A very busy June, July and August saw no fewer than five Leinster youth sides travel to the UK for a variety of cricket tournaments and festivals. These tours remain a huge part of our development programme and all tours have been included again in the 2009 calendar. The Leinster Development side travel to Sunderland next June (23rd-26th), the U’15’s travel to the Staffordshire Youth Festival (Aug 3rd-7th), the U’13’s to the ECB festival in Taunton, Somerset (July 27th – 31st) and the girls U’15’s travel to Malvern College for the second year while the girls U’17’s will visit Taunton, Somerset from Aug 24th-26th. An U’11’s fixture has also been arranged for August 13th in North Wales.
Further meetings have taken place between Brían O’Rourke and Fingal Co. Co. They have agreed to part fund (50%) the position of a ‘Cricket in the Community’ development officer for work at grassroots level in the Fingal area. Reinhardt Strydom continues to carry out this role and has been assisted recently by Albert Van Der Merwe, Alex Cusack, Duane Harper and Andrew McConnell who are visiting schools on a daily basis.
Fingal Co Co has assisted in the provision of further funding to support qualified coaches to visit schools in a coaching capacity. Added to this they have financially assisted the running of the first Indoor cricket league for schools in the Fingal area. This takes place on Monday afternoons through the winter. Albert Van Der Merwe has commenced school coaching visits to many new areas particularly West Dublin where many schools are now actively playing cricket on a weekly basis.
The schools coaching programme has expanded again with more and more schools being introduced to the game. Last year saw the introduction of ‘The Leprechaun Cup’ a new hardball cricket competition for Dublin Primary Schools. This year will see 30 schools enter, many making the transition from ‘school-yard’ to ‘hard-ball’ cricket. To cater for the less-established cricket- playing primary schools, several ‘Kwik Cricket’ festivals will be held during May and June. Schools entering for the first time in 2009 include St Teresa’s – Babriggan, St Mologa’s - Balbriggan, Castleknock Educate Together, Castaheany Educate Together, Rathmichael NS, Scoil San Treasa – Mount Merrion & Adamstown Castle NS.
The Leinster Cricket Union’s coaching programme for the autumn/winter months has just comenced. A big emphasis is currently being placed on the U’11’s age-group with over 40 cricketers being nominated for coaching by the various Leinster clubs. Sessions for the various Leinster Youth sides are being held currently over a 23-week period. Specialist one-on-one coaching with selected players takes place before these sessions on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Further coaching sessions are taking place during school holidays throughout the year. After Easter the squads will train outdoors with sessions being arranged/organised by the relevant age-group coach/manager.
Courses for coaches currently being run in the Leinster region have been fully endorsed/ratified at ‘Intro’ and ‘Level 1’ level by the newly formed Coaching Ireland. Our courses are now being rolled out under the CDPI and are fully recognised by the Irish Government. The Leinster Cricket Union has welcomed the addition of both John Wills and Jim Doran as CDPI tutors. Jim is currently arranging to deliver ‘Intro’ courses in the Munster area. The Union has delivered the following courses, resulting in a further 50 qualified coaches being certified in 2008.
- Jan19th & 26th 2008 – Introduction to Coaching
- Oct 30th & 31st 2008 – Introduction to Coaching
- Sat Nov 1st/ 8th/ 22nd & 29th 2008– Level 1
- Sat Feb 14th & 21st 2009 – Introduction to Coaching
- Sat March 28th, April 4th & 18th 2009 – ECB Coach Development Workshops
- Sat March 28th 2009 – Child Protection & Good Practice Workshop
19 experienced Leinster coaches attended 6 x Coach Development Workshops run during March and April. The topics of the CDW’s were as follows:
- Developing Batters
- Using video when working with batters
- Working with bowlers & using video cameras
- Working in the nets
- Working with fielders & keepers
- Coaching a team
Following successful visits in recent years to St Patrick’s teacher training college in Drumcondra, Froebel College in Blackrock, St Nicholas’s College in Dun Laoghaire, the Leinster Cricket Union’s coach education programme broke new ground by delivering a cricket coaching module to 2nd year PE/Biology students at DCU in Glasnevin.
For most of the students this was their first introduction to cricket. All agreed it would be an excellent schoolyard game for the children they will be teaching upon completion of their final exams in 2010. The Leinster Cricket Union returned to DCU last week (Oct 2008) to run a similar programme for the PE/Biology student teachers.
A new initiative in Leinster this summer saw the introduction of ‘Bowling Clinics’ that were held at various venues around the city during the summer. From these clinics a new campaign called ‘Find a Fast Bowler’ was launched with much success. Merrion’s Matt Petrie attended the sessions in a coaching capacity. Winner 2006 – Daren Nicol (North Kildare). 2007 – Padraig Flanagan (Railway Union). 2008 - Andrew Sheridan (North County).
