The Junior Cricket Presentation was held this Sat (15th November) and it was a well-attended event.
With Ana on food duty (again) and Tony swapping his dance moves for his DJ skills, we had an excellent turn out from our junior section (hopefully something we will see when the adults have their turn at the end of the month).
Tony gave a brief overview, which consisted of:
- How the club has had somewhat of a restart this year with only 2 players having played the previous year
- How well the recruitment campaign for juniors had gone, following the attendance by Rob and Tony at the Woodland View assembly which resulted in around 40 kids rocking up for first training session
- How around 15 kids with no previous cricketing skills, progressed every week against teams much older and experienced, to finish the season with their first win
- And a well-deserved thanks to Ana Adams, Catherine Gibbins, Beryl Cobb and Chris Gaskill, who had all chipped in to help manage and ensure the juniors (who were not yet ready for the “hard ball”), had fun learning the basics of the game and getting involved.
The awarding of the trophies was slightly different this year, with the club wanting to recognise the contribution of all the children who took part.
Those who had attended training, but weren’t ready to play hard ball were all given a medal. However this did not go without hitch, as Tony had somewhat of a senior moment with a bout of forgetfulness;
1) forgetting to award his own daughter with a medal
2) forgetting his own daughter had played in a league game and should have received a trophy
3) forgetting the name of Lilly-Ann Cobb, someone he has known well for the past 6 years. This was made worse, as the whole room fell silent waiting for Tony to remember her name and with a desperate look to his own wife and Beryl (Lilly’s mother). Neither took the hint to help in his moment, leading poor Tony to flounder and then admit he had forgotten (#awkward)
Following the medals, trophies were then awarded to all those who had played in the league and 20/20 games. These also included our first girls to play for the club, who were Masie Thompson and Chloe Gibbins. However, this should also have included Regan Adams, who missed her ground breaking moment due to Dad’s numptiness!
From here, Tony handed over to Rob to talk about what lies ahead for 2015 which included Rob giving an overview of the clubs move from the SNCL to the NCL (Northants Cricket League) and the benefits the club hopes this will bring.
Feedback from the kids was positive, they all had enjoyed the season and were looking forward to playing again in 2015 and the presentation was completed with some music and the kids showing the best dance moves – which really means that all disappeared to polish off the last of the nuggets, biscuits and cakes!!
