Next year, Mellor Lacrosse Club (founded in 1925) celebrates 100 years of lacrosse.  Remarkably, for a small village community based on the Cheshire/Derbyshire border, it has enjoyed great success over these years, winning North of England and National titles, and produced a number of players who have gone on to represent England, Scotland & Wales. 

Historically, the club has benefitted from successive generations of their lacrosse-playing families, along with its links with the nearby primary school which prompted other local young people to take up the sport. 

About eight years ago, the club decided to expand its junior programme to increase involvement from a wider geographical area.  The club junior programme has developed each year, and now has over 160 children participating in their junior teams. It welcomes players from eleven primary schools across the local area including Marple, Romiley and New Mills.  

As Club President Martin Mochan told TLF:
“This expansion has seen the club grow into a truly inclusive place to play sport.  We want to continue this development and ensure we can safely equip all new players as they start their journey into lacrosse.  For years, we have facilitated this through donated equipment which was often ill-fitting or damaged, but the safety of participating junior players has become imperative.  Whilst we have always aimed to be self-sufficient, we are facing tougher financial times and higher equipment costs”.  

Mellor’s programme includes boys and girls age-group teams starting from U8/U9 all the way up to U16/U18, and their grant application to TLF focused on support for the youngest age-group to ensure these new players had access to age-appropriate equipment. 

A grant of £7800 was approved, which provided 30 sticks, 15 helmets, 15 pairs of goggles, 15 sets of elbow pads, 3 sets of goalie kit, 4 goals, plus cones, training bibs, and goal targets.  These were all gratefully received by the club, and enthusiastically used by the young boys and girls ready for the new 2024/25 season.  

As Martin Mochan concluded:
“Having this support from TLF has been hugely beneficial to our junior programme. This now acts as a springboard to grow our development programme and attract even more children to the game. Our Sunday sessions now see over 120 boys and girls learning and playing the game, and with the right equipment and the right sizing we've already seen a dramatic improvement from our newest players".

Founded in 2008, The University of Plymouth Lacrosse Club has grown rapidly and after fifteen years boasts five teams – a Men’s and Women’s First and Second, and a Women’s Development Team – which cater to all levels of ability.  

With 150 members, the club required funding in order to expand and develop the sport, so the University applied to the Lacrosse Foundation for a grant in August 2023 which we awarded in September 2023 to provide the club with the following: 
• 6 x helmets
• 6 x pairs gloves
• 1 x goalie kit comprising stick, helmet with throat guard, gloves, chest pad and padded shorts
• £750 towards pitch hire for training of development players

The new equipment enabled the club to significantly accelerate the development of freshers and beginner players, allowing them to participate in multiple games alongside experienced teammates, an opportunity that was rare for first-year players in previous years. The grant has also resulted in the club developing the men’s teams.  

As Ellie Cherrington, Club President, said:
“The development, particularly among our male players, has been remarkable. For the first time, we have a full Men's second team that can engage in dedicated friendlies, fostering player confidence and ensuring strong retention in subsequent years, a notable improvement from past difficulties in retaining male players.”

The club’s growth over the years, and especially in the last year, is proof that the sport is gaining popularity.  According to one player:
“Lacrosse has made the biggest impact for my university journey. Going in as a complete beginner was scary but is 100% worth it. It is such a niche sport which makes it so much better and more enjoyable. I hope the work that the university club has done, helps to promote the sport in the southwest.”

Another club member said:
“I’d never seen lacrosse before going to university. Since joining the club, I have made a family at Uni and have grown to love a new sport. The hard work of the club really promotes the sport which shows with the crowds that attend our Varsity games. I'm so glad I have picked up a stick.”

So what does the future hold for the University’s lacrosse club?

With The Lacrosse Foundation’s grant, the club hopes to champion the growth of lacrosse in the South West. By providing Plymouth University’s Lacrosse Club with the funds, it enables them to train at more suitable facilities, and provides equipment which will benefit all members of the club.  

Club President Ellie Cherrington concluded: 
“Our project will make the club more accessible to all different levels of players and will help promote the game across the student community.  Once graduated, these students will hopefully join club teams and continue to play the sport, helping to support TLF’s mission of growth and development across the UK.”

Boardman & Eccles Junior LC, based in North-West Manchester, have enjoyed another strong year of development across the girls and boys sections. 

Like any club, this has been enabled by the support and hard work, on and off the field, by a group of volunteers – in particular Dave Griffiths, Rob McGowan & Patrick Buckley on the admin side; and Andy Fallone, Rick Hall & Matt Anderton (plus their three young coaches Dylan McGowan, Ethan Hatcher & Archie Brown) on the player development side.  Alongside this, the commitment of the players and their parents, all working as a team in the re-building of the Boardman & Eccles Junior section.

The Lacrosse Foundation has been pleased to provide grant funding in two staged payments to enable the club to run curriculum & afterschool provision (led by club coach Dave Elwood), initially to Yr5 & Yr6 pupils at a number of primary schools, followed by Yr3 & Yr4 during this most recent school year.  CPD sessions have also been run in targeted schools.

Having a club setting for the young children to go to, led to an increased number attending practice with over 30 girls regularly playing at the club – with this year, both the U-11 & U-13 teams competing in league lacrosse for the first time in Boardman’s history.  Next season, the plan is to add an additional U-13 team, to enable more girls to experience competitive lacrosse.

