Tanworth & Camp Hill CC has developed significantly over the last 10 years - developing great new facilities and growing a junior section from a handful of children to over 120 participants across All Stars, Dynamos and hardball cricket. The proactive Club Committee has been committed to growing the club from its grassroots and retaining players. As a result, Tanworth & Camp Hill CC is now reaping the rewards of this strategy, with a busy club house and strong junior section feeding through into the senior teams. Nothing symbolises this success better than Friday night junior training, so the WCB team decided to head down to Tanworth & Camp Hill CC and take a closer look……
Junior Coaching
On a blisteringly hot afternoon in mid-June, under a cloudless sky, Tanworth & Camp Hill CC is bursting at the seams. It’s only half past five but already the new wooden terrace outside the clubhouse is full of people enjoying a drink at the end of the week, many of them parents to the dozens of children racing about (despite the heat), all eagerly anticipating their weekly All Stars and Dynamos session. The brightly coloured All Stars and Dynamos equipment is laid out neatly across the entire pitch whilst, over in the nets, the club’s U11 hardball crew are focused as they gear up for their training session.
In the centre of this scene stands the tall unmistakeable figure of Andy Turnbull, junior cricket lead at Tanworth & Camp Hill CC. He’s issuing instructions to coaches, providing encouragement, organising children, and liaising with parents. Clearly in his element, he has the air of a master of ceremonies at a large event involving a cast of hundreds. Andy emits the same energy and sense of organisation he brings to his day job as a Warwickshire Cricket Board Club Development Officer. The result is that everyone at Tanworth & Camp Hill CC – coaches and participants alike – knows exactly what they should be doing.
“See how far we have come as a club,” says Andy, grinning as he gestures over towards the pitch full of children. “Ten years ago, we barely had a junior section at all at this club. Now we’ve got 65 All Stars, 20 Dynamos, and over 50 hardball juniors. For other clubs who might just be starting out with All Stars and Dynamos, we are a great example of what’s possible. If you start somewhere, and build year on year, then in a relatively short space of time you will have home grown senior cricketers in the senior sides.”
Volunteers
Alfie Cheatham (16) and Joe Kelso (17) are two such cricketers. Both have come through the junior section at Tanworth & Camp Hill CC, play cricket in the senior teams, and are also volunteering as All Stars activators at junior training on a Friday night. Alfie plays in the club second team and has been at Tanworth & Camp Hill CC since he was eight years old. He talks fondly of his relationship with the club. “Andy coached me as a junior, so it feels right to pass that on and come to help him with the coaching on Friday nights. Look at the terrace - on a day like today it’s beautiful down here. This is what a cricket club is all about.”
Joe Kelso agrees, adding, “It feels good to be inspiring young people to become cricketers, but also for them to come down here and have fun with their friends.” Joe currently plays in the Tanworth & Camp Hill CC first team. Both he and Alfie observe that since the formation of the junior section the adult teams have been reinvigorated too, with an increasing number of younger players in their teens and twenties playing for the club.
Liam Gillespie, aged 13, is younger than Alfie and Joe but is also a willing volunteer at the All Stars sessions. He enjoys supporting the coaches and helping the children with catching practice, batting skills, throwing and star-shaped bowling. Liam’s family are a great example of how Tanworth & Camp Hill CC is very much a family club – his dad Michael coordinates All Stars and mum Kate is a proactive Club Safeguarding Officer (who has recently proposed that the club establishes a Children’s Committee to give children in the club a voice in how the club is run).
Leadership Team
Club President Philip Webb and Chairman Peter Carey have a combination of 70 years playing experience between them at Tanworth & Camp Hill CC. They are both full of praise for the contribution club members make to growing the junior section. “Our coaches are volunteers,” says Peter. “We have so many of our senior players here tonight – everyone wants to follow in Andy’s footsteps! Andy is completely and utterly brilliant. He is the catalyst for what happens in the juniors.”
Peter attributes much of the club’s success to the high retention rates at the club, both as children graduate from the Dynamos programme and as they move through age group cricket. “We don’t have many who leave the club. One of two might go, for example because they decide to make a commitment to another sport like football, but generally most people stay. We have the time and energy here to develop each individual player.”
Club President Philip Webb echoes the importance of families to the club. “Before, parents used to drop their children off at training and go, but now they will all stay to have a drink and socialise. Friday nights bring a really good income to the club, with the bar and the tuck shop, but the club is also busy on Saturdays when our senior teams play here and on Sundays for the Sunday Smash 100 ball competition. We have really improved the facilities here with the new bar and decking area, thanks to a combination of grants and careful renovation.”
Looking around the packed ground, it’s hard to imagine where all the people come from. Tanworth & Camp Hill CC is located down a narrow country lane and feels miles away from anywhere. Peter Carey explains that many of the members at the cricket club are not from the village of Tanworth itself, but come from further afield, some as far away as Sutton Coldfield. “We get quite a few from the local school, and many people come to us from other clubs. Word of mouth is important, as families love it here and then tell their friends about us. We have, however, had more local children from the village coming recently since we started running All Stars. Ultimately, we are showing what can be done even in an area with very few houses.”
Community Initiatives
Club Social Secretary and Committee Member Ashley Newell explains how the club is trying to engage more with local people and make them feel welcome at the cricket club. She says, “We want people locally to know they can come along to the club and feel welcome; that we are a friendly club. There are lots of social events here where we can really integrate with the local community. Recently, I organised for some food trucks to come here, including some from the Digbeth Dining Club, and we encouraged people in the village to come along too. The parish magazine is a good way of spreading the word.”
Ashley comes from the village of Tanworth, and her son Oscar is one of the first cohort of juniors at the club who are now playing first team cricket at Tanworth & Camp Hill CC. Ashley explains that she initially started her involvement at the club six years ago by running a cake stall during matches, selling cakes, teas and coffees. She then became involved in organising some social events and joined the Club Committee when the Committee encouraged more parents to get involved. Since then, Ashley has taken over responsibility for the social side of the club and has organised camping nights, quiz nights and a recent jubilee picnic.
Winning Combination
“It’s great to see the children running around here, almost without stopping for breath, having a taste of the freedom we had as children,” says Ashley, summing up how children and families are at the forefront of the vision at Tanworth & Camp Hill CC. Bricks and mortar can only take a club so far, and there are plenty of people at the club who provide the human glue to keep everything and everybody working together well. Tanworth & Camp Hill CC has found a winning combination of excellent facilities and great people who share a commitment to growing the club from within.
