West Region Participation Newsletter, 96, November 2019 Inspiring Scotland to Choose Cricket

Club Cricket News: Thanks to the 11 attendees, representing 6 different clubs, who came along to the Cricket Scotland West Region Participation Forum, on Sunday 17th November. Those present provided some different perspectives, some valuable input to discussions and some excellent feedback to Cricket Scotland.

The forum reviewed All Stars Cricket 2019 and the Cricket Scotland Junior Formats, provided an update on all the participation opportunities available in the region, reminded attendees of the support networks available to clubs, had a creative games-based session in the sports hall…and provided a preview of the programme which is the follow-up to All Stars Cricket.

Coach Education & Development News: The Level 2 Course (Coaching Children) got underway on 9 & 10 November, at Eastwood High School. There are 13 attendees, from 7 different clubs. They have completed modules 1, 2, 3 and 4 – with module 5 due to take place on Saturday 7th December.

Thanks to tutors Colin McDougall and Gill McElnea who, once again, delivered very well-received Child Wellbeing and Protection in Sport and Basic First Aid for Sport workshops on Sunday 24th November – with 25 attendees coming from 9 different clubs and some attending both workshops.

Cricket Scotland News: Unfortuantely, Rosy Ryan is no longer Cricket Scotland’s Development Officer for the West Region – but for the best possible reason!

Rosy has now been appointed as Cricket Scotland’s Women’s and Girls Participation Manager. Although a national remit, we still hope to see lots of Rosy’s energy and innovation in various projects in the West Region!

For more information about Cricket Scotland, please visit the main website: http://www.cricketscotland.com/.

Cricket Society of Scotland: The next meeting of the west branch of the Cricket Society of Scotland will take place on Monday 9th December, at Titwood (Clydesdale CC), at 7.30pm. The guest speaker will be Pat Murphy:

Having started his professional career with The Peterborough Evening Telegraph, Pat Murphy went on to spend more than forty-three years reporting on news and sport for both radio and TV for the BBC. He retired from full-time broadcasting in October 2017, after forty-seven years in the business – covering mainly football and cricket. The first Test he covered in England was against Pakistan at Edgbaston in 1982 and his cricket reportage came full circle with his last Test being against West Indies at Edgbaston in 2017; in between he reported on eighteen England overseas tours. He has also written dozens of books on both football and cricket and has collaborated as ghost-writer with , Viv Richards, Imran Khan, , Alec Stewart, , and Basil D’Oliveira as well as a host of football personalities. He was a bastion of Sports Report on the radio on Saturday afternoons, a programme to which he still contributes.

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]).

Indoor Kwik Cricket: The programme of U11 Indoor Kwik Cricket festivals continues to progress well. There are now just 3 Sunday morning festivals remaining during 2019. Details about the festivals planned for 2020 will be circulated to Junior Convenors during early December.

School Cricket News: There has been additional interest the new S1-3 indoor, softball, modified format competition – something which is very encouraging. It is hoped that the first of the mini-festivals will take place during December – with additional festivals planned for January, February & March 2020.

If any other schools are interested in participating in 2020, please encourage them to get in contact with me.

Umpiring News: Please find updated details relating to the umpire education courses on offer from the West of Scotland Association of Cricket Officials (WoSACO) this winter

- At Dumfries CC on 8, 9, 15 & 16 February - At Clydesdale CC on 3, 10, 17, 24 & 31 March - At Stirling County CC on 14, 15, 21 & 22 March

For more information please contact the Secretary, Jim McClymont ([email protected]) or to sign up to the course please e-mail the lead trainer Allan Jack ([email protected]).

WDCU / Senior Cricket News: The WDCU AGM and Awards Night is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 4th December, at Shawholm (Poloc CC), starting at 7pm. WDCU Executive Secretary Mark Colman has e-mailed the papers relating to the AGM to clubs.

For any further information about the AGM, or the WDCU iteslf, please visit the website (www.wdcu.co.uk) or contact the WDCU Administrator Iain Kennedy: [email protected].

Western District Junior Cricket Union / Junior Cricket News: The WDJCU AGM will take place at Titwood (Clydesdale CC) on Monday 2nd December, starting at 7pm.

Details of the annual WDJCU Indoor Super 8s have been sent to club Junior Convenors. As with the past couple of years, there will be three different competitions: U12 (softball), U15 and U19. The closing date for entries is Tuesday 12th December 2019.

For more details about the upcoming AGM, the Super 8s or the WDJCU, please visit the website (westjuniorcricket.com) or contact the WDJCU Secretary, Ann Hargie: [email protected].

Women’s and Girls’ Cricket News: Wee Bash #3.2 took place on the 17th of November, at Broughton High School (in Edinburgh) – with 14 teams participating, including 4 from the West Region.

The next tournament (Wee Bash #3.3) will take place on Sunday 15th December – in the West Region, at Holyrood Sports Centre (Glasgow).

Other News: The last six weeks have seen some recognition of outstanding performances and outstanding volunteering throughout the region.

Two young players from Dumfries CC featured prominently at the Eden Valley League Awards – with Adam Malik (top run scorer & highest average) and Sean Thornely (best & most catches) both winning two awards.

Two Clydesdale CC Juniors also received awards during November. At the Sports Council for Glasgow’s Annual Awards ceremony Nikhil Koteeswaran won the Outstanding Individual Achievement Award and David Sturgess won Young Volunteer of the Year. Clydesdale CC’s under 14 team also won an award – as they were named as Team of the Year.

There was further recognition of those within the cricket community at a special evening to celebrate the Sports Council for Glasgow’s 40th birthday. People who have been volunteering in sport within Glasgow for 40 years were presented with a commemorative certificate. Congratulations, and thanks for their contribution to cricket over all those years, goes to: Jon Barnes (Victoria CC), Colin Dawson (Glasgow Accies CC), Bernie Mitchell (Hillhead CC) and Mike Stanger (Clydesdale CC).

sportscotland are running a large scale club member survey again this year – aiming to better understand the contribution it makes to building an Active Scotland (getting people active, keeping them active, improving opportunities to take part in quality sport and physical activity, developing physical competence and supporting health and wellbeing). sportscotland are requesting that members of clubs complete the survey, which is open until 14 February 2020. There will also be a prize draw of all responses and one club will win £1,000 of sports equipment! The survey can be accessed on the sportscotland website: https://sportscotland.org.uk/clubs/sportscotland-club-survey-2019-20/.

The next newsletter will be published during December 2019. If you think that you may have something of interest that could be included in this newsletter, please get in contact with me.

Tim Hart Regional Participation Manager [email protected] 07825-172-346