EDUCATION SPORTS CAMPS
Summer
T
welve-year-old Ellie spurs her pony into a slow canter, twirling her polo mallet, slightly shakily, overhead.
The mallet swings down and thwacks the ball cleanly up the fi eld. Her team- mates follow it in hot pursuit. A huge grin spreads across her face. “That’s the best hit I’ve ever done,” she exults to her coach, the England polo international, Tarquin Southwell. The children, aged from 11 to 15,
were trying their fi rst competitive ‘slow chukkas’ at Ascot Park Polo Club, Berkshire, on the fi rst day of their four-day course. It’s an exotic option for children with time on their hands during school holidays. Most were newcomers to the sport, although several were competent riders. For many working parents with
the long summer weeks stretching before them, the big question is how to amuse their children. Summer holiday sports camps are an obvious option, providing a safe, healthy and stimulating environment for children of a sporting bent. Many sports camps have sprung
WWW.FIRSTELEVENMAGAZINE.CO.UK
sports camps
Whether you’re looking to encourage a sporting prodigy with expert advice or just give your children some summer exercise, sports camps have many benefi ts. Sally Jones investigates
up in response to demand but parents are choosy. Most are understandably anxious to avoid the scenario of languid gap-year students giving a little basic instruction to equally bored youngsters, or disengaged sporting heroes putting in a fl ying visit to justify the use of their name on publicity material. However when a sports camp gets it right, the rewards are endless, with active and enthusiastic children responding to charismatic coaches. There is a real frisson in being
coached by a sporting star – and there are many involved in hands-on fashion in well-respected holiday courses, whether it’s polo, cricket, tennis or riding. Former England international fast bowler Darren Gough runs residential and non-residential cricket camps using the excellent facilities of Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, each summer. After a hard morning of cricket, students get the chance to play a variety of other sports, including hockey, rugby, tennis, swimming, basketball, golf and soccer – with quizzes, barbecues or extra sessions in
the cricket nets, in the evenings. Yorkshire County Cricket Club
captain Andy Gale is head coach of the Pro Coach Cricket Academy, which runs non-residential courses at county grounds and cricketing schools from Scotland to Sussex. They apply to everyone from newcomers getting their fi rst taste of Twenty20 cricket to talented teenagers with their sights set on a professional career. For those with ambitions, Gary Palmer’s CCM Academy, at Cheam School, Newbury, aims to give talented youngsters, aged 10 to 19, the tools they need to join county cricket academies. Palmer, a former Somerset all-rounder, runs intensive all-day sessions at weekends and holiday times, attracting gifted young players from as far afi eld as Humberside and the Channel Islands. Several have already broken into First Class county sides. ✒
Coaches from left to
right: Mick Newell (Director of Cricket at Nottinghamshire CCC), Jeremy Lloyds (former Somerset and Gloucester CCC player), Alvin Kallicharran (ex- Captain of the West Indies Test team) and Gary Palmer (former Somerset CCC player)
SUMMER 2010 FIRST ELEVEN 41
PHOTOS: ASCOT POLO CLUB,/CCM ACADEMY
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