Welwyn Garden City
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two players at eighteen or under
playing for our senior sides so there
is a pathway for them and that is
something that we have focused on
because it helps to create a one-club
mentality.” promotion for the 4ths or the 5ths but
as you can imagine it is not easy for
those sides with players moving up
and down due to availability.”
This Season “I think one of the biggest
challenges for cricket as a whole is
keeping children interested in the
game. The time demands as you
progress up through the age groups
is quite dramatic and we find that
when they step up to fifty overs it is
quite a challenge.
There are a lot of other
opportunities out there with sports
like football overlapping more
and more so we need to keep them
progressing through the club. Senior
numbers aren’t too bad and we’ve
picked up a lot of new players
possibly due to the increased work
we’ve done in terms of marketing.”
“We would be very happy if we
were able achieve the same results
we did last season. I’d hope the first
team will compete again as we’ve
got the same squad of players so the
continuity should help to make sure
we do well. There are a lot of strong
sides in the league so it won’t be easy
but I believe we have a good side to
compete.
For the 2nds it is really about
consolidating and that’s probably
the same with the thirds. I’d
also like to see a
20 Issue 49
Challenges
Ambitions
“I think the big ambition for us is
to see the junior section producing
players for the senior set up; I think
for any club the only way you survive
and thrive long-term is through
junior players coming through the
ranks. We have well over a hundred
members in the junior section and
although they don’t all end up in the
senior side we have a steady supply
of players making the step up.
We also want to see the first
team competing at the top of the
league. Obviously, we can’t win the
league every year but we want to
be challenging. Then we want the
other sides to have good seasons,
that doesn’t have to be winning
promotion, it is more about how
the team have done given their
individual
circumstances
and
ultimately how much they have
enjoyed their cricket.”