A new breed of young cricketers continue to emerge on Anglesey since a handful of coaches resurrected junior cricket on the island twenty years ago - with a little help from the Sports Council for Wales’ Community Chest scheme.

Community Chest, which is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year, is a National Lottery grant managed by the Sports Council for Wales and supported locally by Isle of Anglesey County Council. It is designed to encourage more people to become more physically active, more often.

After a decade’s worth of investment totalling over £9million, the Sports Council for Wales and the National Lottery are celebrating the successes of community groups and sports clubs that have flourished through unlocking Community Chest funding.

The Anglesey Association of Cricket Coaches (AACC) is one such example, having received seven Community Chest grants, totalling £3,900 since their very first award of £810 in 1999.

The AACC was the forerunner to organised club coaching in the area and has progressed to form coaching structures at Anglesey Aluminium, Menai Bridge and Llangefni cricket clubs. The AACC also deliver coaching sessions every day of the week to Holyhead schools through the National Lottery funded Dragon Sports* initiative, with Support from Isle of Anglesey County Council.

Club Secretary, Selwyn Rees, 69 from Holyhead has been involved with the AACC for twenty years.

He said, "Cricket on Anglesey was basically dead, so we set up youth coaching in clubs and started going into primary schools, and since then we have been very, very successful."

"We have had about five or six Community Chest grants over the years and I think it is the best thing that has ever happened to sport and long may it continue.

"In 1999 we had no equipment, nothing, and to be able to get money to buy equipment and fund training to go into leisure centres was just fantastic. We literally had to beg, borrow and steal before then. In 2003 we got another grant and we haven’t looked back since."

Former inaugural Welsh national cricket coach and Cricket Board of Wales Director, the late Tom Cartwright MBE, set up Coaching Associations across Wales. Local County Board Coaches Associations take responsibility for, on behalf of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the organisation, delivery and assessment of the key elements of the ECB's Coach Education and Development Programmes.

The AACC system has produced talented young cricketer Mathew Jones, 12, who has played at U11, U12 and U13 level for Wales; as well as two other players linked with the National Cricket Academy in Glamorgan; and eight players currently representing various Eryri (North West Wales) teams. They have also started girls only classes in local schools and Anglesey Aluminium was one of the first clubs in North Wales to roll out the ECB and Cricket Foundation’s ‘Chance to Shine’** scheme.

Since its inception in 1999, communities across the length and breadth of Wales have been investing heavily in sports and physical activity projects.

The Sports Council for Wales has recently raised the level of grant available. Organisations keen to develop sport and physical activity in Wales can receive up to £1000 for a qualifying project over a 12 month period.

Chair of the Sports Council for Wales, Philip Carling, said:

"Community Chest has been and continues to be a huge success and is very popular throughout Anglesey. Over the last ten years, it has made a big difference to small community projects right across Wales and now embraces all sorts of community groups such as the Women’s Institute, not just your local football club."

"Panels based in each of the 22 local authorities in Wales hold the purse strings and have delegated authority to award grants to worthwhile projects. We want to hear of bright ideas and projects that will get more people in Anglesey more active, more often."

The scope of the scheme has also been widened. Grants have traditionally been awarded to sports clubs and sporting bodies. Now most organisations seeking to develop physical activity and sporting projects will be eligible for an award.

The Community Chest has recently been infiltrating additional areas of work such as the voluntary sector (e.g. Voluntary Youth Clubs, Women’s Institute) and the workplace, as well as continuing to support projects in the health and education arenas. So while funding the local football club might get the younger members of the community moving, backing a walking group will encourage more adults to get active.