Sport In Profile UK Issue 12 | Page 36

Winchester Warriors FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/SPORT_IP Winchester Warriors Junior Cricket Association W inchester Warriors Junior Cricket A s s o c i a t i o n provides a range of services and activities for junior cricket in clubs around the central parts of Hampshire. Their General Secretary Colin Smith recently took the time to tell us more about the work that they do. About Us He told us, “Winchester Warriors’ annual schedule includes more than 600 fixtures for member clubs and district teams, spanning the age ranges under 9s to under 17s. We have winter programmes for around 25 teams and summer programmes for about 110 club teams and 11 district teams. We also provide local training courses for representatives of member clubs, including courses for Young Leaders, Club Volunteers, Scoring, and Umpiring. The courses are often 36 Issue 12 delivered in conjunction with the Hampshire Cricket Board (HCB) and the HCB Coaches Association.” The Committee “Winchester Warriors is run by the member clubs who meet three times a year and appoint a Committee to run the district programmes. The Committee is often called ‘hardworking’ by member clubs and indeed we do work hard! And we enjoy what we do for cricket and young cricketers! We have eight volunteers arranging the fixtures, finance, rules, district coaching, girls cricket, website, admin and coordination, chaired by Tim Milligan, a retired Circuit Judge and member of the MCC and Hampshire’s Members’ Committee. We are very fortunate to have very skilled people as Committee members and a team of capable Co-ordinators for winter leagues, summer results, rules rev iews and cricket coach development. The General Secretary won a Hampshire OSCA in 2014, (Outstanding Services to Cricket Award), which recognised what Winchester Warriors provides for junior cricket throughout the year, and gave him a day trip to Lords for the annual national event run by the ECB for award winners from all parts of the country.” 2015 “The 2015 summer season for junior teams and clubs has now been completed and we’ve enjoyed good weather for all but the first few weeks of May! Five different clubs have won the 6 knockout competitions and eight different clubs have won the 9 age group competitive leagues. There’s plenty of friendly rivalry between clubs (and sometimes not so friendly of course!) St Cross is one of the bigger clubs, fielding around 10 teams each season. Most other clubs love to beat St Cross, as that’s a measure of their abilities and success in the season!