Etherley

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teh youth setup at one of my local teasm is top notch.. they train over 100 kids a week.

they even approached me and a mate last week to ask if we'd help out with the under 11's. they would pay to go on a ttainign course to do it.

One thing we do have in my area which helps is that there is a lot of private schools and a fair few of thse kids go to private school where cricket is on the sports curriculum. they do the club stuff to get better and get in the school team.

Foresters runs 4 under 15 teams and is lookig at even getting a girl team out


the team I turn out for occasionally Coopersale is held to gether to play friendlies by 2 or 3 people... if these people didn't bother it would have folded years ago.
 
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Good post edd. I've heard that some youth football leagues are switching to playing across the summer - this will have an effect on youth cricket which I reckon will impact on teams in future if kids have to make a choice. When I was a kid it was winter = football summer = cricket.

Edd how is houghtons youth set up doing?
 
Ed the stats show that cricket has lost about two thirds of it's audience since Giles Clarke sold out to SKY (the most short sighted decision ever taken in the English game imo). That's umpteen thousands of youngsters who will never get the bug....

Mind it's not all bad. Clubs have to be proactive now to get kids away from football football football but those who do (Washington, Bill Quay etc) are booming. There also seems to be loads more U11 cricket than there was twenty years ago.
 
redandwhiterob said:
Round our way we have Horden, Easington, Peterlee, Blackhall all in a 3 mile radios or so then the likes of Seaham, Seaham park and Dawdon just up the road

Not enough people playing after junior level to get teams out for all nowadays, its really nee good to be filling teams up with youngun just to make up the numbers

3 games into the season at Horden and the second 11 had two people playing on Saturday who were over 18 and had to pull 5 or so under 15's in to make the numbers up
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You have also Castle Eden,where a canny few of the juniors come from peterlee,easington,blackhall,horden.
 
SAFC2403 said:
Good post edd. I've heard that some youth football leagues are switching to playing across the summer - this will have an effect on youth cricket which I reckon will impact on teams in future if kids have to make a choice. When I was a kid it was winter = football summer = cricket.

Edd how is houghtons youth set up doing?
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aye same for me there was also alot of crossover between lads who played football and cricket.

Houghton u15's are at the moment being outclassed due to most of the lads being 13 and under they had to go upto u15's as the best prospects couldn't play for the u13's anymore. I have hopes for around 5 coming through in the next couple of years that includes the two that have already played for the 2nds this year.
 
NorthCountryBoy said:
Ed the stats show that cricket has lost about two thirds of it's audience since Giles Clarke sold out to SKY (the most short sighted decision ever taken in the English game imo). That's umpteen thousands of youngsters who will never get the bug....

Mind it's not all bad. Clubs have to be proactive now to get kids away from football football football but those who do (Washington, Bill Quay etc) are booming. There also seems to be loads more U11 cricket than there was twenty years ago.
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When I started playing junior cricket there was no u11's. You went straight into U13, U15 & U18 cricket. Sure the coast league had an U9's & U11's so it shows the younguns do want to play.

Teams need to develop relationships with schools to get the kids who wouldnt otherwise get involved - it was easy for me as I just ended up playing as my da played every week. But for other kids whose parents arent into cricket the only way they will get involved is through school or their mates who would play.
 
eddyfinn said:
aye same for me there was also alot of crossover between lads who played football and cricket.

Houghton u15's are at the moment being outclassed due to most of the lads being 13 and under they had to go upto u15's as the best prospects couldn't play for the u13's anymore. I have hopes for around 5 coming through in the next couple of years that includes the two that have already played for the 2nds this year.
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I just hope they stick with it and don't get downheartened, there's certainly takent there. If a bit down the line Houghton can be putting out a couple of junior teams it'll secure the future of it. Great to see anyway.
 
eddyfinn said:
aye same for me there was also alot of crossover between lads who played football and cricket.

Houghton u15's are at the moment being outclassed due to most of the lads being 13 and under they had to go upto u15's as the best prospects couldn't play for the u13's anymore. I have hopes for around 5 coming through in the next couple of years that includes the two that have already played for the 2nds this year.
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The danger here is that if they are getting hammered they will lose interest. Are they playing in the coast league junior leagues? sure I heard that recently.

EDIT - tom beat me to it!!
 
NorthCountryBoy said:
Ed the stats show that cricket has lost about two thirds of it's audience since Giles Clarke sold out to SKY (the most short sighted decision ever taken in the English game imo). That's umpteen thousands of youngsters who will never get the bug....

Mind it's not all bad. Clubs have to be proactive now to get kids away from football football football but those who do (Washington, Bill Quay etc) are booming. There also seems to be loads more U11 cricket than there was twenty years ago.
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a third isn't made up of just kids though is it. The main way most of the lads I knew go into cricket wasn't watching the game but playing quick cricket and cricket for the primary schools. Most lads wouldn't have had the opportunity to watch cricket anyway as most lads during my age had one tv in the house and unless their dads watched it they would be told to turn it off and if their dad watched it they would be introduced to the game anyway.
 
eddyfinn said:
a third isn't made up of just kids though is it. The main way most of the lads I knew go into cricket wasn't watching the game but playing quick cricket and cricket for the primary schools. Most lads wouldn't have had the opportunity to watch cricket anyway as most lads during my age had one tv in the house and unless their dads watched it they would be told to turn it off and if their dad watched it they would be introduced to the game anyway.
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Most of the people I know started watching it during the summer hols when it was a choice of either that or Open University or summat!
 
