Devon Cricket Board - Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week

Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week

Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week fever gripped the county last week with a number of sizeable events in the diary. The first port of call was with our South Devon Community Cricket Coach, Scott Chappell who masterminded a 180 children Mini Crickets Festival at Seal Hayne. Scott was ably assisted by 30 young leaders from Newton Abbot College and Teign Academy the youngsters were able to participate in mini games and competitions that tested their batting, bowling, catching and team working skills. Many of the children had never played cricket before and this was therefore a brilliant opportunity for them to try something new and possibly catch the ‘cricket bug’!

The morning turned out to be a great success with the children and teachers alike saying how much they enjoyed it. Scott Chappell, commented “normally children this young don’t have many opportunities to play cricket so to see how much enjoyment they got from the morning and the smiles on their faces made it worthwhile”.

Schools that attended the festival were: Canada Hill, Bovey Tracey, Dunsford, Broadhempston, Buckfastleigh, Landscove, Chudleigh Knighton, Denbury

And that was just the start of things to come……..

Thursday saw ten schools from Exeter and the surrounding area take part in a kwik cricket megafest competition. In excess of 340 kids took part in the extravaganza with 42 teams all representing there schools with pride having a great day at Topsham St James Cricket Club (Pictured above). Trevor Griffin who coordinated the event on behalf on the Devon Cricket Board did a sterling job of organizing the competition structure and running the day itself, Trevor was once again assisted by 7 budding young leaders from St Lukes Secondary School helped score and umpire the action.

Schools that attended the competition were: St Thomas, Montgomery, Bowhill , Alphington, St Sidwells, Clyst St Mary, St Leonards, Stoke Hill, Whipton Barton, Topsham

Its not all smiles…….

North Devon was the next stop on the National Cricket Week express; unfortunately overnight rain put pay to the nine-team festival planned there. However a new date in the diary is being sort to give the promise of cricket to those North Devon schools disappointed.

Thriving on competition……..

Brixham CC a new inductee into Devon’s Chance to Shine programme in 2014 ran a superb primary school tournament. 120 under 11s playing cricket at the cricket club from 5 local schools. The tournament was run by seven club volunteers and 15 young cricketers from Brixham College. A congratulations goes out to Kingswear Primary who came out on top at the end of the day!

Schools attended were: Margaret cltheroe, brixham chuch of england ,Galmpton ,kingswear and Eden Park -the overall winners were Kingswear

And still it goes on……….

With National Cricket Week now been and gone, the events are still going even if it’s a week or two late.

Heathcoat Cricket Club hosted a 130 children primary schools tournament for schools local to them. A day filled with big smiles and enjoyment saw 6 hours of solid primary school games at the club. (Pictured below a school watching the games at the Knightshayes Ground)

Schools which attended were; Two Moors, Tidcombe, Bolham, Heathcoat, Bickleigh

Marjons cricket club delivered yet another cricket festival. This time round with a twist; with 25 young leaders from Torr Bridge High School helping mentor, scorer and umpire the games going on. The pupils from local primary schools were younger than all other festivals around with the majority of pupils year 3 and 4. Superbly organised by the Plymouth Schools Sports Partnership, which hopefully will make the event an annual fixture in the schools calendar.

If your club / school / community group took part or ran some cricket activities last week as part of National Cricket week then get in touch today. Send in your photos and stories to matt.cooke@devoncricket.co.uk

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