A summer of sport at Grange Pavilion

Community Gateway has had a very busy time over the six week summer break with lots on offer for young people at the Grange Pavilion.

Pop Up Cricket @ Grange Pavilion

Every Monday and Friday from 3pm – 5pm over 25 local youngsters aged 10+ have attended sessions delivered by Cricket Wales BME Cricket Ambassadors. These ambassadors are trained coaches from Grangetown and helped not only to deliver the coaching sessions but to promote the Pop Up Clubs in the Grangetown community too.

One of the ambassadors Awais Choudhry was very impressed with how things have gone and said:

“The Grange Bowls Pavilion has been a great space to be able to help the children develop their cricket skills, it’s a safe environment with lots of potential to play. Personally I love cricket and I want to pass what I know on to the children that have been attending the pop-up clubs. We are thankful to Glamorgan and Cricket Wales who have funded all our cricket coaching badges, training kit and equipment.  Now that I’m qualified to deliver these sessions running from Grange Gardens with the other volunteer coaches I hope to be able to continue pop-up cricket after the summer and then find a venue indoors to keep the excitement for playing cricket in the community going”.

In addition to these sessions the BME Cricket Ambassadors have received free tickets to take children attending the pop-up club sessions at Grange Pavilion to watch not only Glamorgan Cricket matches at the Swalec Stadium but also Sri Lanka Vs England and Pakistan Vs England in the one-day internationals.

Ali Abdi, Community Gateway Partnerships and Facilities Manager commented:

“I am pleased with the progress the pop-up club in Grangetown has made and that Glamorgan County Cricket Club and Cricket Wales have made a commitment to the BME Community to make the game of cricket more accessible and over the last two years have made significant steps towards breaking down any barriers that have existed to engaging with these communities.  In fact it has been recognised that out of all the pop-up clubs running, the Grange Gardens club has been the most popular and well run and this is testament to the enthusiasm and dedication of the BME Cricket Ambassadors and volunteers running the sessions.”

Grange Allstars Football Coaching and Mentoring

Community Gateway has funded Grange Allstars FC to deliver and run football coaching and mentoring at the Grange Pavilion. The coaches running the sessions play 11 a-side football at the weekend and last season won the Cardiff Combinations Division 2 League.  Raheem Ali, local resident and Chairman of Grange Allstars FC approached Ali Abdi, Community Gateway Partnerships and Facilities Manager with a proposal to develop their youth set-up and after reviewing the themes associated with the project decided to submit an application for funding to undertake a football and mentoring programme for youngsters aged 8+ from Grange Pavilion.

Raheem Ali, Grange Allstars FC Chairman stated:

“We are extremely excited to be supported by the Community Gateway project to deliver football coaching and mentoring from the Grange Pavilion. The location is great and the last couple of weeks have been enormously successful with over 30 children aged 8+ in attendance.  We have linked up with Mizan Rahman from the Welsh Football Trust to support the coaches in achieving their coaching badges and spoken to Anthony Thomas from Sport Cardiff City and South about developing the sessions further by creating more volunteer opportunities. The children that have attended so far have been very well behaved with some even arriving up to 30mins early each week excitingly awaiting the sessions to begin, parents have also been providing assistance and getting involved too”.

Mizan Rahman, Manager at the Welsh Football Trust said:

“Getting more children to play football particularly those underrepresented in the game is one our aims at the Trust and the coaching Grange Allstars FC is providing to children in Grangetown is certainly helping achieve those aims. We will be supporting Grange Allstars FC with a Community Chest Application which will in turn help to strengthen their youth set”.

The Football and Mentoring programme takes place every Wednesday 6.30pm to 8pm.

Table Tennis

The Grange Pavilion have been donated a table tennis table by the Table Tennis Wales Association. Norman Jenkins the Community Officer at TT Wales is on a mission to grow the game in communities where it isn’t already being played.

During Community Gateway's Monday and Friday Grange Pavilion open days Norman has trialled out table tennis and it has proved to be a big hit with the children attending over the summer. The plan is for this to continue as and when children request to play but also more formally with Norman providing a table tennis coach to come out into the community to help the children play the game.  The table tennis table is easy to put out and take down, allowing for space in the Grange Pavilion not to be lost due to the size – it can also be played outside when the weather is good.

These sessions will now continue on throughout the year.

For more information on any of the activities happening at the Grange Pavilion please contact Community Gateway: communitygateway@cardiff.ac.uk