Culworth Junior Cricket Club Autumn 2016 Newsletter

Culworth Junior Cricket Club Autumn 2016 newsletter

I would just like to start by thanking all the people who helped during the season.

Firstly a thank you to Dave Osbourne, Ruth Derbyshire, Emma Upton, Phil & Suzi Cubitt, Andy Reynolds. Sue White & Ewan Shinton and Sam Wilson for the Tuesday night coaching.

Also I would like to thank the parents who helped with mowing the outfield or the wicket, but a special thank you goes to Ali Mills for his help every week in mowing the wicket and Andrew Barnes for helping with rolling and Suzi Cubitt’s father for helping to regularly mow the outfield. That certainly took a lot of pressure off me, especially as the cricket season coincides with my busiest time at work.

A big thank you to Vernon Phipps for servicing the mower and tractor and supplying fuel.

I would also like to thank the parents for help on match days.

I would also like to thank all of you who helped at the spring clean. It was a massive effort from everyone.

We had a good parents and children game in July. I hope to do this again next year. We also took a group of children to watch Northampton play a T20 match on a Friday night. They all enjoyed this and it was noticeable their fielding skills improved after seeing the professionals.

Kwik Cricketers

The kwik cricketeers enjoyed themselves this year. They played in three tournaments at Horley, Woodford Halse and Byfield. Unfortunately like a lot of the summer, two of the tournaments were shortened by the weather, but they played well. They are a true development team as the average age would be 6, compared to playing against ten year olds who should be playing in the under 11 teams. We as a club try to promote them up into the teams to give them experience and it was nice to see some of the kwik cricketeers playing for our under 11 team.

The awards goes to :

Best fielder – Albert Buckley

Best Bowler – Finley Cloete

Best Batter – Noah Cloete

Most improved – Oliver Bird

Highly Commended x 2 – Harrison Derbyshire

Digby Tetley Under 11s

This was the childrens third competitive season and It did show. We had a strong core of year 6 players and this was bolstered by younger players who played well. It certainly helps for the future to be able to do this, and the younger members like it as it helps their confidence.

The Under 11s had their best season so far under me. We started in the central league and won two, lost one and won one because Westbury conceded, so we finished second, only one point off first! We were then promoted up to the Premiership league, and I have to admit to bit of apprehension before we started, but I need not to have worried. We played six matches and won three of them, finishing third in the league.

Now for the awards :

There were many fine performances during the season :

Guy played very well and captained the side really well. He is very consistent and I hope he gets selected for the county team. He is going for selection this winter after being nominated a number of times.

India as usual was very good. She kept wicket very well, her movement is so natural behind the wicket. She also opened the batting and consistently scored runs. I just hope she decides cricket is more important than ballet as she is now too old for the under 11s so has to decide what to do on a Wednesday evening.

James has improved this season and is a very reliable bowler, he is also is a very good catcher of the ball. Nothing gets dropped. When he bats he has a very strong straight drive.

Samuel has improved his batting as he gradually grows taller and stronger. He can also command a team well, but his best strength is his bowling which is consistently fast and accurate.

Tommy started in the middle of last season and completed the whole of this season. He has continued to improve and is a very good all-rounder.

Archie joined mid way through this season and will become one of the lynch pins of next years under 11 team. He has got good potential and is not fazed by what he faces.

Max, Noah, Charlie, Heidi, Emilia and Finley all played in rotation and each one gave their all. It is great to see such enthusiasm, Emilia and Heidi being the most enthusiastic. Noah developed into a very good wicket keeper for the under 11s when India was missing. And it was funny to see the competition between Noah and Finley when they were both batting as a pair. Max and Charlie I remember batted well at Middleton Cheney. Albert did very well, especially with his bowling getting a wicket with his first ball at Towcester.

This years awards are : Batting - Guy Wilkinson – our highest scoring batsman who has developed his stroke play and is by far the best caller and runner. He averaged over 11 runs per innings.

Bowling – Samuel Powell – had 13 wickets, nearly double the next best bowler, and only conceded 5.6 runs per wicket

Fielding – Tommy Mills – He is always alert, is not scared of the ball and learnt from our trip to see Northampton play a t20 match (as well as enjoying seeing the cheerleaders)

Champagne moment – Albert Buckley – first ball wicket against Towcester and performed so well I gave him three overs in the match – and he is only 8!

Under 13s

This season due to numbers we joined forces with Woodford Halse cricket team for a joint under 13 team (even though we had only two 12/13 year olds). We supplied 5/6 members and they supplied the rest. This meant we retained our 12/13 year olds and gave the younger members a chance of playing a higher standard of cricket. Unfortunately the weather did not play as well and in the early season a lot of Wednesday night matches were called off due to rain.

The awards goes to :

Best Fielder – Joseph Upton – Joe turned up at the first match and I handed him the wicket keeper gloves and he developed really well in the role.

Best Batter – Jack Shinton – following on from last years performance in the under 11s and he has gained more strength and improved.

Best Performance – Guy Wilkinson – against Towcester he achieved bowling figures of 4 overs, three wickets for 15 runs, then turned around and opened the batting and scored 33 when he was asked to retire.

Most Improved – Archie Hunt – only started playing cricket this season, but played for under 11s and under 13s and even opened the batting for the under 13s.

champagne moment – Finley Cloete – only six years old but played one game for the under 13s and caught someone out.

Thank you for all your help during the year, lets look forward to next season. Northants cricket will be running training sessions for all ages during the autumn. We also need parents to help with coaching next year and we are willing to pay for you to do the ECB coaching qualification during the winter.