I recently read a thought-provoking article in The Telegraph regarding the latest update on the plight of the Glasshouse Cricket Club in Yorkshire, that’s facing closure due to lack of players.
I found it especially fascinating to hear the concerns of its longest serving member, its groundsman Ken Hainsworth, who has been a part of Glasshouses Cricket Club in Yorkshire for decades, but does not see a long-term future for the team.
The article quotes him as saying, “I couldn’t imagine how many hours I’ve spent out there. It’s every day. It’s been my life.”
I originally came across this story in October, and wrote a few of my own thoughts on the subject.
It is not just happening in cricket though. Other grassroots sports are suffering from a decline in player participation. As an ex-rugby union player and coach, I have also witnessed the demise of player numbers. Many of the teams I played against in the 1980s often fielded several senior teams - these days most clubs struggle to run two senior teams.
How times have changed. Long gone are the days when you spent the whole weekend playing sport. It seems more people have less time on their hands and undertake many other hobbies and pastimes. Also, modern family life has changed.
The Telegraph points out how Glasshouse is not just now lacking the pub, shop and train line that it once had but its cricket team (19 times the winners of the Nidderdale and District League) no longer have enough players. One of six founding clubs in 1894, and after staying afloat through two world wars and a global pandemic, Glasshouses did not play a single fixture this summer. There are modest hopes of assembling a team in an evening league next year but Ken does not sound optimistic.
It is a story that can be heard across the country not just in men’s cricket but 11-a-side football and 15-a-side rugby as costs soar, work patterns evolve, volunteering declines, and decades of community tradition breaks down.
According to Sport England, since 2015 there has been a decline numbering 244,000 of men regularly playing football, cricket or rugby even at a time when the official UK population has risen by around four million.
For me personally, there are several reasons why we are seeing this continuing decline in sports participation. Firstly for the last fifty years we have seen a demise and closure of many sports facilities. This reduction in sports clubs in the UK has been shaped by a combination of social, economic, cultural and policy-related factors.
Gone are nearly all the sports and social clubs that were associated to large businesses. Nearly every major town or city had a plethora of these facilities, offering a range of sports that included football, rugby, cricket, tennis and bowls.
Also, local authorities provided a range of sports facilities that sadly have declined due to recent austerity measures. As for schools, especially state schools, the sporting curriculum has virtually disappeared with many not playing competitive matches against one another anymore. Also, the amount of time allocated for sport in our educational establishments has also declined. Decreased PE time leads to reduced pathways into local community clubs.
We have also seen the loss of many playing fields since 1980s, with many schools and local authorities selling off land to developers.
The rising running costs for community sports clubs has risen dramatically coupled with many clubs having to pay for coaches and players these days.
We are also seeing a decline in volunteers, with many getting too old to perform their valuable tasks. The costs of maintaining the playing surfaces has also gone up dramatically, coupled with the fact that club members are not paying anywhere enough for their annual subs.
Busier working lives, longer commuting, and less free time reduce people’s ability to commit. Recruitment and retention of coaches, referees, and organisers have become more difficult.
Lifestyle changes and competition from other activities has also seen a shift toward screen-based entertainment, gaming, and digital leisure.
Increased bureaucracy, safeguarding, data protection (GDPR), licensing, and governance requirements -while important – have added administrative burdens that small clubs struggle to meet.
Add in to this, the growth and commercialisation of elite sport and televised competitions that has pushed attention toward spectatorship rather than participation.
So I feel it’s fair to say that the decline of UK sports clubs isn’t due to one factor, but a long-term accumulation of reduced funding, changing lifestyles, rising costs, loss of facilities, and volunteer shortages.
I believe that we as a nation cannot afford to continue to lose these valuable community sports facilities. Once lost, they are hard to be replaced. Ideally, we need all the different sports’ governing bodies to come together and get more people engaged in participation.
We need to get the government to increase sports participation in the school curriculum and get back to inter-school competitions. Increased physical activity is essential for child development and health. This will then hopefully encourage them to join clubs and continue their development and participation in sport.
We also must be prepared to pay higher club fees and membership charges to keep the clubs functioning. I spent years playing club rugby and I cannot put a price on the value of my enjoyment, friendships and memories made during my playing career at the club.
Our grassroots clubs are the bedrock of British sport and wellbeing. We should be more prepared to support and find ways to ensure they stay operational - and here for the next generation of players.
