Active Lincolnshire have distributed a Together Fund grant of £3,700 to Long Sutton Cricket Club to support cricket sessions for children aged 5-11 in the local area.

Active Lincolnshire is distributing the Together Fund in Lincolnshire on behalf of Sport England. The fund exists to help to reduce the negative impact of coronavirus and support community groups and clubs working with our target audiences - whose activity levels have been most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic - to grow and enable more people to be more active.

Long Sutton Cricket Club has been established in the area, for over 100 years. The club won the Active Lincolnshire Active Club Award 2021 in recognition of their work to engage the local community in sport. The club have run All-Stars cricket, aimed at encouraging younger children to get involved in cricket for the last four years. They have also starting running the Dynamos project last year for the 8 years plus age group.

The club has also had success with all girl sessions and engaging girls/women in the club. Since the Covid pandemic there has been a drop off in members however, especially children. Feedback from local schools suggests that there is an increase in children on free school meals and that after school clubs have stopped as parents can’t afford them.

This project will involve a mixture of extracurricular and club sessions for children 5-11 in local primary schools to engage more children in cricket. The project aims to reengage children in physical activity using cricket which has been popular in the local area in the past and which will hopefully result in more participation in the club's junior teams.

The club will work with the families and schools to ensure that those on Free School Meals are able to attend the club sessions in addition to the afterschool sessions. The club will also upskill one of their coaches to enable them to support the additional children and ensure standards are maintained.

Find out more about the other programmes that the Together Fund is supporting in Lincolnshire here.