collegiate CC, Apperknowle CC and Peterlee CC attracted young cricketers of all abilities. Over 150 players, ranging from 6-16 years, experienced training that incorporated skills, tactical understanding and gameplay. R66T Academy staff worked closely with the club coaches involved, sharing ideas and the existing knowledge of the children involved, to produce appropriate and relevant sessions.
Our partnerships with Oxford International and Activate targeted higher-performing players aged 11-15 years. The Oxford International pilot project was a week-long residential at Royal Holloway University. Coaches utilised facilities at the University, Eversley CC and Egham CC. Throughout the week, we covered all aspects of cricket, whilst the group also completed classroom workshops covering cricket journalism, commentating and media skills. We then arranged for the players to spend a fabulous day at Lord’s to watch The Hundred.
We continued our summer holiday partnership with Activate with Batting Clinics at Lord Wandsworth College and Queens Taunton School. In total 24 aspiring batters received a day of coaching from our experienced Level 4 Master Coach in the beautiful surroundings of both of these famous old schools.
State School Cricket Interventions
In Chesterfield we work with the SHAPE Learning Partnership to develop cricket across the region’s schools. During the summer term we introduced hardball cricket to novice hardballers at three secondary schools and spent a day at a local primary school coaching all six classes which impacted over 200 pupils. We supported the Countdown cricket finals at Coal Aston CC primary school that included 6 teams and 60 pupils. The finals of our Y7 hardball cricket project, R66T 2 Hardball, were held at Cutthorpe CC, and the three schools brought 36 players. 30 of these had never played hardball before!
The Yorkshire Cricket Foundation are our R66T 2 Hardball partners in Yorkshire.18 secondary schools participated in our competition this year, with the top four schools playing on the finals day at Harrogate CC. This meant that around 220 Y7 state school cricketers experienced some competitive hardball cricket during the summer term!
In conjunction with The Cricket Society Trust, we endorse The R66T Academy State School Cricket Leagues in the east of England and Middlesex. Middlesex in the Community, Cricket East, Lincolnshire Cricket and The Steelbacks Foundation support the administration of U13 and U15 hardball cricket leagues for girls and boys across these regions. Our fund raising efforts, and those of other partners, help provide hardball kit bags, some coaching and, excitingly a new teacher training programme in Middlesex.
The U15 finals day at Kimbolton School produced winners for the next round of The Knight Stokes Cup and involved four boys teams and three girls teams. The U13 finals day had four U13 boys hardball teams and four U13 girls softball teams. This meant that to get to the finals over 50 schools across the five regions involved played regular term-time boys and girls fixtures. On average that’s 4 teams per school. That amounts to roughly a staggering 2,000 state school cricketers playing hardball cricket.
Charity Event Coaching
Another important and enjoyable part of our work is to use our brand to support charities.
During the August Bank Holiday, we were proud to join with The Jordan Legacy and Andy’s Man Club at Hemingbrough Cricket Club to raise funds for men's mental health. The One Day Test has now raised over £26,000 in two years for this essential cause. The real bonus was that we also got to give a R66T Academy coaching experience to over 40 youngsters, who enjoyed using our Ball Launcher, Ball Feeder and Reactor in the nets!
In South Yorkshire, Mexborough Cricket Club organised a cricket day to raise funds for a local child cancer cause. We were delighted to attend and coached over 50 children during the event. For more information about our contribution to this honorable event, click here to read more.