SMASH-IT & IT’S WICKET – THE JOURNEY SO FAR!

Hopefully by now many of you have heard about Smash-It and It’s Wicket!

They are exciting programmes that are available for every club in the country to introduce children to cricket. The programmes are inclusive, and child-centred, providing cricket based skills and lots of fun for kids.

Smash-It is aimed at boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 9 whilst It’s Wicket! is intended for girls between 9 and 13 years.

These programmes are very accessible to clubs as anyone who wishes to help implement either Smash It or It's Wicket! get two types of training, one online resource which takes about 30 minutes to complete and one in-person where Emma Butler or Jenny Sparrow go to your club, meet your activators and demonstrate the role of an activator.

At this in-person training, each activator gets to put their learnings into practice by setting up and implementing a Smash It or It's Wicket! session for their fellow activators. 

All activators receive a pre-prepared Sessions Resource Book. Each session includes a warm-up, 3 drills and a game to finish. This takes away the stress of session planning and ensures every activator has a clear plan of what to do. 

Smash-It is designed to be implemented as 6-8 weekly sessions whilst It's Wicket! is a 6-session programme. The option to deliver the programmes as a weekly session or a week-long camp is completely up to the club. We would encourage clubs to implement the programmes in a way that best suits its members and ground availability. 

In the Cricket Leinster region, we currently have 7 clubs signed up to the programmes with a further 4/5 having expressed an interest in getting involved, potentially as an off-season activity within their club.

Pembroke CC has already started their weekly sessions with great success and strong participation levels. Halverstown CC and Lucan CC are also delivering Smash-It as weekly sessions. 

Clontarf CC is delivering Smash-It as summer camps, with 3 weeks of fun set to be had over the summer. Mullingar CC, Leinster CC, and North Kildare CC have also all decided to run the programmes as camps during the summer.

Implementing Smash-It and It’s Wicket! in your club is great for involving club members and parents in coachng roles through online and in-person activator training, It's great for increasing youth playing numbers, gives the club free playing equipment and finally creates excitement around your club as a whole. 

Shane O’Brien from Clontarf CC commented as follows - “Last year in Clontarf, we ran 3 camps through the Smash-It programme, all of which were a huge success. They each brought more kids to the sport, while also providing them with endless fun throughout, especially with their very own bat and ball”.

All clubs with confirmed dates for Smash-It or It's Wicket! can be found at the click below where you can register your child as a participant:

https://www.cricket-programmes.com/smash-it-clubs

To express your clubs interest in running Smash-It or It’s Wicket! click here or contact: 

Jenny Sparrow – (085) 227 5526 (jenny.sparrow@cricketleinster.ie)
Emma Butler – (087) 3174069 (emma.butler@cricketleinster.ie)