JUNIOR CRICKET SET TO RETURN TO EASTERN BAY OF PLENTY

Posted: Wednesday, 29 October 2014

The long term aim of a new cricket initiative in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, is to have the return of secondary school and senior club cricket to the region.

The demise of the senior game a number of years ago, led to the dearth of cricket administrators, with the result that the lone cricket flag-bearers have been Whakatane United and Trident High School, who have played in Baywide and Western Bay competitions respectively.

Bay of Plenty Cricket and the Whakatane United Cricket Club have combined forces to re-establish junior cricket in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Last year the first steps were taken by Bay Cricket, with several primary school cricket carnivals attracting plenty of attention.

A major step in the revival of the junior game, has been the appointment of well known Eastern Bay sports broadcaster Tony Kirby, as the EBOP Junior Development Officer. Tony who has lifelong love of the game, has already started duty to kick off junior cricket before the Christmas holiday break.

Eastern Bay Cricket spokesperson Trig Yates said “We are starting the junior cricket initiative with “Picnic Cricket in the Park”, which targets year one to six youngsters who want to play cricket”. “The basic skills program will be run at Rugby Park early on Friday evenings for seven weeks in November and December 2014”.

The “Picnic Cricket in the Park” program is modeled on a hugely successful concept run by the Western Bay of Plenty Cricket Association. Picnic in the Park Cricket, is about parents rocking up to Rugby Park with a rug to sit on the sideline and watch their kids get immersed in the introductory steps of the great game. The games will finish with parents and their youngsters mixing and mingling with other families and perhaps relaxing at the park with a BYO picnic meal.

The program starts with the very basics of the game, starting with hitting, catching and bowling the ball. Step one, is for the youngsters to learn to hit the ball from an elevated tee. Other first lessons include how to throw a ball and the windmill way to bowl at the stumps. In the last two weeks the kids will take part in six aside games to round out their introduction to cricket.

The first steps in the program promotion, will see Tony Kirby going into schools to sign them up for Picnic Cricket in the Park and also give the school pupils at wee taste of the game of cricket.

“Whakatane United players such as skipper Alex Yates and leg-spin bowler Brent Sharma, will be at Rugby Park each Friday night to assist and support the youngsters in learning about the great game”. “A secondary objective is to get some parents to assist, whereby we have a readymade pool of potential junior cricket administrators, which would allow us to re-start Saturday morning junior cricket” said Trig

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