Idle CC join select group

12:59pm Sunday 29th June 2008

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Idle have become only the fifth club in the Bradford area to receive the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) prestigious Clubmark award.

The Cavendish Road club follow in the footsteps of Steeton, Bradford & Bingley, Saltaire, Keighley and Undercliife, while Farsley have also been beneficiaries in the Leeds area, as have Northowram Fields in Calderdale.

Speaking at Idle last week, Tony Bowry, West Yorkshire cricket development manager for the ECB, said: “Clubmark has been around for four years now under the management of the ECB.

“We are part of a massive culture change in cricket as we try and link clubs with schools, the community and local authorities.

“Some clubs are happy to operate within their comfort zone but others – about 60 altogether – have achieved Clubmark status.

“This means that they have raised the profile of the cricket club at Idle and have, in reality, turned it into a small business.

“It means that coaches within the club have qualified at Level One and Level Two.

“Also there are about 60 to 70 volunteers needed to run a cricket club, although often it is down to four or five people wearing eight or ten different hats.”

Mark Nicklin, cricket secretary at Idle, said: “This award from the YCB means that there is equity within the club and no discrimination.”

The award was down in no small part to junior secretary Helen Hardaker, backed up by the efforts of former first-team captain Nicklin and club coach Gavin Lyons.

Also present to witness the award was Pam Hoyle, school sports partnership development manager for Bradford East, based at Hanson School.

Hardaker said: “This has taken about six months to achieve and it has been quite intensive.

“We have had to show that we have child protection policies, equity policies and that we have the right ratio of coaches to children.

“Also a code of conduct has been displayed prominently on the club’s noticeboard.

“In addition to all of this, we have had to back up all of these things with an evidence file to prove that we have achieved them.”

Hardaker added: “When I started my involvement with the juniors about eight years ago, we only had about 12 children.

“The next step for us is to try to become a Focus Club, which is another award from the ECB.

“All the Clubmark clubs are put forward for this and, were we to get it, it would improve our chances of getting any funding that was available.”