Despite the vagaries of the continuing pandemic and the British Summer we have managed to have a fantastic Summer of cricket across the Junior and Senior sides of the club and it was brilliant to see so many people using our wonderful ground over the course of the last few months.
Junior Cricket
We held 7 All Stars sessions and 44 Junior outdoor training sessions this Summer, providing 963 hours of training across the age groups to around 140 children which was a fantastic achievement and one that the entire coaching team are very proud, there is nothing like seeing the ground full of children having a wonderful time playing cricket.
All Stars
We ran our busiest All Stars ever this Summer, despite trying to close the book at 40, we actually had 48 All Stars sign up, and despite losing the first two weeks to downpours we were able to run 7 full sessions. Most of our All stars were able to attend all the sessions and we had great fun, parents getting involved each week and everyone enjoyed the warm ups especially the “Running Between the Wickets” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Ball” before doing a series of training drills for batting, bowling and fielding and then ending each session with a game of continuous cricket which everyone enjoyed.
All Stars has been an incredible success and a great way of introducing youngsters to cricket and a significant number of this year’s U9 and U11 players started with the club on this pathway, we hope to see many of this year’s All Stars either returning to have another go next year (probably in May) or joining our U9s and continuing on their cricket journey when we start indoor nets early in 2022.
U9s
A brilliant, manic and incredibly busy group of U9s for whom we had to cut off very early due to the exceptional demand we faced in numbers. Tim and James did a fantastic job in running the sessions and organising the teams for a huge number of matches, the U9s had 11 matches organised and won 10 of the 11, losing a solitary game to Sulhamstead, as many players as possible were given the opportunity to play in the matches and all played their part in a very successful season for the group. The U9s do not have a league play off at the end of the season but they would have been the Champions of the West based on their results!
U11s
Another very busy age group this year coached and managed by Ed and Paul, it was a shame that as a group they only had 6 matches to play, but they made the most of them by winning all bar one, a defeat to Peppard, as they finished 2nd in the West Division by 1 point from Henley, this meant the team qualified for the County Finals at Ascot but due to the lack of notice from the League we were, sadly, unable to field an team on the day. The quality of the group’s play bodes well for the future and we look forward to watching them grow next season.
U13s
The U13s suffered through being in a very small Division 1 this year, with only 6 teams compared to Division 2’s 11 sides, this was made smaller by Bradfield, Theale and Thatcham’s inability to put out sides, meaning their game time was very limited, we will look to find ways of improving this for 2022 as the best way to learn is to play.
U15s
A fine season for the U15s, playing 10 and losing only two matches, the first a cup game against Sonning and the second a league game against Reading in early June, from that point the team were undefeated, including two stunning performances in the County Finals, beating Crown Taverners and then Slough CC in the final by 9 wickets to be crowned County Champions. A fantastic season in which a number of younger age groups players stepped up to help out due to limited availability at times, all who played can be very proud of the results.
District & County Representatives
Across the age groups we have many players representing both Berkshire and Hampshire and for a small village club are tremendously proud of the number of children who have played for the club and gone onto represent the district and county age groups, whether in Berkshire or Hampshire, most years we have around 20 players in the representative age groups and this year had a number in the County Age Groups, in fact as a club we had the third most players in the Hampshire Age Group’s from across the entire County, a fantastic achievement. In addition, as many of you will know, Toby Albert, who was with us for the age of 10 to 16 made his professional debut for Hampshire in this year’s Vitality Blast and we hope to see him at the T20 Finals Day at Edgbaston this Saturday!
We also this year hosted Hampshire U14 v Cornwall U14 at the end of August, two cracking days of cricket during which we received no end of compliments about the wicket, the ground, our facilities and our hospitality, we are sure that we will be asked to host more games in 2022.
There are many reasons we run a junior section, primarily to instil (we hope) a life-long love of the game of cricket and to bring through the age groups players who can and will represent the Club in Senior cricket for many years to come. This process is certainly bearing fruit with many youngsters who have progressed through our junior ranks playing for the 1st, 2nd and Sunday teams each week and putting in some really strong performances. One of our biggest issues is with availability as many of our youngsters also play School sports on Saturdays or are away at school for much of the season but hopefully commitment and availability will continue to improve over time leading to more settled senior teams throughout the summers.
Senior Cricket
1st XI
A somewhat disjointed Summer, playing only 11 of 17 scheduled matches due to the weather intervening, winning 6 and losing 5 meant that what had been a promising start to the season fizzled out into a mid table finish, mainly characterised by a lack of both consistent availability and consistent performances from the players meant the season never really got going. Using 25 players across 11 matches, with only 3 players being available for every game is never going to win you the league and this is definitely an area we need to improve next year. Ironically we named the same team for the first 4 league matches only to lose 3 of them to the weather . . . . Some strong performances with bat, ball and in the field characterised the season but and some poor away form contributed to our final league position.
2nd XI
Putting out a very young side most weeks, with only a few “Veterans” around meant this first season in Division 4 was always going to be a struggle and the priority was always to try and keep the team up, with that as a start point and the fact that the side lost their first 5 matches meant it was a monumental achievement for the team to pull out 5 wins in their last 7 games to keep their divisional status. This was achieved with some great team and individual performances and bodes well for the long term future of the side, provided we again keep a strong core for others to play around.
Midweek XI
Another team where the season was defined by a lack of cricket due to the weather, despite this they managed a finish second in the Down League Division 1, hopefully a fuller calendar next year will see the side back to league winning form. Although the probability of Bucklebury not being in the division is a blow to those players looking for either a midweek century or a 5fer!!
Sunday XI
Played 11, won 10 the only blemish, if it can be called that, a defeat to the MCC so no disgrace! Again a series of solid performances from both our Development and Premier sides brought a number of victories, only really interrupted by the weather, finger crossed we can have a much less precipitous summer next year.
The Future
Plans are already being drawn up for the winter training and nets, and we look forward to another busy Spring and Summer of Junior and Senior cricket a the ground. We will also be looking to organise some winter events for keeping in touch, please keep an eye out for updates on Twitter, Facebook and by Email. As with every club we rely heavily on our volunteers to ensure everything that we do is as successful as possible and we need to thanks our Groundsman Nick Bird and his willing assistant Phil Lawrance for making the wicket and outfield the envy of Hampshire (and Cornwall now) together with the Activators, Coaches and Managers who make the juniors as successful as it is. If you have any spare time or energy we would love to recruit more volunteers – please, please get in touch with one of us if you can help out!
We will definitely be running the hugely popular Ladies Day next Summer (assuming BoJo doesn’t lock us down anyway) and remember Working Party this Sunday morning 10am
We are also looking for sponsors for the club, teams, players and match days or simply benefactors who wish to support financially the develop of the club, please let us know if this would be of interest.
Stay safe and well . . . .