Wiltshire Cricket Limited Article

For Gazette and Herald edition – 7th November For Wiltshire Times edition – 8th November

It was back to trials this week for young cricketers across Wiltshire. During school half term week trials took place at Devizes Leisure Centre to select county girls under 11 and under 13 squads to attend winter coaching starting in January.

Over the past 8 weeks, Wiltshire Cricket has been running Chance to Shine girls primary school coaching and competitions across the county with lots of girls playing cricket for the very first time. This coaching and competition acted as a feeder in to the trials that took place last week as Wiltshire Cricket looks to increase the participation rates in girls cricket across the county.

At under 11 level, 49 players attended the trials last week with 16 players being selected to attend an under 11 North coaching programme and 11 selected to attend an under 11 South programme. At under 13 level 17 players have been selected so far (12 North and 5 South) with a further trial still to take place in the South. At under 15 level, there will be a county wide programme starting in January, the trial for which takes place on 16th November. There will also be an under 17 girls programme running between January and April.

Ali Goddard, Wiltshire’s Head of Women and Girls Cricket, ran the trials and was very impressed to see so many new girls taking part, saying ‘I am delighted that Chance to Shine is increasing the awareness of girls cricket across the county and it is pleasing that of the girls selected for the county winter coaching programmes approximately 50% are girls that are new to cricket and not currently associated with clubs. Our hope at the end of the coaching programmes is that we will not only have prepared well for representative cricket next season but that we will have also helped to identify a number of new girls to join local clubs’.

Girls Cricket will continue to remain in focus during the coming weeks as Wiltshire Cricket welcomes England international Lydia Greenway to the county on 3rd and 4th December to deliver a number of different activities across the county, including primary and secondary school sessions, a coach development workshop and a presentation to current Wiltshire county cricketers.

Away from girls cricket, the school half term holiday also saw testing take place to select players to join the Emerging Player Programme for 2013-2014. Alan Crouch is Wiltshire’s Head of Performance and he manages the programme which identifies players between the ages of 13-16 who are deemed to be the most talented players for their age. The programme consists of weekly one to one coaching sessions with the intended outcome being to prepare players for either the Wiltshire Academy or for progression on to a First Class county academy. Following the EPP testing, Wiltshire have selected 6 players to join the programme for 2013-2014. They are; Elijah Samuel (Purton), William Wade (South Wilts), Sam Arnold (South Wilts), Will Thomas (Chippenham), Luke Curtis (Corsham) and Miles Kantolinna (South Wilts).

In terms of the Academy, the intake for 2013-2014 has also been decided this week with 14 players selected to be on the programme. The intention of the Academy is to offer quality coaching and matchplay opportunities to players roughly between the ages of 16 – 19 in preparation for minor county cricket. The Academy players can be viewed at http://www.wiltshirecricket.co.uk/representative-cricket/academy/.

The next week is a busy one for Wiltshire Cricket with the club forum taking place on Monday and Dr Steve Bull delivering a workshop for coaches on Tuesday. Spaces are still available for both. The club forum is an important opportunity for clubs to learn about Wiltshire Cricket’s plans for the next year and to hear important information about Coach Education, schools cricket and player retention.

The coaches workshop is entitled ‘A winning mind’ and is delivered by Steve Bull who is a consultant psychologist to the England Cricket team. All details of both events can be found at www.wiltshirecricket.co.uk

Next week – Player retention initiatives!, Club forum, Steve Bull coach workshop, district coaching workshops