Following on from the success of the above bowling clinics, coaching sessions were also organised within the other diciplines of the game. The sessions were open to all youth cricketers and used overseas coaches who have an expertise in the particular areas.
- Batting – Adi Birrell & Yogesh
- Fielding – Rod Hokin
- Spin Bowling – Cotzee Cotzee
- Wicketkeeping x 2 – Fintan McAllister & Ben Dunk
Work continues to be carried out in Primary and Secondary schools to further develop the game. Gormanston College, Marian College, Colaiste Phadraig and Templeogue College will enter the Leinster schools league this year for the first time. Work is currently being carried out at Coolmine, Castleknock Community College, Manor House School and St Peter’s College in Dunboyne with friendly games being arranged in April/May 09.
The Leinster Cricket Union has arranged for Leinster youth cricketers Barry McCarthy, Jordan Coghlan & Hugh McDonnell to attend Muir College, Uitenague, South Africa for a 10-week period commencing on Jan 21st 2009. The venture has been running now for four years with 13 Leinster cricketers taking advantage of the scheme. CUS school are sending 6 cricketers to St Alban’s College in Pretoria (Ruairi Kelly & Tom Kinsley) and Kearsney College in Durban (Matthew Brennan, Ryan Sheedy & Robert Farrington).
The Leinster Cricket Union continue to offer overseas coaching trips to our promising youth players. In December the following players departed to Mumbai in India for a 10-day training camp. Robin Russell, Eoghan Delany, Eoghan Conway, Ryan Hopkins, Edward Richardson, Mark Dwyer & George Dockrell along with coach Nigel Pyne enjoyed the experience and found the training facilities and coaching very beneficial.
Advice continues to be made available to schools in the Leinster area concerning playing/training equipment and also facilities. Gonzaga, Kings Hospital, St Columba’s and The High School have recently installed new synthetic playing surfaces for their grounds while St Mary’s College have had a pitch installed at Kennilworth Square. It is hoped pitches can be installed at Griffen Park, Lucan and Hartstown during the winter period for use by local schools.
Work continues throughout the year attracting and organising tours by UK clubs and schools to the Dublin area. Playing against new/quality opposition is vital for our better players, taking them out of their comfort zone and introducing them to a higher and more competitive standard of cricket thus improving their development as players. St Martin’s Ampleforth, Merchiston Castle School, Bedford Modern School, Malvern, Rugby and Sutton Valance are some of the schools that visited Dublin in the 2008 season. Bedford Modern School, Coventry District, St Olave’s Grammer School – Kent, Barmy Army Colts (U’14’s & U’16’s) Mornington Cricket Association (Victoria), West of Scotland are all currently making plans to visit here in 2009.
The Leinster Union continues to sell itself as a development organisation by writing up cricket-related articles for publication in websites, newspapers and school bulletins. This is a very important method of getting our development stories across and to seek further publicity for the game.
Meetings continue to be held with local authorities and Dublin City Council in regard to seeking assistance to further develop the game in areas of the city where cricket is not established. We will continue to request and seek financial assistance for coaches/equipment and cricket initiatives.
A close working relationship has been established with Warwickshire CCC and Middlesex CCC in England to offer our your players opportunities to travel over during the summer to play and practice will their English underage counterparts. A two-day coaching trip to Lords was arranged for George Dockrell, Barry McCarthy and Niall Delany last July. It offered the boys an insight into the English professional game and gave them an opportunity to experience youth cricket as it is played/practised in England. Other trips are being arranged for this winter. Shane Getkate spent most of July and August playing league cricket in Birmingham and also played for several of the Warwickshire underage sides in the County Championship.
Three of Leinsters more promising U’15 cricketers attended a three-day coaching camp held at Warwickshire CCC over the Easter holidays. Darren Nicol (CYM), Cormac McLoughlin (North County) & Tyrone Kane (Merrion) were involved in a two-day bowling clinic run by coaches and members of the playing staff at Edgbaston. The boys stayed on for an extra day to engage in a fielding clinic that proved very beneficial for the boys. Shane Getkate, a member of the Warwickshire academy joined the boys on the trip.
Work has been completed with the Adamstown Youth Project, a new group who are looking to provide children in Adamstown with further sporting opportunities. A large ethnic population exists in this new town in West Dublin with cricket being played on a regular basis in the local parks. Meetings have taken place with South Dublin Co. Co. and funding has been obtained to provide coaches to deliver coaching sessions to the three primary schools in Adamstown. It is hoped a club can be established in the area in the coming years.