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Teamsports |News


Heartbreaking call to halt club’s days


THE chairman ofHollingbourne Cricket Club admits it “breaks my heart” to realise the club is on its last legs – but knows it is the right decision The club has pulled out of its


Marden 2nd XI are one of eight senior teams at the club


Hockey’s at the heart of the hub


MARDEN has a sporting hub where hockey, cricket and tennis share a venue. The club has moved to a new


premises inMaidstone Road in the village, with the tennis club merg- ing in at the newfacility. The hockey team, Marden Rus-


setts, have had problems, but are now back to five men’s teams alongside threewomen’s sides. Chairman Neil Campbell said:


“I’ve not beenwith the hockey club that long, but in the seven or eight years I’ve been here, we have grown as a club.” As with many clubs, they have


invested in youth, and are always looking to push the youngsters for- ward. The newfacilities,which opened


in September 2017, are playing a big part too. “We have tried to build links


with the local schools andwe have a large junior section,”Neil added. “We have also got brand newfacil- ities and I think thatwe really ben- efit from having a nice place to play hockey, it’s a bit of a magnet for people. “We’ve run schemes like Back to


Hockey and they have proven very popular, and that has especillay helped to growour ladies’ section. “We try to get the juniors in-


volved in senior hockey. By 14 or 15wewould havemost of our bet- ter players playing adult hockey and the hope then is that by the age of 17 or 18 they will be ready to play at first teamlevel.”


league fixtures for this season, leaving just a smattering of one- off games for the rest of the year, alongwith some U17 games. IanGutteridge feels that there


are simply not enough players to go around. “I’ve been saying for three


years that there are too many clubs, there’s just not enough cricketers for all the clubs,” he said. “We’ve been leftwith 12 play-


ers for various reasons and on any given weekend you can as- sume that more than a third of your playerswon’t be available, so it got to the stagewherewe’ve decided you can’t just keep try- ing to pull water and we’ve pulled out of the league.” Hollingbourne was in the


Kent Cricket Village League, which is played on Saturdays by teams mainly in the Maidstone and Tonbridge regions. Several of the players that


were left have now linked up with nearby Bearsted, and that link up does, Ian hopes, mean there is still a chance that cricket can be played at Holling- bourne’s PilgrimsWay ground. “Bearsted are nowconsidering putting another team out,” he


added. “But obviously they only have one pitch, so hopefully if they end up needing a ground, they can use ours. “We can afford to keep the


ground up together for the rest of this season, but after thatwho knows what will happen to it? “It breaks my heart. The club


has been my life for the past 25 years. I met my wife through playing cricket for Holling- bourne. “I’ve got a lot of personal emo-


tion invested in the club and that’swhatmakes it such a hard decision – if it had been a busi- ness, I think Iwould havemade this call a year ago.” Ian admits that the nature of


cricketmakes it hard for people to commit, and that some of the fun has gone out of it due to the over-competitiveness of some other clubs. He also believes that the prob-


lems stem from school cricket, which is also endangere. “It is hard work, cricket is so


time-consuming, it’s a long- drawn out event,” he said. “People have families and


other commitments. For me, the problemis in secondary schools. The ECB shout about Chance to Shine and all the great stuff they do in primary schools, but once you get to secondary school, un- less it’s a grammar school or a private school, the kids fall out of the game.”


Parkrun thriving as runners take to the Lakes


WHILE teamsports are having their issues, the desire for health and fit- ness has led to a sharp rise in run- ning and walking. Somemay have swapped their tra-


ditional commute for going on foot, while many others have taken ad- vantage of programmes like theNHS Couch to 5k scheme in order to take up running. And when they have completed


that – or, in fact, even during the pro- gramme – there is a free 5k event every Saturdaymorning. Parkrun was founded in 2004 in


Teddington, and has now spread to 19 countries across the world. In the UK, between 130,000 and 140,000 people are taking part every week. Locally, there are two. The Maid-


stone parkrun starts and finishes close to Kent Life, while the Malling parkrun is at Leybourne Lakes. Both start at 9amevery Saturday,


and are open to all. “There has been a real push in the


past 12 to 18 months to make it more inclusive,” Malling parkrun co- event director Darran Potter says. “Whereas we used to have tail run- ners and new runner’s briefings, it’s now tail walker and first-timers. “There is a big emphasis on walk-


ing and jogging and making sure that everyone feels able to do it – there’s been a real concerted effort fromHQ. “Parkrun is very low commitment,


you can just wake up on a Saturday and decide you want to take part, and if you miss a week, it’s not the end of the world.” The first Malling parkrun was in


October 2015, and since then 4,803 different people – at the time of going to press – have run, jogged or walked the course. The all-time record attendance is 2,526 at a run


in South Africa in January this year, while Bushy Park, home of the origi- nal run in 2004, regularly reaches four figures, and holds theUK record with 1,705 taking part on the tenth anniversary parkrun. There are even some events held


in the grounds of prisons, illustrating that parkrun really is for everyone. “You get people of all ages, all shapes and sizes,”Darran adds. “One


of our regular runners is in his late 70s and we’ve also had a few octo- genarians visit us fromother courses. “I think when you see people of


that age still in good shape it can in- spire you. “There are more than 12,000 vol-


unteers in theUKwhomake parkrun possible everyweek, and 10,000 new runners are registering every week, so it really is a big thing.”


Maidstone July 2018 19


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