On Tuesday 13 June, Dunblane Cricket Club delivered a P6 Cricket Festival for Doune, Dunblane, Newton, and St Mary's Episcopal Primary Schools, held at Dunblane High School.
The event was a fantastic way to promote and engage children in the sport of cricket. Dunblane Cricket Club's Head Coach, Louis Gallagher, has been providing taster sessions at each of the schools over the past few months and it was great to see all the kids getting a chance to put the skills they had learned at the sessions into practice in mini games on the day.
MSP Roz McCall attended the event and shared in the celebration of cricket with the schools. It was great to have Roz attend and discuss the importance of sport with the volunteers and children in Dunblane.
Since coming into post as Head Coach of Dunblane Cricket Club in December, it’s been my core goal to increase participation at the club and get more young people in the area involved with cricket. The strategy I’ve used to drive this has been to engage with the three local primary schools in Dunblane and deliver blocks of five taster sessions with every class in P4-7 in Dunblane. This has allowed me to really break down cricket for the children and help them understand the basics of the sport, with the idea that some of them then want to join the club. The P6 cricket festival was a great opportunity to reward some of the pupils I’ve worked with this year and give them an opportunity to put their skills into games against other schools from the area. It was great to see the very good quality of play on show, as well as seeing all the children enjoying themselves in the sun and getting active. A big thanks must go to all the brilliant volunteers from across many different cricket clubs who came to run the games. The festival also wouldn’t have been possible without the great staff at Active Stirling, who have been hugely supportive ever since I began with the club.
Working with Dunblane Cricket Club has been great, and they have worked hard to develop their club, support the local community, and worked to get children engaged in cricket. Since taking over as the Head Coach at Dunblane Cricket Club, Louis has done a fantastic job in delivering Cricket tasters in Dunblane Primary School, Newton Primary School, and St Mary’s Episcopal Primary School with lots of children getting the opportunity to try the sport for the very first time. It was great to finish the academic year off with the Primary 6 Cricket Festival at Dunblane High School where children got the opportunity to put into practice the Cricket skills, they had learned during their weekly tasters’ sessions with Louis. It was also really pleasing to see so many of them enjoying playing games of cricket against one another and hopefully this newfound love for Cricket can lead to some of them joining Dunblane Cricket Club. I’m excited to see how this school to club link can develop further in the future. Active Stirling looks forward to working in partnership with Dunblane Cricket club and growing the sport in the local community.
To get involved with the club or for more information check out the club website. ww2.dunblanecricket.org.uk