As Dave Elwood told us:
“The U-13 girls showed excellent improvement through their first year at this level, only narrowly losing to a strong Stockport side in the Cup semi-final – having earlier in their season being well beaten against the same side.   Seven of this Boardman team were selected to represent Lancashire, with five playing in the 1st team which won the Northern Counties Tournament. The girls have been outstanding all year, led by a strong coaching group including Phil Reader, Jim Bloomfield, Georgia White, & Matt Drake.  A remarkable achievement for a section that only started 3 seasons ago, all supported by a strong volunteer/parent’s group”.

“On the boys’ side, our practice numbers have steadily grown, with around 15 to 20 U-12s regularly attending sessions, and a similar number in the ‘Pee-Wee U-8’ group.  This enabled an U-10 team to compete throughout this season, in all the development tournaments organised by the NEMLA junior programme, as well as a number of individual games against other club sides.  The young players, who are all new to the sport, have really enjoyed these tournaments and our next step is to progress into playing regular competitive lacrosse with an U-12 team next season.   Three of the older Boardman boys have represented Lancashire, and are also on the England Academy pathway.”

The Boardman club hosts the annual Salford Pop-Lacrosse Tournament, and this year 16 teams competed for the trophy with a marked improvement in the standard of play across the schools.  Our TLF funding has enabled coaching in more schools across a wider age range.  A shout-out to Monton Green Primary, one of the B&E schools, who represented Salford at a very competitive Greater Manchester Pop Tournament, seeing them end as winners of the Plate competition.

And during May, the club hosted a development tournament for 14 schools – where between games the club’s coaches worked with groups of players and teachers on development of fundamental skills.

It is great to see the progress being made, and long may it continue with the ongoing commitment from volunteers, and the new lacrosse players helping to make it ‘their’ club.

The London Borough of Bromley in SE London covers an area with a long lacrosse heritage – an area which includes Crystal Palace Park (site of the first-ever demonstration games of lacrosse in UK by Native Americans in 1867), and Beckenham (whose lacrosse club merged to become Spencer LC in 2000).

• Local coach Mike Barrett is leading a lacrosse revival in Bromley through the ‘Bromley School Games Programme’.  With support from TLF, Mike has so far introduced the sport into 30 of its 63 primary schools, and set up a ‘Bromley Junior Lacrosse Club’ to provide a progression for youngsters out of school. 

• To help to generate local competition, the proposed model is to split Bromley into four geographical sections (i.e. creating four ‘teams’) giving the kids an outlet to play regular age-group matches, against nearby teams thereby overcoming the problem of time-consuming travel to other parts of London. 

Amongst the second wave of schools receiving coaching in early 2023, was Poverest Primary School in Orpington, where its Head of PE (Andy Duffin) has enthusiastically embraced the sport.  That year, after lacrosse had been introduced to Yr5 & Yr6 pupils, they performed well enough at the London Pop Lacrosse finals in Battersea, and qualified for the national Pop finals at Keele University.   As Andy says: “In a relatively short period of time, we have gone from never playing lacrosse to loving Lacrosse”

In August 2023, Poverest Primary received a grant of £800 from TLF which provided them with a new set of sticks, balls & goals to replace their old second-hand kit, plus funding to enable all KS2 school staff to attend CPD sessions so they could deliver lacrosse to more pupils.  The grant also provided a one-off payment to support the creation of an after-school club, covering the cost of coaching for the Autumn Term to help get this club off the ground.    

The after-school club has been well attended, and has continued into 2024 with parents paying a small sub for their children’s participation – with a model that helps to build sustainability for the sport.  Children in Yr2 have now been introduced to the basics of lacrosse, so their skills can develop as they progress through the school – with Poverest hosting another pop tournament at the end of November 2023, with multiple teams from the school taking part as well as other local schools in the two age-groups.

TLF has also funded equipment at four other schools in the Bromley borough, including three other primary schools (Worsley Bridge and St Davids Prep in Beckenham, as well as Warren Road in Orpington), and a local secondary Chislehurst School for Girls.      

A couple of months ago in March, the 2024 Bromley Pop Tournament was held at The Ravensbourne School in central Bromley, with 18 schools, and over 170 Year 5/6 pupils taking part.  This was a local qualifier for the Regional and National Pop Lacrosse Tournaments – with Perry Hall school finishing first and receiving a straight entry to the Nationals.  Poverest and St James Catholic primary schools, being successful in securing their place at the regional finals at the University of Surrey on May 22nd.  Since then, they have both qualified for the Nationals at the University of Birmingham on June 26th 2024. 
[The Bromley Pop event has grown from just 3 schools providing 5 teams between them in July 2022; to 7 schools and 9 teams in 2023 (with 2 qualifying via regionals for the national finals); and now in 2024, eighteen (18) schools taking part, providing 21 teams].   And the aim for March 2025 is for 28+ teams.

By July 2024, there are plans for the secondary schools to hold tournaments for their Yrs 7/8 and 9/10, with 5 to 7 schools involved (separate boys and girls, as some schools are single gender).
Poverest Primary school will also host the Year 3/4 Bromley Primary Schools tournament on June 20th.

Whilst it is recognised that Pop Lacrosse only introduces the concept of the sport, the key part of the Bromley model is that the structure should facilitate a pathway to the after-school clubs, and the 4 ‘local groups’ teams, as well as the Bromley Junior Club.  The engagement of the kids, and the participation of the parents is an important part of sustaining this progress – with Bromley LC getting 35 kids to their weekly Tuesday pm training sessions, which is being driven by a parent’s committee. 

 To hear more about Mike Barrett’s plans for Bromley, why not have a listen to the recent episode where he was the subject of the ‘At The Face’ podcast.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1051561/14416469-mike-barrett-bromley-lacrosse-jr-s