Saturday morning junior clubs

[John Upham]

I am contemplating starting a Saturday morning junior / beginners section for one of my clubs.

This idea has had scorn poured on it by those telling it is pointless since it would clash with football and the like.

I'd be pleased if anyone who has experiences of such clubs could post a reply to this.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I used to belong to Street Juniors, which was a junior club that played at the weekend. It was very successful in its day, and three of its members - me, Neil Bridge and Chris Price - are still active and strong players.

[Richard James]

Years ago we used to get 40-50 less experienced primary school age kids at Richmond Juniors from 11:00 to 1:00 on Saturdays. But it gradually became harder to maintain the numbers because of the increasing demands of football. We put the time back half an hour which helped for a bit, but eventually the morning group, which was supposed to be the main part of RJCC, was no longer viable.

They now only meet during the afternoon, which is very popular, but Peter Sowray and his colleagues tell me there's too wide a range of age and ability so they're considering starting a shorter lunchtime group for young beginners.

[Alex McFarlane]

A similar club in Scotland packed up because most of the juniors weren't interested. Their parent's treated it as a cheap baby sitting service whilst they went shopping!!!

[Neill Cooper]

Whyteleafe School used to run a Saturday morning primary age competition once a term and got a reasonable number of local entries (about 30). Only a few were lost to Saturday school football. It depends how many/what the rival activities there are.

[John Upham]

A similar club in Scotland packed up because most of the juniors weren't interested. Their parent's treated it as a cheap baby sitting service whilst they went shopping!!!

Alex,

I am aware that some clubs make a fair sum from running a "chess creche". For around £100 per annum the parents can take an evening off from that child by leaving them at a local chess club.

You could always then use the funds generated in various imaginative ways, for example,by bolstering your normal squad.

Of course, you do not even need to run any teams for the children since they probably are not that interested in chess.

[Richard James]

A similar club in Scotland packed up because most of the juniors weren't interested. Their parent's treated it as a cheap baby sitting service whilst they went shopping!!!

That was always true to a certain extent at Richmond. I guess they now use the football clubs for the same purpose. We always had enough serious players to make it worthwhile, though.

[Alex Holowczak]

Birmingham Checkmates has had similar experiences to the ones described by Alex and Richard. We tend not to get many as a baby-sitting service now, but the numbers are only about 10-15. It was about 40 in 2003/4ish. The numbers dropped completely. The main problem is not football, surprisingly, but rugby. Since most of the young players in Birmingham go to Grammar schools, they might instead get into the rugby team. Rugby matches for the schools are on Saturday mornings. Most of the players are Under 11 though, and I'm not quite sure why they don't turn up. Some might complain about having to travel too far.

Starting a new club is all well and good, but is there demand for it? Players won't turn up out of thin air. You'll find the vast majority of your intake is existing players, who've probably been taught at schools. Since you're a chess coach, you're possibly well-placed to see if there is demand from your schools. The other issue is that you're sometimes busy with 4NCL on Saturdays, so you'd need someone other than you to run it on those weekends.

I fear that starting something new like this will be a struggle, unfortunately.

[John Upham]

Thanks for replies to date. What is the situation like for Saturday afternoons junior clubs? Any better?

[Richard James]

Thanks for replies to date. What is the situation like for Saturday afternoons junior clubs? Any better?

Saturday afternoons seem a lot better. RJCC are getting 50-60 if there's nothing else on.

In our area the football clubs meet on Saturdays and the Rugby clubs on Sundays.