Thongsbridge U/11 Cricket Team – End of Season 2007 Review

Once again the summer, such as it was, seems to be over too soon and everyone’s talking about football again! So it is then that we can now reflect upon the season just gone, the highs and lows and also look forward to what is to come.

Pre-season & Practice

As mentioned in my mid season review, those boys and girls that attended the indoor winter nets at Holmfirth High School certainly found that practice invaluable. Hopefully the club will be able to arrange indoor nets for next season as this does give everyone an early feel of bat and ball as well as developing some key skills under the watchful eye of Arnie Sidebottom (ex Yorkshire and England cricket player).

Outdoor nets for the under 11’s commenced just after Easter and were held every Friday until the end of August. Only a handful of players remained from the 2006 season, however interest was such that we had around 20-22 boys and girls attending practice, on average about 18 per week. Nets were run by myself, Andrew James (who also helped successful coach the under 9’s at the same time!) and Matthew Wagstaff. Without their support we would not have been able to run effective practices and develop skills – so a very big thank you to both of them for their time and effort. We lost 3 Friday evenings to the weather and 1 to an under 17 cup game. 

With just the one large net to use during practice evenings, quality time to practice batting and bowling is at a premium. I have endeavoured throughout the season to ensure that we can strike a balance between bringing boys and girls on who are developing their skills whilst allowing opportunities for those who need to hone their skills further as well as allow those who will be playing a competitive game on the Sunday some practice time. By and large we have struck a balance and that I believe is evidenced by some of the individual performances throughout the season. That said, practice of any sort needs to be continued outside of the Friday evenings and not just confined to that 2 hour window once a week. To their credit many parents and boys and girls I know do just that and the results are clear to see so I thank you all for taking that (extra) time.

The Season

As regards our season, well as you will see from the ‘Summary of Performances’ and ‘Summary of Results’ how we did overall, however that does tell the whole story. We were once again in Section A of the Huddersfield Junior Cricket League (http://www.hjcl.org.uk/) of which we were one of 14 teams. There were a number of traditionally strong teams in our league, such as Almondbury Wes, Broad Oak, Upperthong and Scholes, although Thongsbridge have traditionally been competitive without always threatening the upper echelons of the league.

So on reflection this season has by and large been a very rewarding one in terms of seeing everyone develop and transferring that into game situations. All the boys and girls (and parents) played and supported the team in the true spirit of the game throughout the season, it was never (and never will be) to win at all costs, but to enjoy the game, take pride in the team and individual performance of yourself and others and learn as we go. Throughout the year I have tried to strike a balance with the team, some more experienced players (enabling us to be competitive with the better teams and a chance to beat teams of similar ability to ourselves), as well as giving opportunities to those still learning and developing their game. I am happy that we struck the right balance.

Our record in all league and cup games was:

Played:           15

Won:               5

Lost:                7

No result:        3 (due to weather – Holmfirth, Delph & Dobcross (both away) and Armitage Bridge (home), who conceded defeat as they could not raise a team)

Out of the 12 actual games played we only had 2 games in my opinion where

collectively we were below par and we paid the price, those were the cup

game against Upperthong and league game away at Scholes. In all other

games whether we won or lost we were competitive throughout. Our final

place in the table was as follows:

To reflect upon our performances it would be unfair I feel to pick out individuals - I’ll leave that for the end of season presentation night!!

Fielding

Throughout the season the fielding has been excellent. Every single person who played for the team did their very best in the field. Lapses were few and far between and we really made teams struggle for runs against us by being keen and quick in the field. Some good smart catches were taken but many more outstanding pieces of fielding did take place which do not get recorded.

Bowling

We have worked hard to try to get everyone to develop their bowling and become more consistent. Like batting, not everyone bowls well on the same day but everyone has bowled well at different times throughout the season. 

We consistently took wickets and actually took more wickets than we lost during the season.

Batting

Batting was probably our weakest area all through the season. Everybody plays well in practice but the challenge is to transfer that to a game situation and pick the right balls to hit and which balls to leave. We have worked on some basic elements of the game and as the season was coming to a close we were starting to see some reward. Areas such as the calling and running between the wickets has improved and this has paid dividends in that we picked up more (quick) singles. We only had 2 run-outs all season so that was very good. Defensively we have played pretty straight all season but we recognised that in order to give ourselves a chance of winning more games we needed to develop a more attacking game. We have now started to do this by encouraging everyone to use their feet more and push the ball around.  Hopefully lots of contributions will stop us relying on 1 major contribution!

Looking Forward

We say ‘goodbye’ to a number of our players now who will move up to under 13 cricket. I’m sure they will adapt quickly and not be out of place in the 11-a-side game. If they continue to work on their technique and develop good concentration they will do well.

We will also say ‘hello’ to a number of youngsters moving up from the successful under 9’. With the coaching they have had I’m sure they will not be phased by the transition to under 11’s.

A number of our players will be staying with the under 11’s for another 1 or 2 years. I hope is that between us we will be able to build on what we have learnt this year and develop further. That aside which is challenge enough I want to try to encourage them all to think about the game more. What areas do they need to work on and in particular during a game, get them to think about what they are trying to do rather than just smash the next ball for 4 or just run in and bowl. If we succeed in that area then that will be progress!

I hope to be able to arrange a couple of friendly games prior to the start of next season so that our first game is not a competitive fixture (football and rugby commitments aside). Also if people want to use the outdoor net for an ad-hoc practice session outside of our normal scheduled practice I’ll try to arrange that.

And Finally….

Many thanks to the following, in no particular order:

All the boys and girls who have attended practice and played in the games

All the parents who have supported, on a Friday evening and at games home and away for your support and encouragement

Matthew Wagstaff for his assistance on a Friday evening, we would have struggled without him

Andrew James for helping with the coaching (under 9’s and 11’s) and scoring (almost) every week

Phil our groundsman who in spite of the appalling weather has ensured that no home game was cancelled due to the weather and who has spent many hours preparing the ground and the wicket for us to both play and practice on

Jillian Myall for setting up our Junior Section web-site

Tuck shop helpers, drink carriers, bacon sandwich makers, stand-in scorers, outdoor net movers, drivers – you know who you all are!!     

Andy Coldrick