The SOLP Youth Windball Ludo League was born from a simple question: How can we bring fast, affordable cricket back into community spaces?

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With help from the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park (SOLP) Legacy Fund, we turned that idea into action. A £1,000 grant covered essential Concord Sports Centre hire and equipment, letting us run four weeks of T10 matches on a 3G football pitch converted to cricket within minutes using our 2G Flicx portable wicket.

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We targeted 16–24-year-olds from nearby communities — some new to cricket, some returning, many facing barriers from cost to confidence. Subsidising the sessions kept things open and welcoming. Coaches were paid fairly at living-wage-aligned rates, and volunteers supported scoring, umpiring and media.

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Crucially, collaboration with Chilypep enabled an entire team of Afghan refugees (Team Yellow) to join the league — a powerful, practical step for inclusion and community cohesion. On and off the pitch, friendships formed quickly; match chat blended with life chat; and a safe, steady routine through early summer helped reduce isolation.

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Results & Stats

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Across the four weeks, 53 participants combined for 1,019 runs and 78 wickets — including 29 fours and 65 sixes clearing big open boundaries on a half-pitch set-up. We laid the 2G Flicx in the centre of one side with the batting end near the back wall (less room for the keeper, more room for boundaries) and used flags to mark the back rope. The final night ended with a rain-affected washout and a shared trophy for Yellow and Green — but the real win was the bonding across ages, backgrounds and postcodes.