Cricket Development
Progress Report July-December 2016
School coaching visits:
School coaching visits have been key to growing the game in the Dublin City area. In order to deliver sessions at the schools, we regularly link up with the DCC Sports Development Officers throughout the city as they work closely with the different schools in the surrounding areas. With the assistance of funding from Dublin City Council, we have increased numbers dramatically in the months between July-December.
Overall, we introduced cricket into many new areas in Dublin City and in particular targeting DESH schools and other schools where cricket has not been prevalent. Most schools received 4-8 weeks of cricket where they learned everything from scratch. There will be 3-4 new Dublin City based schools involved in the 2017 Leprechaun Cup in 2017.
The pupils of these schools are now up-skilled in the basics of cricket and the next step will be to introduce them to the Leprechaun Cup (hardball competition) which is the flagship of the development programme in Leinster. We hope to expand into further areas next year whilst also keeping annual visits to the schools where the game is already established.
Winter Blitzes:
As mentioned, school visits were key to introducing cricket into new areas. To expand on this, we held two different winter blitzes in the Dublin City area. The first blitz was between the different classes at Our Lady Immaculate, Darndale where we had over 70 participants from different classes in the school. This was held in the schoolyard on the 8th of November.
The second blitz was held at St Fergal’s National School where again we had over 70 participants from the different classes in the school. This took place on the 1st of December and was also in the school yard.
Overall, these winter blitzes were a real success and something that we will be looking to expand on whilst also making these annual events.
Table Cricket:
Table cricket has been a real strong point for cricket in Dublin City and we hope to continue this each year. From July-December we introduced Table cricket to four new disability groups around the DCC area. The different groups are as follows:
With all of these groups now partaking in weekly coaching sessions we will be holding the first ever table cricket tournament in the Dublin City area in mid-January where the above mentioned four groups will compete against each other which will really be something special.
Newly established clubs:
One of the real highlights of last year was the newly formed Poppintree Cricket Club. This year we have a new club starting off - Chapelizod Cricket Club. They are now partaking in weekly cricket sessions which take place on Monday nights from 6.00pm-8.00pm in Ballyfermot Leisure Centre. It has given a great boost to cricket in the area and the hope will be to introduce them to friendlies for the 2017 season with them becoming an official Leinster affiliated club for the 2018 season.
In addition to this, we also have a new artificial pitch being placed at Albert College Park in Glasnevin which will act as a home ground and training facility for Poppintree Cricket Club. Local schools that are also involved in the Leprechaun Cup will use the facility too.
Secondary Schools:
Within the DCC area we have made a real push to increase the numbers playing in Secondary schools. During the period of April-June 2016 we entered two new teams in the secondary schools competition (1) Árd Scoil Ris, Marino and (2) St Declan’s, Cabra. We are now currently delivering schoolyard sessions to St Donahies in Grange where they hope to play friendlies in 2017 with the aim of entering the secondary schools competition the following year.
DCC Kwik-Cricket Equipment
With the assistance of funding from Dublin City Council, we now have DCC branded ‘Kwik’ cricket sets that are being distributed to both primary and secondary schools right throughout the DCC area. These sets include bats, balls, stumps and batting tees. Once a school has completed their 4/8-week cricket programme they are left with a DCC ‘Kwik’ cricket set so cricket sessions can be run by teacher’s themselves within their own P.E time.
DCC Events Camps:
As mentioned above, we link closely with the Sports Development Officers in the Dublin City Council area. There were a number of different council-run events throughout July-December where cricket activities were delivered:
Provincial Cricket in the Dublin City Area:
On Friday evenings, from 5.00pm-9.30pm throughout the winter, the underage provincial sessions take place at North County Cricket Club close to Balbriggan. A lot of the players involved in these squads would be attached to clubs that are situated in the Dublin City area. We have developed close contact with these DCC based clubs to make sure their better players are getting the highest quality of tuition. There are approx. 15-20 members from the Dublin City area in each age group (U11’s, U12’s, U13’s, U14’s, U15’s, U17’s) aged between 9-18 years old. These sessions allow players to work on skills and techniques for the forthcoming season. Sessions for girl’s underage squads will take place at St Mary’s College, Rathmines in January.
Dublin City Girls Camp and Club Visits
With thanks to the Dublin City Council for the ongoing support through Women in Sport funding, we had over 60 girls participating in the DCC Girls Camp which took place at Civil Service CC, Phoenix Park in August and continues to grow in numbers every year.
We made a real push this year to provide sessions to clubs within the DCC area and managed to visit each club within the area to assist in sessions, their coaches and give feedback on how the clubs may be able to improve their youth coaching system.
U12 District competition:
Last but not least, our now annual programme, has seen a series of games (u12 boys) played between the four county council areas in Dublin – Fingal, South Dublin, Dublin City and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. The games were played in the T20 format with each district team getting to play three games each. This will develop a link between good club players being able to progress to play ‘District’ cricket which will be at a higher level.
The Dublin City U12 tournament was held at Pembroke Cricket Club on August 20th and was a huge success. Players within the Dublin City clubs who might not be up to the standard of full provincial cricket got the chance to showcase their skills and compete at a higher level. It was a great few days for all involved and this competition continues to be one of the real highlights of our summer.
Fintan McAllister
Cricket Development Officer
Cricket Leinster/Dublin City Council
December 2016