Message from 2004 Under-13 Coaches Chris Wilkes and Anil Jethra

People

Organisation was easier this year thanks to having two managers and excellent support from parents. Particular thanks are due to Mandy Deal for dealing with registration and subscriptions; Steve Jones for regularly scoring and sometimes umpiring; and Kim Goodey for helping with match fees, drinks, travel co-ordination and ballots! Also to Heather Austin, Sheila Hirst, Ross Collins, Sepali Direkze, Bill Robbins and Steve Powell for helping to score - sorry if we've forgotten anyone. And to all parents who gave lifts to their sons and others'.

We are also grateful to Norman Wilby who prepares our wickets, Bob Hutt who arranges our fixtures, Mike Pont who posts our match reports to the web-site and Barry Abrahams who publishes them in the Advertiser. And to Preston Bissett and Twyford for making their grounds available for our overflow matches. And to other club coaches - Paul Sly (helped by Steve Jones), Dom Pritchard (helped by Jonny Cater) and Matt Dipple - who ran coaching sessions for us.

Thanks also to the boys who wrote match reports - Dil, Toby, Tom, Jonny, Olly, Harsh and Nick. It's really good to be able to publish a player's view of a game.

Matches played

Unfortunately the losses included all three semis, which, having also lost both our semis last year, makes us the Tim Henman of south Midlands junior cricket! We may need to look at how we prepare for key games in future. But we did win the North Bucks conference of the U13 Bucks league and ended on a high note with a good win in the Shires U14 plate final.

From the point of view of developing the club's players it was pleasing that all twenty in the age group played in at least 6 matches. And we gave one or more games to ten U12s and an U11, while the club provided four U13s with quite a number of senior and U15 opportunities.

Teamwork and sportsmanship

This may in part have been because seven of you had a go at being captain. In principle it was Toby and Jonny in the Bucks league; Dil and Nick in the Bucks cup; Goffy in the Shires league; but availability meant it got mixed up a bit and Tom and Stu also took on the role. You all captained well and we were glad to share the experience around, but we may narrow the captaincy down next season so that the team develops a better understanding of what the captains expect.

There was plenty of team spirit - encouragement and banter. However, in two or three games the banter spilled over into disrespect for opponents. It's OK to have a friendly joke but not to rubbish the other side. On a more minor aspect of sportsmanship, captains didn't always remember that one of their jobs when batting second is to gather the team as the game draws to an end and lead them in shaking hands as the fielding side comes off.

The running between the wickets was mostly good, except for a few games in mid season when we seemed to forget that it is not an individual skill but needs trust, awareness and communication.

Individual statistics

The spreadsheet below (which includes U13s playing senior and U15 club matches; as well as U12s playing for the U13s) lists those who took five or more wickets in the season; made fifty or more runs; had three or more fielding dismissals; or received two or more man of the match or fielding awards. Congratulations to everyone who reached these thresholds and particularly to the leaders in each category:

• Josh Goodey with a bowling average of only 7.67 runs per wicket
• Jonny with an average economy rate of only 3.17 runs conceded per over
• Nick with 31 wickets
• Harsh with a batting average of 45.75 runs per time out
• Stu with a strike rate of 116% per ball faced
• Nick with 504 runs
• Tom with 20 fielding dismissals

Individual highlights

• Toby 4-15 vs Cublington on 26 May, 4-5 vs MK Park on 20 June, 4-12 against Old Bradwell on 18 July
• Josh Goodey 4-16 vs Olney on 11 May, 4-1 vs North Crawley on 16 June, 4-32 vs Wolverton on 4 July
• Nick 4-6 vs Middleton Cheney U15s on 9 May, 5-1 vs Winslow on 17 June

Five half centuries (opportunities limited as batsmen retire at 30 in U13 games) :

• Jamie 62 for the 3rd XI vs Bicester and North Oxford on 10 July
• Harsh 51 not out vs Earls Barton on 18 July
• Nick 85 vs Earls Barton on 18 July; and 67 vs Wolverton on 12 September
• Toby 55 vs Buckingham A on 22 July

For several seasons our players have had surprisingly little recognition from selectors of representative sides. This seems to be changing:

• Jamie became the first 13 year old ever to be picked for the club's Saturday first XI (as far as the club secretary is aware) and helped to save the game with 23 not out
• Dil and Nick had their debut seasons for Northants at U13, Nick taking 10 wickets and Dil scoring about 100 runs
• Goffy wasn't initially picked for the Bucks U13 squad but was recalled after an interval of two years on the basis of his play for the club this season
• Harsh and Jonny represented MK district U14s in the Bucks inter district festival

Conclusion

Looking forward to next season.

Chris and Anil

BUCKS YOUTH UNDER 13 SQUAD FIXTURES - BUCKINGHAM TOWN 2004

2004 SEASON - UNDER 13s' STATISTICS

BOWLING STATISTICS - min 5 wkts

BATTING STATISTICS - min 50 runs

OTHER STATISTICS