The 2010 season came to a close for the Under 11 Kent Boys side with the completion of the Taunton Under 11 Cricket Festival on Friday 20th August.

Having joined the Winter Squad training programme back in January 2010, the final squad of 15 players has now completed a tough summer programme that has involved a total of 15 games plus squad days of which 12 were County games.

The results reflected somewhat both the strengths and weaknesses of the squad  in that out of 12 County  games there were 3 victories, 1 was tied, 6 were drawn and 2 were lost . In no less than 4 games critical fielding errors were made which allowed the opposition off the hook and changed the course of the game and emphasized to the squad the harsh reality that fielding remains a vital discipline in all cricketers if they are to succeed at the highest level.

Much of the coaching and training at this level is getting the basics right of either bowling a correct line and length, or learning how important it is to bat in partnerships and over a period of time and still dispatch the bad ball. Being the first rung on the County ladder this is a very steep learning curve, as boys come from playing 20 or 30 over per side games into games of either 40 or 45 overs per side, so concentration and application as well as a desire to do well are vital if boys are to continue within the County system. All boys  progress at different speeds, particularly as physical prowess will vary considerably at this age.

Over the year the boys have been fortunate enough to have many specialist coaching sessions from Phil Relf [fielding] Geraint Jones [how to play spin bowling] Darren Scott [spin bowling] Simon Cook [seam bowling] as well as the experience of Head Coach Craig Riley, who as well as sorting out the coaching programme also instills the disciplines into the new recruits as to what is required to become a County cricketer. During the summer support from Jason Weaver, Ray Willis, and Neil Taylor has meant that the boys have had a lot of individual coaching and advice as we have gone through the season and are all aware if individual areas for improvement that they must work on in the future.

At different times throughout the season all boys showed the right signs regarding improvement and greater understanding of the game as Craig’s first objective for all the boys was stated as to making them ‘independently thinking cricketers’, and this is something they all need to understand and work on continuously.

This past season we faced much more unavailability due to illness, injury, and absence for various reasons than we have had in the past, as well as an inconsistency of form which often meant that too much, relied upon too few, too often, and it was a squad that lacked a killer instinct to turn good positions into winning positions.

The side was well led by Ralph Taylor and Nathan Baxter who as the season progressed learnt how hard the 4th discipline of Captaincy can be! Both are boys who grew in stature both in cricket and individual terms enormously as the year progressed and showed the commitment and desire required to make further progress, both scoring over 200 runs [NB—281 and RT –207] and Ralph opening the bowling and usually having to bowl a full allocation. Nathan scored 2 half centuries and added a great stability to our opening partnership. Ralph made the teams only century of the season with an innings that combined graft with craft and was a great pleasure to witness.

Our batting remained somewhat brittle until Matt Barker hit a purple patch of form at Taunton to realize the potential that we knew was there. Having barely reached double figures until then he then scored 20, 26, 77, 86, 45 in consecutive innings and played some magnificent shots, and quite deservedly was voted player of our tournament at Taunton by the Festival organizers. Ollie Robinson developed as an opener with 1 excellent knock of 74 and will have learnt the trials and tribulations of being an opening bat. Others showed glimpses of potential but more maturity over shot selection and greater work on sounder technique is required by Jack Prideaux, Lewis Bedford, Bill Cain, and Jan Gray. With some of the smaller boys in the squad there is no doubt that greater physical strength  will help their development in future and allow players such as  Richard Heywood, Dyab Mohideen, Joe Shamash, Tyler Dockwray, Emile Hudd and Andrew Fargie  to develop a greater array of shots with the techniques they have learnt this year.

The bowling lacked consistency far too often with some bowlers finding line and length difficult to achieve on a regular basis and on many occasions having to abandon original plans and revert to plan B and hence using attacking bowlers in the role of retrieving a situation. The experienced heads of Taylor and Barker as well as Under 10 player Richard Heywood, were able to bowl with consistency, but Shamash, Cain, Tucker and Fargie will hopefully learn the benefits of bowling in the right areas. Our spin attack, which at Under 11 level is key to taking wickets, relied too heavily on Jan Gray and Nathan Baxter. Jan ended up as leading wicket taker but both he and Nathan will know that consistency would have secured them many more wickets and both will know to work very hard in that area.

Highlighted earlier was the fact that in a number of games the match turned on poor fielding which was too often where not only catching at County level is vital but that run out’s are an integral part of Under 11 cricket –every game had run outs, so fielding and throwing need to be practiced the whole time. Ollie Robinson had a hard time of it in some games as throwing improved only slowly during the season.

The side showed a lot of determination and character to lose out to a runners up spot at Taunton by only 1 point on the last ball of the last match, and they will all have learnt much from these games.

As always it has been an emotional roller coaster of a ride for the boys, the parents and of course the Coach and Manager, but not only will they have learnt an enormous amount about cricket but will have matured and grown up as individuals.

All the coaches will have helped them to understand cricket better and in addition to that Craig will have made all aware of the disciplines, dedication, and desire that is required to make it as a top player, and it will now be down to the boys to absorb what they have learnt and help them develop in the future.

Congratulations to the Under 13, Under 15 and Under 17 Girls teams who all made it through to the ECB county age group finals.

Jason Weaver, KCB’s High Performance Manager commented ‘This is fantastic news and shows that girls and womens cricket remains strong in Kent. I would like to thanks all the coaches, managers and parents for all their support. Throughout the season everyone involved has contributed a great deal of time of effort at matches and on the road which is very much appreciated. I wish all teams well in the finals’.