HISTORY OF KIDS CRICKET AT COLEGIO SPINOLA IN MADRID

Colegio Spinola Cricket History.

 

Madrid CC started running introduction to cricket sessions in May 2015 at Colegio Spinola with around 40 kids turning up for the first 2 hour session on a Sunday morning. This was followed by a second session in September of the same year, with two more in May and June 2016, culminating with a six a side tournament in June 2016. Seven teams took part, 5 from Colegio Spinola, one from Runnymede School plus another combined schools team.

 

More one-off sessions continued at the school during the year 2016/17 and in September 2017, the school sports club, CD Spinola, agreed to cricket being included as one of the official sports on offer, meaning that a fixed time was reserved for weekly sessions at the school, with membership and payment being handled by school sports club.

The club also agreed to allow children from other schools to attend. Since then, every Friday afternoon during term time, cricket sessions have been up and running. In April 2018, 11 Spinola junior players travelled to La Manga to play their first match, with some seeing a cricket pitch for the first time! Today, in February 2019, the junior cricket is progressing well, with some of the older kids now ready to move on to hard-ball competitive cricket.

Meanwhile, Madrid CC has assisted a number of other schools, either with one-off introduction to cricket sessions, or with assistance for PE teachers, including the supply of equipment provided by Cricket España.  

Introductory sessions have been held at the following schools:

· British Council School

· Runnymede College

· City Country School 

· Colegio Publico Joaquin Turina

· Colegio Publico Fuente del Palomar

· Colegio Publico Jarama 

· Colegio Publico Hans Christian Andersen

· Colegio Alborada.

· Institute Las Canteras in Villalba

Assistance has been provided for PE teachers at the following schools, including the supply of equipment:·

· Maxwell School

· Runnymede

· Colegio Publico Joaquin Turin

In addition, Madrid CC has run a number of other introduction to cricket events, such as at the Municipality of Madrid XMAS fair and the minority sports event run by the NGO Red Deportes.

Thanks to these initiatives, many hundreds of kids have experienced cricket for the first time during the last few years, with at least one third of them being girls.

Apart from promoting junior cricket, Madrid CC runs a refugee project which involves raising money to buy and deliver equipment to a refugee camp in Serbia, and runs cricket sessions in the camp. A number of refugees also play for the Madrid Club.

 

LEWIS CLARK – MADRID CRICKET CLUB