“It’s very time consuming helping to run a club these days.”

Those are the words of Brendan Low, who plays for Tewkesbury Cricket Club, but they could just as easily have been the words of anyone else who plays sport in and around Gloucestershire because making sure a sports club runs smoothly in 21st century Britain takes an awful lot of hard work.

Low isn’t moaning – far from it, he loves his cricket – but he wants people to know how much effort goes into running a club and, more importantly, wants to ensure that the club he plays for continues to thrive and prosper in the weeks, months and years ahead.

The 47-year-old is Tewkesbury’s 2nd XI captain, junior coordinator and social media guru so his is a pretty important role in the club.

Including playing, he reckons he devotes 30 hours a week to the club during the summer which is quite remarkable when you think that he also works full time and is married with a family.

“My Saturdays are 8am to 8pm at the cricket club,” Low said, “but the benefits far outweigh the negatives.”

Low is not unique, of course, there are a good number of people around the county putting in a stack of unpaid hours for the club they love so that others can enjoy the sport of their choice.

And while the hours can be demanding, the rewards are obvious even though Low says that running a sports club these days is harder than it was in days gone by.

“We have a good junior set-up at Tewkesbury,” said Low, “you have to because you have to get children into the system.

“We are a club with one senior school in our catchment area so we’re not getting too many players coming via that route.

“Cricket isn’t played nearly as much in schools as it was in my day, it’s a minority sport.

“We run under-9, under-11 and under-13 sessions on Fridays when we have some 60 to 70 kids and then run the All Stars programme for four to eight-year-olds on Saturday mornings.

“We have 42 signed up for that and then on Sundays we play the age group games.

“I’ve got 10 or 11 volunteers who help out on a Friday and another seven or eight who help on a Saturday morning.

“But then you need people to run the age group teams so that means that every weekend you need upwards of 25 volunteers.”

Some of those people will double or maybe even treble up, of course, but there is still a need for a good number of volunteers to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Low is big fan of all the All Stars programme as it introduces children to cricket at a very young age.

He says it is well run but says the problems for cricket come in later years.

“There’s a huge drop-off of players after year 7 and 8,” said Low, who was speaking to The Local Answer at the end of May. “We lose upwards of 50 to 60 per cent.

“Those are the ones we need to find a way to keep interested. And that’s the biggest challenge, keeping everyone interested.

“At this time of year it can be difficult because of exams while some of the slightly older players are still at university.

“What we have to be careful of is putting a year 8 in adult cricket because if he has a bad game it can set him back a year and a half.”

The club run three senior teams on a Saturday with the flagship team playing in the Gloucestershire Division of the West of England Premier League.

“Ten of the 1st XI came through our club ranks,” continued Low. “You get groups of kids coming through together – the aim is to get three or four to come through every couple of years.

“My son Harry came through with Will New, Matt Alonso and Liam O’Brien, and then you’ve got Louis Whitmore, James Whitmore, Alex Oliver and William Alonso who are coming through together.

“But what we’re finding is that we’re now only getting one or two coming through or in some cases only one.”

Low puts that down to a number of a factors, a lot of which are out of his and Tewkesbury Cricket Club’s control.

The lack of time spent playing cricket at schools is obviously a major concern while the 24/7 society that we all now live in makes it more difficult for some youngsters to commit to team sport.

There are other factors as well.

“There seems to be a massive focus on getting kids to specialise in one sport,” said Low. “This is particularly true in football and rugby.

“When I was growing up you played football or rugby in the winter and cricket in the summer but now football especially is played all year round.

“The other problem is that there is little or no cricket on terrestrial TV, kids just don’t see cricket being played like we used to.”

But while they are all issues that are not easy to resolve, Low believes that cricket could do more to help itself.

“Cricket is a long day, it’s 1pm until 7pm on a Saturday,” he said. “Maybe we should look at dropping 2nd XI games down from 45 to 40 overs and even 30 overs for the 3rd XI.

“That would make the day shorter. We sometimes get stuck in our traditional ways, 45 overs is a long time to field.

“It’s fine for the 1st XI – they play a good standard of cricket – but maybe it’s something that could be looked at for the lesser teams.”

The club’s 2nd XI play in Division Four of the County League while the 3rd XI play in the Cheltenham/Gloucester/Forest of Dean League and Low clearly knows what he is talking about because he has watched his son Harry come through the ranks.

He is now a regular in the 1st XI having started at the club as a seven-year-old.

Low senior originally played for Twyning before joining Tewkesbury some seven years ago.

“A lot of people helped his development,” said Low, “and I thought it was the decent thing to come to Tewkesbury and support the club.

“I ran his age group team and then two years ago I took over as junior coordinator.”

He’s been captain of the 2nd XI for the past five years and says he tries to create an environment where young players can succeed.

“It’s a continual process of trying to build the club from within,” he said. “We want to bring players through, develop them and hopefully they’ll push on into the 1st XI.

“Yes, it’s frustrating if we lose a couple of players but we still believe it’s a great game.”

And Low shows just how much he enjoys the game every week.

“I still throw myself around the field even though I’m far too old,” he laughed. “But the best thing for me is when one of our younger players gets a decent score or takes some wickets.”

To find out more about joining Tewkesbury Cricket Club as a junior or senior player or assisting with coaching contact Brendan Low on 07787 561025.