SAFC2403 said:
The danger here is that if they are getting hammered they will lose interest. Are they playing in the coast league junior leagues? sure I heard that recently.
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yes they're mate.
I think they will be ok they all seemed to enjoy themselves and they know if they have been competative they have have done a great job. They have 4 players who can compete at that level too.

NorthCountryBoy said:
Most of the people I know started watching it during the summer hols when it was a choice of either that or Open University or summat!
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that must be when I was either playing in the street playing, cricket, football, tennis etc. I think your mates needed to get out more
 
eddyfinn said:
a third isn't made up of just kids though is it. The main way most of the lads I knew go into cricket wasn't watching the game but playing quick cricket and cricket for the primary schools. Most lads wouldn't have had the opportunity to watch cricket anyway as most lads during my age had one tv in the house and unless their dads watched it they would be told to turn it off and if their dad watched it they would be introduced to the game anyway.
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Hence why I reckon clubs should look to get partnerships going with schools - even if its free coaching or something to get them in and trying the game out - some won't stick but some might and that can only be a good thing.
 
eddyfinn said:
yes they're mate.
I think they will be ok they all seemed to enjoy themselves and they know if they have been competative they have have done a great job. They have 4 players who can compete at that level too.

that must be when I was either playing in the street playing, cricket, football, tennis etc. I think your mates needed to get out more
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I sense a challenge coming on here :)
 
SAFC2403 said:
Hence why I reckon clubs should look to get partnerships going with schools - even if its free coaching or something to get them in and trying the game out - some won't stick but some might and that can only be a good thing.
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I agree with you.

In junior school we played in two competitions within the local area one hard ball comp and one soft ball comp. We made both finals winning the hardball comp and losing the soft ball comp. We then got to go to the county final and lost in the semifinal by 3runs if we had won that game we would have played in the nationals at Headingly no matter what the 5result was in the final. Now that for such a young kid is an amazing opportunity and experience.

I hope the primary school I used to go to still enters them comps.

NorthCountryBoy said:
I sense a challenge coming on here :)
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What challenge is that?
 
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eddyfinn said:
What challenge is that?
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The everyone has one innings at a time and everyone has an over at a time til you get out challenge. Using a round dustbin lid held upright by a stump bowling from about 15 yards away like we did when we were kids challenge.


6 and out and tip and run.

After about 9 hours he who has the most runs wins. Or till your mam calls you in for dinner/tea/bed.
 
NorthCountryBoy said:
Once a club stops putting out junior teams they're fucked really. Disagree with R&WR in that I think a few years down the line the sport's problem won't be the amount of senior players playing, it'll be the amount of juniors coming through.

Now cricket's been taken off the telly how many 8 year old lads could name three cricketers? Didn't matter if they missed a few overs for Hollyoaks, Channel 4 were great for the sport.
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Thats the point I was making tbf, the doesnt seem to be the amount of kids going on to play senior cricket nowadays to when I played(early 90's) hence the reason teams are struggling for sides and having to field a team of younguns

brandon said:
I take the great Matt Busby's way of thinking - if they're good enough, they're old enough. I played senior cricket from the age of 14, we've had some dark days at Brandon over the last 5 years too and I've found that you learn more in defeat than you do in victory. You learn to appreciate winning a bit more when you aren't used to it too. To be honest, as harsh as it may be, youngsters will learn to cope with getting beat and it breeds mental toughness. If you wrap them in cotton wool they'll not learn.

Sad news about Etherley but things looked bleak as soon as they'd wrapped their 2nd team in. Atleast now on the date we're meant to play them we can have our Twenty20 funday!
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Again tbf if you are good enough to be playing at top level then fair enough but they will be loads of what could be construed as casual players getting lost due to there confidence taking a battering by getting hoyed in to mens cricket to early

You could be 14yo and just a ok fairly player who finds himself hoyed into a second 11 team against men, you get struck a few times off a fairly rapid bowler or just keep getting out your confidence will just wain and eventually you could just pack in

Its these type of players that would be making second and third teams up in years to come but are just drifting from the sport
 
SAFC2403 said:
Hence why I reckon clubs should look to get partnerships going with schools - even if its free coaching or something to get them in and trying the game out - some won't stick but some might and that can only be a good thing.
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blackhall are doing just that. costs £2 a session for 1.5 hours...http://www.blackhallcricketclub.co.uk/juniors.html

a lad called gary lavery is running other courses for kids aged between 6-9 years old. he puts fliers around schools and to be fair he does a good job at introducing kids to cricket.
 
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