West Region Participation Newsletter, 87, February 2019 Inspiring Scotland to Choose

All Stars Cricket: All Stars Cricket looks set to reach out to an even bigger audience, in the West Region, in 2019. As well as retaining almost all of the previous ‘ centres’, Cricket Scotland is delighted to be able to welcome Glasgow Accies CC, Helensbugh CC, Irvine CC and Weirs CC to the programme in the West Region.

All West Region clubs planning to run a programme in 2019 have been asked to contact Tim Hart ([email protected]) or Rosy Ryan ([email protected]) so that the early planning for this summer can begin – and so that Cricket Scotland can provide any support required.

Coaching News: There are three upcoming Coach Education and/or Coach Development opportunities:

- The Western Warriors are hosting a Coach Support Workshop, based on a theme of v spin, on Sunday 3rd March, at Hutchesons’ Grammar School (Glasgow), from 9.45am – 12pm.

- A Basic First Aid for Sport workshop will be running at Titwood (Clydesdale CC) on Sunday 10th March, from 11am – 2pm.

- An ECB Coach Support Worker course will be running on Saturday 6th April at Eastwood High School (East Renfrewshire), from 10am – 4pm.

If you wish to book onto the Coach Support Workshop or the Basic First Aid for Sport course, please contact Tim Hart ([email protected]). To book onto the ECB Coach Support Worker course, please follow this link to the Cricket Scotland website: http://www.cricketscotland.com/get- involved/get-involved-coaches/coaching-course/coach-support-worker-course-2/.

Cricket Scotland News: The Men’s National squad won both their 50-over series against Oman and the Quadrangular T20 Series (also featuring Ireland, Oman and the Netherlands) on their recent tour of Oman. For more information about these successes, please visit the Cricket Scotland website: http://www.cricketscotland.com/.

The fixtures in the new U14 West Region Indoor League have now been completed. Both Clydesdale CC and Glasgow Accies CC finished unbeaten – playing 4 matches each and winning them all. Clydesdale has topped the table on net run rate.

Overall, 63 different players took part in 12 matches – and they were supported by 11 different volunteer umpires and scorers. Thanks must go to everyone who contributed this inaugural, and very successful, league – including the Sports Council for Glasgow who assisted with the hire of the venue.

Cricket Society of Scotland: The next meeting of the west branch of the Cricket Society of Scotland will be on Monday 18th March, at 7.30pm, at Clydesdale CC. The guest speaker will be Alan Butcher and this will meeting will take the format of the Annual Dinner:

Alan Butcher is the senior member of the Butcher cricketing clan; his two younger brothers, Martin and Ian, and both of his sons, Mark (71 Test matches for England) and Gary all played first-class cricket. His daughter Bryony has played for Devon Women and Essex Women. Alan started his career in 1972 as a fastish left-arm bowler for Surrey but in 1975 settled into the role of specialist batsman. He was an aggressive left-handed opening bat with a fondness for hitting shots off the back foot. Despite consistently strong performances for Surrey, Alan was only picked for 1 Test and 1 ODI for England. After playing for Surrey for fifteen years Alan moved on to Glamorgan in 1987, taking over the captaincy in 1989, having previously captained Surrey. He finally hung up his boots at the end of the 1992 season having scored more than 22,000 first-class runs (including 46 centuries) and almost 10,000 runs in List A matches. Following his playing retirement, he took up coaching roles at Essex and Surrey but his most challenging assignment came in February 2010 when he was appointed head coach of the Zimbabwean team. He was highly credited for reviving cricket in Zimbabwe and presided over their return to after an absence of six and half years from the highest form of the game. Alan has written of his time in Zimbabwe in a book entitled “The Good Murungu? A Cricket Tale of the Unexpected.”

For more information about the west region branch, or the programme, please contact either of the Joint Secretaries: Graham Hollier ([email protected]) or Ewen McConville ([email protected]).

Umpiring News: The West of Scotland Association of Cricket Officials (WOSACO) delivered a well-attended Introduction to Umpiring Course at Titwood (Clydesdale CC), on Tuesday 5th February. Tutors Allan Jack and Shaun Els are now midway through the delivery of the Level 1 course.

For any further information about WOSACO, the courses and meetings they run (including the upcoming Annual Dinner) please contact the Secretary / Treasurer Jim McClymont: [email protected].

WDCU / Senior Cricket News: The WDCU have released the 2019 Saturday league fixtures, which are available on the WDCU website (www.wdcu.co.uk). The draws for the cups and the Evening League and Sunday League fixtures will be released shortly.

Western District Junior Cricket Union / Junior Cricket News: The closing date for clubs/teams to enter the WDJCU leagues for 2019 has passed. The level of entries is similar to that of 2018 and is as follows:

U11s: 13 teams U12s: 11 teams U14s: 14 teams U16s: 10 teams

It is also planned that the Frank Smith Trophy will be contested by the U16 age group.

For any further information, please contact WDJCU Secretary Ann Hargie: [email protected].

Women’s and Girls’ Cricket News: Well done to the record number of Women's teams in the West who have participated in the Wee Bash tournament over the winter. The last tournament, on 17 February, was held at the Gorbals Sports Centre (Glasgow) and saw the following West Region teams participate Clydesdale CC, East Renfrewshire CC, Galloway CC, the combined GUCC/WoSCC team and West of Scotland CC. It was the West of Scotland CC team who managed to take the top spot – winning the final against GUCC/WoSCC!

The next Wee Bash will take place on Sunday the 10th of March, in Edinburgh, from 1pm – 5pm – and the tournament can support a maximum of 10 teams. To enter this Wee Bash please e-mail [email protected] by 3rd March.

International Women's Day is taking place on Friday 8th March. If you are able to highlight all the good work your club is doing to promote the development of the Women’s and Girls’ game on social media on this date, then please do so!

For more information about any aspect of Women’s and Girls’ cricket in the west of Scotland, please contact Rosy Ryan directly: [email protected].

Other News: To celebrate a successful 2018 season, Cricket Scotland is hosting an Awards Dinner at the Crowne Plaza (Glasgow) on Friday 8th March 2019. There will be a drinks reception, the opportunity to meet Scotland Internationalists (female & male), a 3-course dinner, speeches and International Player, and Club, awards – on an evening not to be missed! For more details please follow this link: http://www.cricketscotland.com/cricket-scotland-shop/cricket-scotland-shop-2-2-2/.

The next newsletter will be published during March 2019. If you think that you may have something of interest that could be included in this newsletter, please get in contact with either Rosy or Tim.

Tim Hart Rosy Ryan Regional Participation Manager Development Officer [email protected] [email protected] 07825-172-346 07534-102-123