In many ways Bablake CC has a similar story to many other Warwickshire cricket clubs – an investment in junior cricket and a successful merger – but in another respect it is totally unique and one of a kind. For several years now, Bablake CC has developed and run its own inclusive sessions for children and young people with physical or learning disabilities. Inclusive cricket isn’t run separately from the rest of the club; it is very much at the heart of what the club does in its community, and has become embedded in the DNA of the club itself. The WCB team has been involved in supporting Bablake CC since the club first set up inclusive cricket sessions in 2013. We are taking this opportunity to meet members of the Bablake CC management team and have a closer look at the development of inclusive cricket alongside other aspects of club life.
George Rubery, Michael Steady and Clark McCallum sit at the picnic tables outside Bablake CC to chat about their work at the club. It’s evident they have all known each other for a long time and work well together as a team, each bringing different valuable skillsets and areas of expertise. It’s also evident that they have a lot of fun together and some great stories to tell! Junior Manager, George Rubery, is first to set the scene and give the overview of the club’s recent history and decision to invest in inclusive cricket. He hands over to Clark McCallum, who runs inclusive cricket at Bablake CC and provides more detail about that area of activity. Finally, Michael Steady puts this into context alongside the flourishing junior section and development of coaching staff from within.
George Rubery – the Overview
Inclusive cricket is a fundamental part of our club. We are a community club and being part of our community is important to us. Meeting the needs of children and young people in our community with physical and learning disabilities is something we decided to invest in over the last decade. The spark for this was lit by Clark McCallum. Clark came through our junior cricket system and started coaching here when he was 16 or 17 years old. Even back then he had a strong interest in disability sport, especially cricket, and he went on to take a Disability Sport Degree at Worcester University.
As Clark’s interest developed in this area, the club was keen to support him in his work and get Access cricket sessions set up for children with physical and learning disabilities. Clark had the passion and, with my experience, I was able to help him with the form filling, grant applications and administration.
Early on in the process, we spoke to Andy Wyles at WCB, and Andy was able to facilitate our first grant applications. Andy was instrumental in assisting us, by pointing us in the right direction towards organisations who could help. Our relationship with the WCB was important in getting the funding kicked off and is still important for ongoing support; for example, if there are sessions that Clark is unable to coach then Andy will be able to find us another coach to cover. Our original funding was a grant from CSW Sport (Coventry, Solihull & Warwickshire Sport) and we are currently funded by Coventry based PYF (Positive Youth Foundation). We are also very grateful to the Lords Taverners for the funding they have provided for our inclusive cricket programme. We understand funds aren’t unlimited from any one source and have tried to be self sufficient by applying for our own grants to run our inclusive sessions. The relationship with the WCB works both ways and Andy has been able to use some of our experience to develop similar WCB led projects elsewhere in the county.
Bablake’s development of inclusive cricket has run alongside development of our junior section generally and our merger with Highway Spartans CC in 2019, so it has been a busy few years for us at Bablake CC. Highway Spartans were served notice on their ground and, following a number of meetings between players and committee members on both sides, the merger was confirmed. It meant an influx of new players, who were very welcome to us at that time. The first season after the merger saw the club’s Saturday 1st team promoted to the Premier League of the Warwickshire Cricket League, and former Highway players can be found playing in all four of our Saturday Warwickshire Leagues sides as well as contributing significantly across the club. In addition to new members, they also brought with them a significant amount of ground equipment, as well as an electronic scoreboard and covers.
Clark McCallum – Inclusive Cricket
Pre Covid, our inclusive sessions had around 20 participants. We are now back up to 14 participants (11 boys, 3 girls) and they come from a wide variety of backgrounds. We are lucky we have access to an Astroturf area at the club, which is perfect for delivering inclusive cricket. Two of our players have represented the Warwickshire Access team this year, which is a great achievement. Next year we are hoping to run two inclusive sessions each week, one for participants aged 16+ and one for 11-15 year olds.
The inclusive side has grown steadily over the last decade. When we originally started, we had about six or seven participants. The support from the club has been great. When I first suggested the idea of setting up an inclusive section, the response from the club was, “Great, let’s do it.” To begin with, I went into local SEN schools and coached cricket, encouraging participants to come to Bablake CC and join our sessions here. We now have six volunteers coaching at our inclusive sessions, all from Bablake CC. In fact, two of our volunteers have just started at university, studying the same Disability Sport course that I studied.
This summer we have also developed a link with the England Visually Impaired team, as part of a wider strategy to link their team to local clubs with an inclusive side. The England players support our sessions technically and socially, and in return our coaches work with them on a 1:1 basis. We are hoping this relationship will blossom.
Our inclusive team took part in an Access Cricket tournament at Edgbaston in early October and enjoyed the experience greatly, as the photos accompanying this article demonstrate. Events like this, and the links with the England Visually Impaired Team, are important in allaying the inevitable concerns about where the programme goes in the future. Inclusive cricket isn’t easy to set up and requires people with drive and passion to establish it and keep it running. The rewards for individuals, coaches and clubs, however, are well worth the effort. I am probably most proud of the way we have brought a group of people to our club, as part of our club, who would otherwise have struggled to engage in sport and make friendships. It is great to see the participants grow socially, form lasting friendships, and socialise outside cricket. Some are even choosing further education courses based on each other’s choices.
Michael Steady – Junior Cricket
We currently have 85 juniors and 55 senior players at the club. We started junior cricket in 1986 with an under 16’s team which was run for many years by Walter Horseman – a real pioneer for our junior cricket and a club legend. Former junior players are well represented throughout the club, whether playing, coaching or as committee members. Our current Saturday first team captain and club chair, Tom Cowley, captained the U16s under Walter’s guidance for three consecutive years in the 1990s. Over the years we added age group teams down to U9s, and more recently All Stars and Dynamos. Running holiday camps for the last 18 years and going into local primary schools has also helped with the recruitment of juniors from our local area.
I like to get children involved in cricket as early as I can. If you can get them early, you can really develop them into good cricketers. It’s easier to get them interested in the game when they are young. We ran an U9s hardball team for the first time this year and they won their league. Some of those U9s played up in the U10s hardball team and they won that league too! We’ll offer as much cricket as there is an appetite for.
In the recent seasons we have not run an U16 side, but instead decided to enter a Wednesday night Bablake B team in the Coventry & District Cricket League. This is an adult league, but we made the decision to enter an additional side with the emphasis very much on youth. All U16s players have a guaranteed place in this team and the vast majority of players are under 21. It provides another opportunity, alongside weekend cricket, for young players to progress into adult cricket, as well as playing adult Saturday cricket. The captain of the Wednesday B team is a coach at the club too, so there is support for the players. A strong flow of young players into our adult teams is important as we now run four Saturday teams, a Sunday league team, a Sunday friendly team and two Wednesday night sides.
Putting our own players through coaching courses is also important. As young players progress into adult cricket, this means there is always someone in the team who is a coach and is a familiar face to support them in their development. When young players develop coaching skills themselves, it’s good for their all-round development, as well as being good for the club. Some players coach as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Awards and parents love it too as it’s great for CVs and university applications.
George, Clark and Michael proceed to discuss how their coaches will always recognise which players need extra support and provide it. The impression is that this is a guiding principle at Bablake CC – whether it’s providing extra support to fellow members of the management team, to players in the senior teams, in junior cricket or the inclusive section. A strong ethos of teamwork and mutual support has carried Bablake CC a long way and into some unique territory. It’s an ethos that will serve them well in the future and provides a positive role model for other clubs looking to embrace the many benefits of inclusive cricket.
