PIRBRIGHT’S junior section is thriving. And the club’s head coach Chris Smith puts that success down to the commitment of volunteers and the enthusiasm for cricket shown by the local community.
Smith, who became involved with the club in 2019, told the News & Mail: “Pirbright were looking to start a youth section.
“By chance I happened to see an old advert when I was advertising for coaches for another club where I used to work.
“So I got in touch and then we had various conversations and the club said ‘would you like to start the youth section?’
“We started the youth section in 2020 during lockdown.
“John Coombes joined me and we got the youth section going for a few weeks.
“We’ve gone from there to now having John as youth chairman and there being just short of 150 kids involved.
“We’ve got 13 sides ranging in age from Year R (aged four and five) to Year Ten (aged 14 and 15).
“We’ve got a boys’ section and a girls’ section – and from that, quite a lot of other things have spilled out.”
Smith, 47, began coaching when he was in his early teens and is a coach tutor for the ECB.
He said: “I’ve been head of cricket in a school and I’ve coached at various clubs over the years.
“I’ve worked with Surrey Cricket Foundation, was coach for a county age-group team and worked with England Schools on various projects.
“And just before joining Pirbright, I was the development officer at a big club.
“I knew we could make this work at Pirbright. The interest in cricket from the local community has been incredible.
“We worked with Pirbright Village School initially and we deliver sessions in there through Chance to Shine, a cricket charity which promotes cricket in the community.
“We also deliver some sessions in Brookwood, and the interest from the schools has been really great.
“There’s a lot of talk at the moment about cricket being elitist.
“And in a lot of clubs, the independent-school kids outnumber those from the local schools.
“Here it’s the other way round. We’ve got masses of kids from the local schools.
“Hopefully they’ve been enthused at school by some of the sessions we’ve done and have come down to the green and joined.
“The community’s absolutely taking cricket to heart. And as a result of that keenness in the community, we’ve tried to open up the club so we’ve now got a women’s section that is playing very competitive cricket and now just starting the hard-ball game.
“A lot of them, the initial members, were mums of the youth section.
“We’ve got the midweek men’s side which came about because the dads got jealous of the mums really.
“And offering walking cricket means we can cater for people up to 90 years of age playing cricket.
“So the idea of being a village cricket club for the local kids has then become a local cricket club for the local people.”
Asked if the speed at which the youth section had grown surprised him, he said: “No, but the big challenge was making it sustainable.
“And the only way you can make it sustainable is through the enthusiasm of the parents and everyone running it.
“And that’s what surprised me – the massive enthusiasm, the massive excitement of the parents, the kids and the community.
“Whether we could make it last longer, that was the challenge and I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
“The club’s not all about cricket. The cricket and the green is the gel that brings all these people together.
“We’re not ‘win at all costs’, we’re about kids coming down here and having a good time and wanting to come back next week.
“And that’s sort of followed through with the midweek side, the walking side and the women’s side. It’s a community club in the true sense.”
Coombes, 36, moved to the area in 2017 and took up cricket in 2019 after initially looking for a hobby.
He told the News & Mail: “I joined about the same time as Chris. I didn’t have much cricket experience before coming to the club.
“But Chris started up the juniors and I have two daughters, so I brought them along just as a parent and started helping out.
“One thing led to another and I took on the role of youth chairman. It’s been a fantastic journey.
“That involves working with Chris and helping facilitate stuff behind the scenes.
“I spend a lot of time getting to know the parents and the children, and one of the things we’re really working on is the transition of junior players to adult cricket and how we make that work.
“The future is very exciting because we’ve just had our first official youth members join open-age cricket so they’re now available to play adult hard-ball games.
“The lovely thing is that is a community-based effort.”
As someone who took up the sport later in life, Coombes was asked what it means to him.
He said: “I love bowling. But the biggest thing I like about cricket is facilitating it, getting the games on. Even if I’m not playing, I love getting cricket on and getting as many people enjoying it as possible.”