Pro cricketer opens new Les Quennevais nets

Sunday 17 October 2021

Members of Chirpy’s Cricket Club and students at Les Quennevais were treated to a cricket bonanza on Friday, as former England and Surrey cricketer Alex Tudor unveiled the club’s new outdoor nets.

Club members and Les Quennevais students were given the chance to listen to Alex talk about his career, and some lucky Academy members even got the chance to be coached by him.

Speaking about the new netting set-up, which has been named the ‘Chirpy’s Cricket Development Centre’, founder of the club James Caunt said that the “beautiful” new netting would mean the club could stay at its home at Les Quennevais School all year, not having to move for their summer season.

He also remarked on the excitement of having it opened by a cricketer as esteemed as Alex Tudor, who is perhaps most famous for a knock of 99 not out which helped England beat New Zealand by seven wickets in 1999.

Our nets are officially open! Thank you ⁦@alextudorcoach⁩ & James Caunt ⁦@ChirpysCC⁩ for giving our students such a memorable morning & inspiring moments. Rare & special to have moments like these .Fantastic facilities for our students & ⁦⁦⁦@ChirpysCC⁩ pic.twitter.com/Tuxgy422ME

— Les Quennevais Sch (@LesQuennevaisSc) October 15, 2021

A former cricketer himself, having represented the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the Jersey National Team, James explained how this opening marks a big step in the club’s four year journey.

Still able to pinpoint the exact moment the idea for Chirpy’s first formed, James remembered sitting in a screening of Trolls in 2017 one fateful Saturday morning with his children, then seven and five, and a group of restless families.

“I sat there and I just saw kids running around, up and down the alleys, parents half asleep from a busy night before, who clearly didn’t want to be at the cinema either, and nor did I - it was just something to do,” he said.

Out of curiosity, he researched things to do in Clapham on a Saturday morning for five-year-olds, to compare with Jersey’s own - he found Clapham’s list far more comprehensive than Jersey's.

This was the lightbulb moment for James.

Pictured: Alex throws a bowl in the new Development Centre.

“I came home early, and sat down and started to create a cricket programme all about having fun and learning the game and that was it, and that’s how it all started,” he said.

Though it initially just started with back garden training sessions, four-and-a-half years on, and Chirpy’s Cricket Club now has nearly 170 children under its Academy’s wing, as well its own Senior Team - Chirpy’s Chiefs (which won the minor cup and division 2), and a woman’s softball team - ‘Chirpy’s Chicks'.

Talking about this growth, James noted how it had increased its age remit as his own children got older, going from just reception to Year 2 to a much wider variety.

“Our children were predominantly Year 1 and 2 children, and as my two boys have grown up and gone through the year groups, then obviously we’ve moved the goalposts and the age groups have moved accordingly to my children.” 

Now, they are welcoming children from Reception all the way up to Year 8, with both an Under-11s team and an Under-13s team, and are expecting 58 boys in total to be playing for the teams by 2022.

Discussing the newly unveiled nets, he said that the idea had come from the fact the team used the indoor site of the new Les Quennevais School in the winter, but had to move to the sports centre in the summer to play outdoors.

However, he thought there was a way he could still keep the sessions at the school: “I was looking at the new sports field and there was an area at the back, and I thought, ‘You know what would look good there…’”

On Saturday, this thought became a reality, with new nets unveiled as part of the Chirpy’s Development Centre, in partnership with Les Quennevais School and sponsored by Carey Olsen.

Summing up what this new development, and the club, means to him, he said: “I said from the start, all I want to do is I would like to give the children the opportunity to learn the game, get involved with the game, because it is the best game, it offers everything.”

Saying he had never enjoyed it as much as he had playing and training with Chirpy’s, he added that it always returns to the three tenets he established by the children:  “Fun, fitness and friendship… Those three words, for every session, for everything we do, represents what we’re all about.”