SURREY CRICKET FOUNDATION 2017 ANNUAL REVIEW Director of Cricket Participation Paul Taylor looks back on a year of change and great achievement right across the county. 2017 has been another incredibly busy year for the Surrey Cricket Foundation (SCF). In February, the Cricket Participation team restructured giving promotions to four very deserving individuals. Vicki Howard, Gavin Reynolds, Mark Babb and Harry Ellis were all promoted to Cricket Participation Officers with Vicki and Gavin taking on the lead for women & girls cricket and disabilities cricket respectively. Mark took the lead on our vast school competitions programme whilst Harry led on all events held at The Kia Oval. More importantly this gave us more resources in terms of club support. With Kim Price and Chevy Green also being club facing, we now have six members of staff working directly with our clubs, with Simon Hards taking on a coordinating role within club development. They have been ably supported by our community coaches and our administration team and whilst there are always continual challenges for us in terms of priorities, we have enjoyed some incredible successes. Our School’s programme, supported by Chance to Shine, has seen the game introduced to over 23,500 children in 2017. Across the Street projects, we again excelled in terms of delivery and the number of attendees. An achievement that has been highlighted by Chance to Shine across the country. Schools Day this year was held at the Royal London one-day match between Surrey and Kent and we saw just under 5,000 children enjoy the experience at The Kia Oval. All Stars Cricket was a new ECB initiative which rolled out during 2017. An entry level programme for children aged 5 – 8 years designed to be a fantastic first experience of the game. Working closely with our club network, the SCF established 51 centres and had over 1,600 children registered on the programme – a tremendous effort on behalf of both SCF staff, our All Stars Cricket Champions (Sam Kraft, Graham Mann, Alain Jason and Richard Hall) and the clubs. The women & girls cricket programme reached new heights during this year, enhanced by the second year of the Kia Super League and the fantastic success of the England women winning the ICC World Cup. New women’s softball festivals ran involving 530 participants and just under 1,000 girls were involved in SCF activities this year, with another 400 attending Women & Girls Day at The Kia Oval. Our Disabilities programme continues to grow with the continued support of our key funders. With the contributions made by First State Investments, who this year extended and increased their support, and the Lords Taverners, we have been able to expand our programme. Our annual SCF’s Disabilities Day was our most successful ever, with over 600 attendees enjoying the Kia Oval experience. Our Lords Taverners disability hub programme now has a centre established in each of our seven London boroughs with great numbers attending each session. Three of our boroughs, Wandsworth, Kingston and Croydon all qualified for competition finals day held at Lords and at the subsequent awards ceremony we had three winners. Isaac Walker won Player of the Year, Alan Siu was Coach of the Year and Charlie Duckworth was awarded Volunteer of the Year. Many congratulations to all three deserving winners. Our facility development programme again allocated over £100,000 of funding to clubs as part of the ECB small grants scheme. This means that in the four years that this programme has run, we have been able to support 96 clubs awarding over £300k of grants into a programme delivering a total of over £435k in value. In addition, the SCF supported several clubs with £63k of grants delivering various projects valued at around £200k. NatWest CricketForce was held this year at Streatham & Marlborough Cricket Club and was a national showcase club for the ECB. The day, which transformed the club, was attended by hundreds of volunteers. England players Steven Finn and Zafar Ansari were also in attendance with support from Surrey spinner Amar Virdi. Our education programmes delivered by our tutoring teams and supported by the Surrey Coaches and Officials Associations, and the new Groundsman’s Support Network continue to be well attended with just under 900 attendees across the various programmes. We also had over 1,400 attendees on our 2017 junior coaching course programme. I would like to thank Surrey County Cricket Club for the support that we receive as a Foundation. We are truly blessed and lead the way in terms of cooperative working and integration across the county cricket board network. I would also like to thank SCF Trustees, especially our Chairman, Simon Dyson, for their commitment and support in helping shape our operation and ensuring we continue to drive the development of our programmes. In addition, a huge thank