Conscious of the fact that to secure the long term future of Great Horwood Cricket Club, we embarked on a youth coaching plan for children of age eight and upwards in 2000. We established a link with the village school, whose website is included on our link page, and held initial sessions in the school during term time. This was continued on Monday evenings when the summer term ended. Although no matches against other clubs were played in 2000, the attendance was sufficiently good to ensure that we would carry on the coaching in subsequent years.

Since that time when there were only two coaches initially we have grown to have five coaches and several parental volunteers to look after our 40 to 50 junior members made up of both boys and girls.

In 2007 we entered two teams (Under 11 and Under 15) into the Bucks Cricket Board League. To be able to succeed in this we have created a youth section sub-committee with not only coached but also team managers. The logistics of running these teams and continuing with the coaching sessions has meant that we have had to seek greater involvement from parents.

The success of this youth plan is demonstrated by the fact that several of the youths from the early years’ coaching sessions are now playing league cricket at senior level, with others playing senior friendlies.

If you think you or your children would be interested in taking part in youth cricket and that you may be able to offer parental help please contact Norman Ellison, Youth Development Officer either via the website or by e-mail details of which are shown in the contacts section of the website.