Heathcoat CC's inaugural 'All Stars 4 All' programme has enjoyed huge success in making cricket a more accessible sport.

The 'All Stars 4 All' initiative has seen Heathcoat work with local schools and companies to offer free All Stars places to children who otherwise would not have been able to access the sport by alleviating the financial boundaries associated with entering the world of cricket.

"We just want to make sure that we can be as inclusive as possible and open up the opportunity to play cricket for as many children as possible in Tiverton," says Pete Guest, who leads the club's junior programme.

Pete Guest (centre) with Heathcoat CC's All Stars Activators. credit: Heathcoat CC

The programme sees local businesses provide the funding for places at the club's All Stars sessions, with local schools and head teachers helping the club to identify the children to invite.

"I visited schools at the start of the year to let them know All Stars was going ahead and that we were going to launch this [All Stars 4 All]. We've relied heavily on the schools to support us and they've been really keen to engage with us."

The idea originally came about when the club realised, through conversations with parents, that families with multiple children could potentially be priced out of being able to attend. This quickly evolved to also include families with just one child being unable to attend and has come to fruition thanks to the support of local businesses.

Heathcoat CC All Stars.

"We've got 89 All Stars signed up this year and our All Stars 4 All section amounts to 10% of all the sign-ups we've got, so we're really pleased with our Year 1 results.

"We're oversubscribed: we've got more companies that want to be part of it than we've got kids taking it up, but it's only Year 1. Most are either already sponsors of the club and some others are personal friends. Everybody has been really positive about it."

The fantastic efforts by the club have not gone unnoticed, with Heathcoat being nominated at the Cricket Collective Grassroots Awards in the category of Connecting Communities, which recognises a club that has gone above and beyond to #RaiseTheGame and open it up to new audiences.