Sawley Juniors 2002 - officers report
by David Dooley, 18th September 2002

David Dooley & Mick Richards, Junior Development Officers for Sawley & Long Eaton Park Cricket Club, submit their end of season report on a highly successful 2002 season. Sponsored by Acclaim Upholstery, Long Eaton, Derbyshire.

There is no longer a close season for the junior section. The Academy operates in the autumn term. In the spring term indoor practice begins supplemented by an indoor league competition. Then in the summer term outdoor practice runs in parallel with the league competitions organised by the Erewash Young Cricketers' League. The programme concludes during August with the club-coaching week on West Park and a series of matches against clubs from as far a field as Newark.

The launch of the Academy before Christmas saw a large number of players benefiting from having special batting and bowling clinics with John Birch at his cricket centre in Aspley, Nottingham. They received a video of themselves batting against the bowling machine and a written report suggesting areas for improvement. This was to bring a focus to their indoor practice and start their own individual development video diary.

After Christmas indoor practice started, but was supplemented with a series of matches in the JB Sports Centre Indoor Cricket League on a Saturday evening. Some evenings three or four teams would be playing across a variety of age groups. This proved a successful innovation. The game was enjoyable in itself, it fostered a club and team spirit and it improved fielding, bowling and cricket match awareness skills. During this period a significant number of players - U15 & U13 - were benefiting from Erewash District Coaching funded by the government's Active Sport programme.

In May indoor practice moved outdoors to our magnificent facilities on West Park, Long Eaton. Practice involved playing mini cricket matches in groups of about twelve on grass pitches. In the early weeks our youngest players enjoyed Kwik cricket but as the season unfolded they were introduced to hardball cricket. In the final weeks of practice everybody was practicing hardball cricket. We are indebted to Julie Hubbard who collected monies and undertook the administration associated with practice night allowing us to replace, in conjunction with a grant from Derbyshire Cricket Board, equipment stolen in the early weeks of the season.

Outdoor practice was curtailed earlier than planned to allow extra fixtures to be played. The number of players and their rapid progress meant our published fixture list was not able to provide enough cricket and certainly not enough hardball cricket. Consequently upwards of twenty extra fixtures were organised as well as re-arranging any league fixtures lost to the weather at U13 and U11 age groups. To accommodate some of our youngest players we participated in the Kegworth Kwik Cricket Festival reaching the quarterfinals. The junior season has organised a record number of matches and has continued well into the summer holiday period for the first time.

The enthusiasm and commitment of the 'full time' management and coaching team - Vic Brownett, Mick Richards, Ian McClean, Stefan Majer, Justin Burton, Sue Burton and David Dooley has produced a season of great achievement for our junior players. With the occasional, but nevertheless, very welcome support of Gordon Mason, Steve Cockayne, Paul Brown, Ashley Beadling and Phil Guy the club can be proud of the progress made by so many individuals. The contribution of our volunteers was acknowledged through our 'thank you' Volunteers Event in June. The sponsorship of Bill Camm continues to allow us to fund our coaching education and development programme. Hopefully Justin Burton will be the next to benefit from his generosity when he undertakes a Level II coaching programme - providing the club with its third Level II coach.

We continue to support the development of cricket in the wider community. We successfully hosted three Derbyshire junior representative games, rain prevented us staging an Erewash District Representative match but we did provide Paul Sibert the U15 Erewash team manager. For the fifth consecutive year we organised, managed and staffed a full week of cricket coaching for members and non-members on West Park for twenty-four promising cricketers. This level of support is greater than other local clubs.

The club tries to provide a safe, effective and child-friendly environment for its players. Consequently the club has devised, published and implemented its child protection policy and practice health & safety guidelines this season. Hopefully this will enable us to be one of the first cricket club's to obtain Sport England's Clubmark and ECB accreditation not just in Derbyshire but n the East Midlands.

The season has provided the management and coaching team with further evidence as to what is required to develop young cricketers. Consequently the club is now planning the following programme for the coming season.

• in the autumn term the Academy will help prepare our youngsters for senior cricket in the newly formed 5th XI. No other Derbyshire club to our knowledge will have five senior teams playing on a Saturday. This activity, partially funded by the club, will be on a Saturday morning for twelve weeks.
• in the spring term indoor practice will begin, supplemented by matches every other Saturday in the JB Sports Centre Indoor Cricket League.
• in the summer term outdoor practice in predetermined groups with a flexible approach to practice times, days and frequency with run on West Park.
• players will be introduced as soon as possible to hardball cricket during practice with potentially an additional two-hardball teams playing in the EYCL in 2003. The club's officers will discuss with the EYCL how further matches can be organised in the summer, perhaps even extending into September.
• apart from playing more cricket another key to success is introducing juniors to senior league cricket earlier - the club's 5TH XI is primarily intended to accomplish this aim. We need to make Saturday cricket part of their lifestyle and prepare them better for senior league cricket. We are extremely grateful for Justin Burton for agreeing to captain this side, with the help of some of our senior members and Sue Burton.

The managers and coaches are confident that they can continue to produce competitive teams at all age groups on a continuous basis. The senior teams will increasingly notice the impact of our junior players in their squads in the coming seasons.

David Dooley & Mick Richards
Junior Development Officers - Sawley & Long Eaton Park Cricket Club