CRICKET
memorable moments. “Yes, one in particular,” he laughs. “I was positioned at square leg. The batsman hit the ball in my direction and I caught it one handed without thinking. Every fielder and both batsmen looked at me in astonishment. I dropped the ball like a hot brick and shouted ‘dead ball’. Did I feel an idiot? I wished the ground could have swallowed me up.”
Juniors rising through the ranks
Lee Martin runs the thriving juniors section: “Bringing forward young talent is vital to a club like ours,” he says, “as, over the years, the participation in cricket has dropped dramatically. In our locality alone, which covers Thanet, including Margate and Broadstairs, only four clubs now run juniors sections, compared with nine, years ago. The trick is to find volunteers willing to give up their time to commit to coaching. It’s difficult.” To address the issue of declining membership, the committee decided that it was time to reverse the terminal trend and invest in youth. “I came on board as Youth Development Officer/Coach in May 2016,” Lee continues, “was trained up and started in the post in May 2016, in charge of ten children.” “We gained the appropriate
safeguarding certificates to allow the club to coach juniors and I took an eight-week coaching course to gain my Level 2 certificate with the ECB at Kent County Cricket.”
“The project has grown since then and, last season, we ran the programme with more than fifty junior members attending some Sunday morning sessions, which we run from 9.30 to 11.00am, late April to early September. The U9s are the biggest group. The parents are great too and love to get involved. They field a team against the coaches on August Bank Holiday afternoon, following a juniors match in the morning.”
“There are added benefits,” says Lee. “Often, the club signs up a parent, who suddenly wants to resume playing, and that’s all good for our future.” “The biggest hit for me is seeing the kids faces when they are learning something new and are getting off their computers and playing outdoors." The success of the coaching programme demands more than a single coach and Westgate is welcoming Natalie O’Connell, another Level 2 coach, this season. “That makes three Level 2 coaches in total,” Lee reports. “Our first XI
98 PC April/May 2020
captain, Scott Tift, has been a Level 2 qualified coach for a number of years.” Westgate runs most if its coaching programme on the outfield and in the practice nets, occasionally using the square.
“The school fits in really well with our coaching and fixtures and bring the contractor in if we request the outfield to be cut.”
This close working relationship has been fostered despite major upheavals for both parties. “Kent Council built the present school in the late 1990s, and we had to move off the square for three seasons on to council pitches. Rafe and Gary do a great job for us and, for the last three years, we’ve run ECB All-Star Cricket for 5 to 8 year-olds.” Although Lee cannot play at the moment - he awaits a knee reconstruction operation after snapping his anterior cruciate and medial ligaments - he vows to keep up his coaching commitment. “You can’t let the kids, or the parents, down and, as long as they keep coming to the club to learn the game, we have to deliver for them - having juniors coming though the ranks is vital to the game we all love.”
The pull-through from junior cricket to the main game is healthy. “Six of our youth squad have moved up to the adult level.” Westgate-on-Sea CC’s future is looking brighter than some of its neighbouring clubs, which have either merged or disappeared. “We can field a first and second XI on Saturdays,” says Lee, “plus a Sunday team, with juniors fixtures planned to be introduced this season.” Clearly, the club runs to a highly community-based model, with players devoting time to running the club as well as turning out for the team. Club Secretary James Hogg began his cricketing career here fifteen years ago, at the age of eleven. Lee himself started at just nine, developing into Westgate’s opening bowler. He celebrated his 40th birthday playing alongside his 10-year-old son Lewis, who’s also on the coaching programme.
Back to the present, he applauds all the good work his colleagues put in to raise much-needed funds. “The fathers versus coaches and kiddies game is a highpoint for me,” he states. “Last year, Lee [Martin, more about him later] who runs the junior coaching, wrote to clubs and shops and organised a raffle and auction, raising £2,500. The event attracts parents, juniors and other local people.” Back to the square. Whether players are young or old, Rafe leaves them in no doubt about his views on them trespassing on his hallowed turf, after spending so much of his time preparing it. “Cricket is supposed to be a gentleman’s
game, but these days the wickets take a right pounding. It’s not wilful damage I’m sure, but as an umpire - and a groundsman - I feel obliged to tell them to keep off the pitch. I’m just being practical I suppose, but I have to say it.” Rafe took over as head groundsman from Gary Sandwell (61), who had undertook the task for many years. “You don’t receive many offers of help preparing the square and I decided to ask Gary if I could assist him. He nearly bit my hand off. Without Gary, I’d be lost. He’s shown me everything from day one and has a ‘Bible’ going back to the year dot, which points the way on maintaining the square.” Perhaps the two were destined to work together as, in past lives, they had pursued careers in similar sectors. “I worked as a print finisher for twenty-five years at Sericol in Broadstairs, the largest inkmaking company in the world,” says Rafe. “Gary worked at a printers in Margate.” Former player Andy Seal mucks in too, marking out the strips by hand on a Friday evening. “It just makes my task a little bit easier,” Rafe remarks.
The operational arrangement at Westgate is complicated but works well. Kent County Council owns the land on which St Saviour’s School stands. Westgate hire the square from the school and maintain it for both club and school to use. Maintaining the outfield is St Saviour’s responsibility, and they bring in their own contractor to mow it.
“The outfield could do with a 5 tonne roll,”
Rafe says. “It was fertilised several years ago, but the school has to prioritise funds and the field takes a bit of a back seat. That said, we have a really good working relationship with the head and deputy who organise a cutting if we request it. Football, rounders and athletics are all played on it, plus the sports day events.” Rafe and Gary start work on the square as early as December, cutting it with one of the pedestrian mowers and checking for any disease patches, which they treat with
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