Winsley
“Our plans are to develop the
youth into the 1sts and
2nd so that we can be
promoted in the
next couple of
years. It looks
like we will
achieve this
for the 2nds
and possibly
the 3rds but
it is a long
game.
“ O u r
biggest
plan
for this year is to
launch ladies cricket,
we start training soon
after the juniors have finished
culminating in a ladies competition
on the 18th August. Ladies cricket is
growing and exciting and we want
to be a part of it.
“Youth cricket is very, very
important to us and without it
we will fade away. We are now
benefitting from twelve years of
hard work for the junior section
started by Paul Wickens and now
led by David Baxter. They have
done a tremendous job developing
the youth so we now have 15 and 16
year olds playing in the 1st team on
merit, we have a girls team and most
of the 2nds are under 21. We cannot
relax and we have to continue the
hard work but ECB initiatives such as
All Stars have helped tremendously.
“We believe that exposing the
youngsters to adult cricket early is
the key to integrating them. The
juniors enjoy despatching
our bowling to all
four corners of
the ground and
bowling us out
cheaply. We
have an active
social team
on a Sunday
where many
are blooded
but we will
have
U15/
U13s in the 3rds
as well as the 2nds
and even the 1sts.
The U15s also train with
the seniors and we find that if
we do this they will stay.
“We are very much
a community club
who
want
to
cater for all
standards and
all parts of the
community.
As I have
said, we want
to
launch
ladies cricket
this
year
and we have
resurrected our
social cricket. We
have also established
an U19 side as we think
there is a big gap between U15s
and senior cricket, the lads want to
play cricket with their mates. In the
future we would look at other areas
as we have a few SEN playing in the
junior teams and this could be an
area to develop.
“Our biggest challenge is the
exposure of cricket in society and
the media. The ECB have recognised
this and put a lot of effort into
promoting youth cricket but we
need it on the telly and in the public
eye for the right reasons. That said
we have 140+ juniors at the club and
we hope we can renew our teams in
the future and the World Cup will
help this year.
“We want our 1st team at least in
WEPL but we need to get there on
our own merit and not buy success.
We also want to continue developing
our youth and ladies. We also
have three big projects;
we must find a
2nd ground in
Winsley,
we
play too far
away
and
it costs us
a
fortune,
we need to
develop the
pavilion
so
that it can
cater for ladies
cricket. This will
mean building a 1st
floor and finally we
want to grow the club and
enjoy our cricket.”
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