Weldon wins prestigious ‘Find a Fast bowler’ award

Left arm bowler Matthew Weldon has joined Ireland seamers Josh Little and David Delany in winning the prestigious Cricket Leinster Youth ‘Find a Fast Bowler’ competition. 

2020 marks the 15th year of the competition, which seeks to identify young, talented quick bowlers within Leinster and to support their development towards representing their clubs, Leinster in inter-provincial fixtures and Ireland at international level.

In a year where COVID has damaged youth sport across the world, this award is not only proof of the determination in Leinster to overcome whatever challenges are put in front of us. A sign that the amount of young, talented cricketers in Leinster continues to grow, the Leinster coaches reported this year that the current group was the strongest field to select a winner from.

Cricket Leinster Youth were delighted to call upon the 2007 winner, and the newest member of the Cambridge Blue, Leinsterman Padraic Flanagan to unveil the winner and to send him a message:

“First, my congratulations to Matthew and welcome to the club!  I can hardly believe it is 13 years since I received this award from Cricket Leinster, and looking back, the best advice I could give a younger me would be to keep working hard but always make sure your enjoyment of the game comes first. You’ve plenty of years to perfect the various skills, but your teen years will be some of the best years of your career so it’s important not to lose sight of that and to find the right balance.”

Matthew, aged 14, has already been selected for Fingal, Leinster and Cricket Ireland youth squads showing the pathway he is on and caught the eye of Cricket Leinster Youth not just for his bowling, but his ability to be an all-round leader.

Flanagan added “I hope Matthew takes the award to heart, looks at the recent winners, what previous Leinster underage cricketers David Delany and Josh Little have achieved in just a few years and accept the work it requires of him to be a leader in the Leinster system. The opportunities available to young cricketers in Ireland these days are extraordinary when you compare to when I first won the award, and being a cricketer is now a genuine career pathway. It’s a very exciting time to be a young Irish quick!”

A very happy Matthew, on winning the award added “it is an honour to be selected as the winner. I would like to thank everyone at the Hills CC for their support, in particular to all my coaches and teammates and dedicate this award to my parents whose support has got me through such a challenging year”.

Introducing Matthew Weldon

Fact File:

Name: Matthew Weldon

Age: 14

Club: The Hills CC

School: Skerries Community College

Height: 5’ 8”

Favourite Cricketer:

Ireland – Paul Stirling

World – Mitchell Starc

Started playing: Started visiting the Hills CC aged 5 and played regularly at close-by Milverton National School during my primary school years.

Representative Honours:

u11: All Ireland cup winners with The Hills CC

u13: Ireland Cubs squad and Leinster u13’s

u14: Fingal tour to Liverpool

u15: Leinster u15’s vs Munster

Best Bowling: 4-8 vs YMCA

Other sports played: Gaelic football & hurling with Skerries Harps and golf

Former ‘Find a Fast Bowler’ winners in Leinster include:

2006 - Darren Nicol (Terenure)
2007 - Padraic Flanagan (YMCA)
2008 - Andrew Sheridan (North County)
2009 – David Delany (Clontarf)
2010 – Rory Anders (Phoenix)
2011 – Josh Little (Pembroke)
2012 – Cian Nulty (Balbriggan)
2013 – Charlie Johnston (YMCA)
2014 – Mikey O’Reilly (YMCA)
2015 – Ben Brownlee (YMCA)
2016 – Daniel Thorne (Rush)
2017 – Mark Tonge (Leinster)
2018 – Reuben Wilson (Phoenix)
2019 – Eoin Birch (Balbriggan)