Cricket Espana held it´s annual junior festival at La Manga Club on 27th Sept, this year´s event was held on a weekday to encourage schools to take part in this great event, it proved a correct decision with a number of schools taking up the invitation, in total 146 children took part which included 60 Girls which was a fantastic achievement.
The day was planned to hold group coaching sessions in the morning with a 7 a side tournament in the afternoon on 5 different pitches, but due to distances schools had to travel the proposed coaching event was cancelled with just the tournament taken place.
It was decided to have 5 leagues with mixed sides in 5 different year groups, consisting of year 4/5, year 6, year 7, year 8, year 9, 7 a side rules with every child bowling an over.
What was so good to see was every child held the bat correctly and all tried to bowl overarm, some took good catches and all were very enthusiastic in the field, it showed that the PE Teachers are teaching the correct basics back at school which was very encouraging for all to see.
The youngest age group was the most competitive league with Kings College School and Mar Azul School finishing joint top so a playoff final was arranged and Kings College went on to take the honnors with Theo Rumistrzewicz being player of the tournament for year 4/5.
Year 6 was won by Kings College School who won every game they were led by Charlie Hunt a recognised junior player in Spanish league who went on to lead his team to victory and he received the cup for his team as well as player of tournament year 6.
Year 7 proved very competitive with all teams winning matches, but El Limonar school took the honours with an unbeaten record of 4 wins, a young lady called Tira was outstanding and receive the award for best player in year 7 as well as collecting the trophy for her team.
Year 8 turned out to be a close fought league with Kings College needing to win their last game to tie with Mar Azul School which they did due to time Mar Azul and Kings College shared the trophy, Owen Attwood was voted best player in year 8 scoring over 100 runs.
Year 9 was a bit more straight forward as Mar Azul went on to win the league closely followed by Kings College, Mar Azul won more games and again had an outstanding player in Joel Attwood who went on to become best player year 9+
A big thank you to our young level 1 coaches who did a fantastic job umpiring the youngsters during the day and passing on advice when needed.
Overall everyone had a fantastic time all teachers commented on how much the Children enjoyed it, from this Cricket Espana will use funding to support schools in all regions using this area as a benchmark to follow.
Neil Brook
Director Junior Cricket Spain
