Sporting clubs are notoriously tough to develop, especially when your club doesn’t have a junior set-up. Seven years ago, this was the situation for Red Star Cricket Club, but after an incredible amount of work, the Wairarapa club now boasts 14 junior teams.
Last season Red Star fielded a premier men’s team, alongside 150 participants across junior cricket, including 36 female players. Even across all sporting codes, this puts Red Star amongst the three largest sporting clubs in Wairarapa.
The club’s vision is to make Red Star “Wairarapa’s Complete Community Club,” with the purpose of being the “Masterton Club where Everyone Gets a Go.”
The club hasn’t concentrated on success on the pitch, rather instilling the philosophy of all round development of players. Simon Roseingrave, the Operations Manager at Wairarapa Cricket, was originally apart of the development at Red Star, therefore he knows all about the philosophy the club installed.
“They have a fantastic philosophy; their philosophy is the biggest thing that has driven their growth.”
Being able to establish a club is great in the short term, but able to develop sustainable ways of keeping people interested and involved is another challenge.
“They are also very good at buying into ways to create sustainable processes for the club to move forward. They have a volunteer’s plan, so all their volunteers are recognised, they are given club clothing to wear, and they are also recognised at the end of the season."
Roseingrave believes Red Star’s initiatives and effective communication have also been key to the club’s rapid growth.
"They have opening days and closing days, and they host things like cricket Olympics where they have some fun games the kids get involved in and the parents get involved using crazy catches and that type of thing.”
“They also make sure the information that they give out to parents is very good, so they give newsletters out as much as possible, they have a website that is kept up to date. It's all around giving it a go and communicating it as effectively as possible with their whole community and that's a big thing for any sporting organisation."
Within most successful clubs there is generally one or two people that put in countless hours of normally unrecognised service and, at Red Star Cricket Club, Mark Elliott is that person.
"Mark Elliott has been involved within cricket around the Wairarapa for probably about 40 years. He is the Junior co-ordinater and Club President, and has been doing it for a couple of years now. There's always someone in a club that puts in 40 hours a week, that doesn't have 40 hours a week, Mark’s one those guys.”
For any organisation to go from no junior members to 150 in seven years is incredible, but adding in Red Star’s plans for sustainability makes that achievement even more impressive.
Club of the Year:
Wairarapa’s Red Star Cricket Club was named the 2015/16 Community Cricket Club of the Year. The New Zealand Cricket award acknowledges a cricket club which displays good practice and strengths is areas such as planning, leadership, financial management, volunteer strategy, membership, coach and player development and community engagement.
The annual Community Cricket Club of the Year award is open to all cricket clubs, the winning club being one that has had an outstanding impact on the community.
