It’s been thoroughly enjoyable looking after this Under 8 age group, especially as league matches against external opposition is introduced. To witness the sheer enjoyment of those playing cricket matches for the first time and their rapid progression over the course of the season has been a real privilege. U8 league cricket is 6-a-side pairs cricket with a soft ball. This ensures more ball contact and involvement in the game by all. With 60 league games across eight 6-aside teams supplemented by internal games and playing in two tournaments, we were able to provide cricket for everyone who was available on a weekly basis. The focus is participation, enjoyment and development of all.
We started the season with internal practice games. A learning curve for both players and parent volunteers, especially those parents introduced to a pairs scoresheet for the 1st time! Those first practice games provided a fun safe learning experience. Running between the wickets provided some particular amusement . “Yes? no? what? maybe? shrug? what do you think? quizzical expression? maybe? Then, when the ball was fielded, the batting pair often decided at that point ‘YES’. Sometimes they scraped home, sometimes definitely not. Sometimes they even attempted to run again due to their newfound running confidence and fielding overthrows as a result of the communication chaos caused! The next coaching sessions were unsurprisingly on running between the wickets, calling and backing up in the field! Following on from those first practice games was the introduction of competitive match-play cricket for most of the squad, they performed brilliantly throughout the season. Tactically they improved as well as technically. By the end of the season general improvement in game awareness was brilliant to see. Running between the wickets, fielding skills, backing up (and minimising overthrows) were the stand-out areas of improvement. Parent scorers also started to achieve A* grades for both effort, presentation and innovation for spond uploading and use of scoring apps. Travelling to the opposition also took us on a journey to some very beautiful grounds and villages.
Obviously, it’s not about winning at this age, but the improvements in both technical skills and game awareness manifested itself in good performances across all teams. We won two of the leagues we were entered into and finished 2nd in three of them as well. The U8 team that travelled to the Horsley & Send tournament also came home with the silverware after winning all their games.
By the end of the summer, over 30 boys were regularly training with a hard ball and 6 boys were selected to play for Surrey CCC in the age group above: a brilliant achievement. There are lots of very talented cricketers in this age group so it will be great to see how much further improvement all can make over the winter, before a full season of hard ball cricket next year.
Finally, a massive thanks to Duncan, Sohail and the coaching team for all their help over the season. Thanks to Lek and all the bar / kitchen staff, for keeping the boys in ice creams and fruit pastilles and everyone in bacon rolls. And finally, to all the parents who managed teams, umpired, scored and generally helped out over the season. It would not be possible to provide so much enjoyable cricket without your help. So have a scoring and umpiring refresher over the winter and I will see you in April for their 1st season of hardball matches! (Alisa French)