MIDLANDS DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (AUGUST 2023)

There has been plenty of activity going on throughout the Midlands area with comprehensive work completed during the off-season at schools, as well as an increase in the levels of women & girls’ participation in the region. In addition, there are exciting new developments in the delivery of new youth cricket structures throughout the Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, and Athlone areas.

CRICKET IN SCHOOLS

There has been a full series of coaching visits to schools across the region, delivering to all class groups and sizes. The support from the schools has been generally positive, and it has been exciting to see so many pupils who took up cricket during the 2023 season, continuing to play cricket at their schools, or join their local cricket club.

Throughout the school year, there have been sessions delivered at 17 schools in the Midlands area. Schoolyard sessions, primary school sessions at local cricket clubs, as well as teacher training classes has been delivered to:

-Kilcleagh NS Castledaly

-St. Mary's Primary School Athlone

-Ballinkillen NS

-St. Brigid's NS Bagenalstown

-Queen of the Universe NS Bagenalstown

-Paulstown NS

-Askea Boys NS Carlow

-Scoil Mhuire gan Smal Carlow

-Bishop Foley NS Carlow

-Carlow ETNS

-Kilkenny School Project NS

-Model School Kilkenny

-St. Canice’s Co-Ed NS Kilkenny

-St. John’s Senior NS Kilkenny

-Cosby NS Stradbally

-Castletown Primary School

-Clonenagh NS Mountrath

SECONDARY SCHOOLS CRICKET

As well as the growth of cricket in primary schools, Cricket Leinster has delivered indoor development sessions at Kilkenny College throughout April & May 2023.

By having secondary schools with more established cricket programmes, it gives youth players the opportunity to continue to play cricket in a school environment, after they leave primary school. It also gives players the chance to be able to play with their peers, as well as participate in competitions at their age range. It allows for the further development and enjoyment of the game in their teenage years.

There were 18 boys & girls who participated in these sessions, mainly from junior cycle years (1st Year-3rd Year). There were youth players from Bagenalstown CC, Halverstown CC and Mullingar CC participating in the sessions. It is planned that a more extensive cricket programme can be delivered at the school for the new academic year 2023-2024.

YOUTH CRICKET

There has been some considerable progress in the development of youth cricket in the Midlands region during 2023 building on several years of increased focus at club level.

For cricket at cubs level, there are now centrally organised fixtures involving Bagenalstown CC, Carlow CC & Kilkenny CC. This has ensured increased consistency of fixture throughout the summer and has given clubs the opportunity to plan their youth season, as well as for more games to be played.

There are also some further improvements for youth cricket in the region. With the growth of cricket at local clubs, as well as clubs having good retention levels of players over the past couple of years, there has been scope for the area to have additional underage structure. Clubs now have the ability to have hard ball games at Minor level. These games have also included Wexford Wanderers CC as part of an expanded structure.

This growth will ultimately support the establishment of formalised programmes at Junior & Colts levels over the coming years.

Donovan Lagerwall of Kilkenny CC spoke about the youth cricket at club level - “It is great to be able to play against local teams. We are all growing together. This allows for our clubs to be stronger and more sustainable over the longer term. The introduction of hardball cricket games has been great, because it moves players who are ready onto ‘real’ cricket, and has them playing with a hard ball & wooden bat. At the same time, these hardball games are the start of preparing those players for adult cricket, so it has been a great addition this season.”

CRICKET FOR GIRLS

In 2023, there has been an increased focus on the development of Women’s & Girls cricket in the Midlands area. This started with the ‘Cricket for Girls’ sessions that took place at Carlow CBS in March 2023.

These sessions were designed so that girls could train exclusively with other girls and have increased opportunities to improve their cricket skills. At the moment in clubs, there may not be enough girls playing at the one club to make a girls-only team. The ‘Cricket for Girls’ initiative was designed to cluster female players across the region as a means of populating teams for girls-only sessions – there has been encouraging progress in this area with female players coming to the sessions from Bagenalstown CC, Carlow CC and Kilkenny CC and come who never played cricket before! Across all of the sessions, there were over 20 participants that took part. The girls learned the basics of bowling, how to play several cricket shots, playing many different bowling games, as well as practicing catching & fielding.

In the final session, Irish international Leah Paul came to join the group. She was asked questions about her club cricket, playing for Ireland, as well as how she bats & bowls. Thank you to Leah for coming to Carlow for the session which was hugely appreciated by all participants.

Leah Paul supported the girls sessions at Carlow College

WOMEN’S CRICKET

As well as having more girls playing the game, there has been an increased focus on supporting clubs to establish women’s cricket as part of their overall cricket offering at a local level. In that context, there were introductory sessions in collaboration with Carlow Sports Partnership at Bagenalstown CC in Quarter 2 of this year over a period of 5/6 weeks. Athlone CC started their Women’s section, with their first session on 23rd June last. Kilkenny CC started having sessions on weekend mornings since May. There have also been some games played this year – the first of which saw Bagenalstown CC host local rivals, Carlow CC in McGrath Park in mid-May.

The start of Women’s Cricket at Athlone CC

All of the clubs in the Midlands area have had cricket sessions for women in 2023.  It has been great to see that all of the clubs in the region are now investing in and promoting women’s cricket. It would be brilliant if other clubs (especially in the Greater Dublin area) would consider travelling to the region for some friendly fixtures or alternatively hosting some of the midland club/cluster sides in their own grounds.

CARLOW CRICKET CAMP

Cricket Leinster, in conjunction with Carlow CC and Carlow Regional Youth Services, were delighted to be a part of the third Carlow Cricket Camp at Carlow College, St. Patrick’s in July 2023. Over 20 local children participated in the camp, as well as several local youth volunteers in gaining leadership and coaching experience.

In the mornings of the camp, the sessions were for kids aged between 8-11 years old. They learned some of the basics of cricket, such as different batting shots, catching, fielding, as well as different types of bowling. The afternoon sessions were players aged 12-16 years old. The focus for these players was on run ups, working the gaps, as well as sweep shots.

Jimmy Dooley of Carlow Regional Youth Services said of the camp - “It was great to work with Cricket Leinster and Carlow CC to run the Carlow Cricket Camp for a third year in a row. We were delighted with the numbers that turned up to the camp. The feedback we have had for the event has been great. The kids had lots of fun, improved on their skills of cricket, and also learned about the spirit of cricket.”

Any queries regarding cricket in the Midlands area please forward to Bernard O’Mara at bernard.omara@cricketleinster.ie