Presidents 2022 Season Review -Part 2

Junior Cricket

All Stars

This year we had thirty-six youngsters register through the ECB All Stars scheme whilst a number of other youngsters joined the programme through the club. There were good
attendances throughout the initial eight week programme and across July and August lots of youngsters continued to attend and some of the older youngsters in the group moved up to the Dynamos group. Craig Yelland led many of the sessions assisted by a number of different parents and it’s fair to say that there were lots of smiles every week and lots of learning. Many of the youngsters will be improving their skills on Friday nights in the winter sessions at St George’s.t over the games was there for all to see.

Dynamos

We had twenty two Dynamos through the ECB scheme this season but considerably more doing the programme as club members. Bruce Snaddon assisted by Michael Power and Maggy ran the sessions, helped by numerous other parents. It was great to see the progression of some of our All Stars from previous years into Dynamos and this group provided the players to take part in festivals across the summer of either six or eight a side softball on Sunday mornings. We took part in eight festivals across the summer was there for all to see.

We hosted one of those festivals with twelve teams playing from across Lothian at Roseburn. It’s the first time we had hosted a festival for a number of years and the biggest one we have ever hosted. The park was buzzing on the day and it would not have been possible without support from many parents who helped with set up and umpiring the games. It was also great to see some of the older Dynamos moving on to play hardball – the next natual progression.

Under 12 Hardball

With last year’s under 12 hardball team forming the nucleus of the under 14 team this year, the Under 12 team was a new team in effect and they did well over the season, improving as time went on. The under 12 format is hardball pairs cricket and the team learnt quickly about the importance of playing and working as a team unit. Some of the older players blossomed such as Finlay Crerar whilst the younger players who had come up from Dynamos all did well and progressed. It was great to be able to field some of the girl hardballers in this team as the season progressed.

Whilst results are not important, they won three and lost eight games and had a number of games abandoned or called off due to the Friday night weather. Along with the Under 14 hardballers, they practised on a Wednesday night led by Aash Rhode with help from many parents over the summer and senior players like Lindsay Towns. At the end of the season, the winners of the Under 12 awards were:

Player of the Year: Lewis Snaddon
Batter of the Year: Dheer Rathod
Bowler of the Year: Robbie Muir
Most Improved Player (Joint Award): Qasim Butt and Adam Head

Thanks to David Sawyer, Karan Rathod and Bruce who looked after the team across the season and to other parents for their support.

Under 13s / Under 14s

For the first time in a number of years we entered two National Cup competitions. In the ECB Vitality Under 13 Cup we lost at home to Carlton, the eventual Scottish winners but the game was useful as it was a taste for most of the under 14 team of the standard which they would see as the season progressed. The Scottish Under 14 Cup saw us receive a bye and then play Stewarts Melville in the East semi-final. On the night Stewarts Melville performed that bit better and won but there were some great performances and with most of the team eligible to play in the competition next year it was a good learning experience.

The League games saw the team perform very well, losing just twice all season and one of those games was as a result of lending the opposition players! Four of the team – Shreyas kale, Sailesh Nagenderan, Ragurham Parasur and Neil Verma featured regularly in the Senior teams on Saturdays and the aim will be to get more of their team mates doing that in the 2023 season. It was also great to see some of the younger players from the under 12s get opportunities so they can understand what the step up looks like as this moves from pairs cricket to proper cricket.

The one downside in this group was that we ended up with far more players than we expected – the reality was that whereas we had expected to have just over enough for one team, we could on a number of weeks have fielded two teams. It meant some youngsters did not get the game time we would have wanted them to have and we are looking at how we can avoid that situation in 2023.

Huge thanks to Sunny Verma, Steve Mulholland and Bruce for looking after the team and to the numerous parents who regularly came along and helped/supported.

At the end of season awards, the following presentations were made:

Player of the Year: Sailesh Nagenderan
Batter of the Year: Shreyas Tekale
Bowler of the Year: Ragurham Parasur
Most Improved Player (Joint Award): Freddie Andrews and Neil Verma

We were also able to award at the event we held at the end of August the Junior Player of the Year (the Ian Shiels Trophy) for 2020 as well as 2021. The 2020 winner was Shreyas Tekale whilst the 2021 winner was Sailesh Nagenderan

Social Events

Now, hopefully, the pandemic is behind us we can hopefully look at future social events to bring the club together. We managed to have a barbeque at Roseburn on Saturday 13th August with Sam Fergusson in charge of cooking and the organisation and encouragement from Fin Ross. Thanks to all who attended that from throughout the club and huge thanks to Steve and Helen for all the work they did around the preparations. We have the opportunity to look at using the Wanderers clubhouse now at Carrick Knowe golf club for any indoor events we might hold going forward. It has been refurbished and has a bar available for use.

Looking Forward

The winter is important as we look to plan ahead for all parts of the club; we know that we need to make some structural changes to ensure that the club runs smoothly and that all sections have a proper say in what is happening; watch out for news of what we are doing as the intention will be to involve everyone in the approach we are taking.

And finally, thanks again to our supporters –