Junior Club Captain’s Report

2018/19 Season

The junior club continued to grow in the 2018/19 season with 30 Section 1-4 teams, up 11% on the previous season.

Teams were:

  • 70 participants in Friday night Superstar Academy
  • 7 Section 4 lncrediball teams
  • 7 Section 3 lncrediball teams
  • 9 Section 2 Hard Ball Teams
  • 7 Section 1 Hard Ball Teams

In addition, we combined with Tai Tapu to form 2 girls teams playing in the metro girls competition for year 5-8 girls. One playing soft-ball and the other hard-ball.

We had a record number of hard-ball teams, especially section l. We had 2 teams in the lA competition and the other 5 in lB. We are still a year away from having enough numbers for a Weedons team in the Country Youth Competition.

The junior formats had more significant change this season, driven from NZC. Some of these had been implemented the previous season. Most notably the pitch length changes. New changes for this season were section 2 continuing the batting in pairs format from Section 3 and 4. Section 1 introduced a rule where you can not be out in your first 6 balls. The changes took a while to be implemented with some early CricHQ problems causing confusion. After a few games, most coaches and players were used to the new rules and found them helpful.

Junior rep cricket was also changed, with the year 6 Mandeville tournament now being played as a festival with open entry. The SIPST also saw format changes to align with the new NZC playing conditions.

The club has had several people step up to help during the season and I would like to acknowledge and thank the following:

  • Matt Eggers and Andrew Boaz for organising and running Superstar Cricket.
  • Janine Grundler for once again doing the majority of the work for prizegiving.
  • Lauree for running the photos and generally keeping me on task.
  • And finally Ross, who continues to keep things running in many areas, including gear, clothing, funding and grounds.

The biggest issue facing the junior club is growth and the current leadership structure will not support it in the future. Rolleston is projected to grow at 10% or more per year for the next 10+ years, so we expect to have 2-3 more teams added every year. At the end of the season, the committee started the process to recruit a paid administrator to take the admin burden off volunteers, and a planning process to increase the size of the team running junior cricket. Watch this space!

Martin Welford
Co-Junior Club Captain – Weedons Rolleston Junior Cricket