Life’s better thanks to the power of sport
IT’S a cold, rainy Wednesday morning at Pontypridd RFC.
A group of 17 women are kitted out and preparing to take to the field during the warm-up session.
Some have played for their local teams before – others have never picked up a rugby ball. Despite their differences they all have one thing in common – they are here to learn and they are here to change.
One is Carrigan Gristock. She looks like any normal 20-year-old.
She talks to the other women with a big smile on her face – but it’s not so long ago that she spent her teenage years striking fear into the hearts of people in her local community. It was only a few months ago, in fact, that she had her last tag taken off.
Carrigan grew up in Cardiff but left school in the first year of comprehensive. She was 12.
Having had a difficult time growing up, with not a qualification to her name, she did pretty much anything she could to get money. Her name has been known to South Wales Police since she was about 13.
“I was in a lot of trouble with the police,” she says now, not trying to hide from what she did.
When she was 16, Carrigan was given a two-year Asbo for persistently harassing members of the public in Cardiff’s Tremorfa and neighbouring areas, to prevent her causing harassment, intimidation or distress to people in the area.
But Carrigan was involved in a lot more than that.
“I’ve had suspended sentences, been tagged and worked with probation,” she says. “I got in with the wrong crowd.
“I have seen people get beaten up because they owe people drug money. I used to smash people’s cars up to make money.
“Someone would call up and say ‘Do you want a job?’ I would get up, brick a window and go home.” It would usually be a job to deal with someone who owed someone else money, a quick way of earning cash in a very “easy” way.
“It could be any time of night,” she said: “I would just put a hoody on, get the job done and go back to bed.”
She also spent some time dealing drugs.
“It was just easy money. Someone said ‘Would you sell drugs for me?’ I was dealing when I was 15,” she says.
She realised it was a cycle she needed to get out of. And looking at Carrigan now it’s hard to believe she lived the life she’s describing.
She jumped at the chance to change when charity The Wallich put her in touch with the School of Hard Knocks, a scheme which uses sport to tackle unemployment, crime and poor health.
After spending time learning sports skills, and ways to improve her CV, she’s thriving in a more positive environment and hopes the skills she’s learning will help her to a career in construction.
“This has built my confidence up,” she said: “It’s helped me want to learn. It’s given me something to look forward to and get up for.”
Although the programme isn’t focused around rugby, it plays a big part in the team’s development.
“I just thought I’d give rugby a try,” Carrigan says. “I loved it from the start.”
School of Hard Knocks isn’t just for people with criminal records. A range of women take part, from those with mental health issues to others who haven’t worked for decades and need the help to boost their confidence.