you to all the volunteers across the County for all that you do, the game wouldn’t happen without you. Thanks also to the members of our working group structure who help shape our decision making. Lastly, I would like to thank my team for their hard work, support, passion and dedication throughout the year – without them the successes achieved would not have been possible. As we move into 2018, discussions are taking place with ECB around a new County Partnership Agreement which we hope will see a six-year funding commitment, starting in October 2018, linked to the new television deal that has been recently negotiated. KIDS & SCHOOLS School’s Programme 2017 was another successful year for our school’s program, with over 23,000 pupils receiving regular coaching. The figures below show good improvement on 2016’s program. 2016 2017 123 Schools 120 Schools (75 Primary, 2 Middle, 37 (88 Primary, 22 Secondary & Schools Involved Secondary & 9 Special 10 Special Schools) Schools) Coaching Hours 3,490 4,667 No of Children Receiving 23,696 13,595 Regular Coaching (60% male, 40% female) No. of inter school matches 2,112 3,006 No. of teachers receiving 69 205 training We have also received excellent qualitative feedback about the program via the Chance to Shine Survey. Participants have noted that our cricket sessions have helped boost ‘confidence’ and they feel ‘healthier’ amongst other benefits. Teachers noted an ‘increased confidence’ among their students and lauded the benefits that the training aspect offers. 963 (656 primary and 307 secondary) teams entered our competitions in 2017. This is slightly less than in 2016, as this year the secondary outdoor competitions were not run internally, with schools instead encouraged to enter a local secondary school leagues to play regularly. School Competitions Roll of Honour 2017 Cup Age Group Winner ESCA NatWest County Cup U15 Reeds ECB / ESCA National U15 T20 U15 Whitgift SSCA U15 T20 Vase U15 John Fisher Anderson Cup U14 Trinity U15 Girls Competition U15 St George’s College U13 Girls Competition U13 Kingston Grammar School Watcyn Evans Trophy U13 Trinity U14 Plate Competition U14 Coombe or Rutlish (TBC) U13 Plate Competition U13 Carshalton or Gordons (TBC) U12 Plate Competition U12 John Fisher or Howard of Effingham (TBC) Bunbury Jubilee Trophy U12 Whitgift Verney Cup U11 KCJS Wimbledon Geoff Richards Trophy U11 Parkside Connellan Trophy U11 West Byfleet Kwik Cricket Year 6 Open U11 Reigate Priory Kwik Cricket Girls U11 Reigate Priory Kwik Cricket Year 5 U10 Westbourne Lady Taverners Indoor U13 Kingston Grammar Lady Taverners Indoor U15 Weydon Year 7/8 Boys Indoor U13 The Charter Year 9/10 Boys Indoor U15 St Mark’s Hobbs Trophy The SCF again supported the annual Hobbs Trophy match at the Kia Oval between the Surrey Schools and London Schools Cricket Associations on Monday 8th May. This is a 40 over match between U15 players from state schools in Surrey and London. London Schools, chose to bat first and finished up with 203. In reply, Surrey Schools cruised to victory, reaching the target of 204 with five overs to spare. A big thank you to Surrey CCC and the grounds staff who, despite the busy fixture list this year, allowed us to facilitate this historic fixture. Pinsent Masons Scholarship Programme 12 children from our school’s programme were again selected in 2017 for the Pinsent Masons scholarship which entitles them to a free place at an SCF development course. The scholars were invited to attend an on-pitch presentation at the Kia Oval at the NatWest T20 Blast Game match between Surrey and Sussex. The awards were presented to the scholars by Pinsent Masons representative, Carolyn Saunders. The 2017 Pinsent Masons Scholars were; Adam Perowne, Ahsan Ejaz, Ella Eastaway, George Ross, Hamish Forsyth, Jacob Khan, Lukas Boutell, Mati Nunn, Millie Hackney, Ruben Morris & Umair Ejaz. Woking Bedser Schools Cricket Scholarship Programme Surrey Cricket runs an annual school’s cricket programme in Woking in honour of Alec and Eric Bedser. The Bedser Scholarships are awarded annually to six children who are state school educated in Woking and do not play District or County cricket. The scholarship includes cricket equipment vouchers, club subscription, one-to-one coaching, a bespoke five-week coaching course and tickets to attend a match at the Kia Oval. The 2017 Bedser Scholars were; Morgan Oxborough, Robbie French, Ella Shattock, Nicole Dragos, Douglas Cant and Maaz Ali Ejaz. Our thanks go to the Bedser Scholarship Working group for their support in making this programme a success. All Stars Programme This new entry level national programme, aimed at children aged 5-8 years old, was a success in Surrey. 51 Surrey clubs ran an All Stars programme and 1,607 children participated. Despite the initial ‘teething’ problems, the programme achieved good results which we hope to build on in 2018.