The Twelfth Man 2015

14 It was again a sad occasion at the beginning of March when the final 2015 WCLS coaching session was upon us. From an icy first morning at the beginning of January to a more auspicious sunny morning in March, the weeks seemed to fly by. We had greater numbers this year as compared with recent winters, which was very encouraging and it was good to see the parents and grandparents turning out in force to encourage and support the youngsters and to make it a very pleasant Sunday morning experience. We are, as always, very grateful to the parents, without whom the WCLS coaching season could not happen! Our 2015 season culminated in a wonderful evening on 26 March, when we had the great pleasure of welcoming young Yorkshire Academy player Yaasar Imtiaz, who accompanied long-time friend of WCLS and the current Yorkshire Academy coach Richard Damms to the Coaching Awards Presentation Evening. We would like to thank Michelle and Mark Shevill who run the cricket equipment suppliers Batting 4 6 (http://www.batting46.com) , who generously sponsored the evening and donated a £10 voucher to each of the individual Award Winners. Their own young son, Ethan, also came along to the sessions for the first time and at the age of just seven looks a very promising young cricketer and will hopefully have many years ahead of him at the Wombwell nets. Following the 2014 sessions some of the highlights during that summer included our being able to obtain a trial at Headingley with the Yorkshire Under 15 group for Jake Hardcastle, who is a very promising leg break bowler and solid left-hand batsman. The very talented Jack Riley from Barnsley CC is also involved with the Yorkshire Under 13 squad and has worked very hard at his cricket to perform so well for a second winter in the ‘senior’ net, which Brian Marsh oversees. The 2015 Dickie Bird Award winner, Jack Workman, successfully attended trials for the Barnsley District Under 15 team and was selected to represent the district in 2014, as did Dominic Crossland at Under 17 level. Well done to all those lads. This year we can already congratulate Karan Salvi on his pre-selection for the Sheffield Under 13 District side, so hopefully we shall hear more about his, and perhaps others, progress during the summer of 2015. Of course, it was particularly rewarding to see the improvement levels from all of our returning youngsters from the previous year, as well as from the new ones who participated for the first time in 2015. The spirit, willingness to learn, competitiveness, yet constant camaraderie in all nets was especially pleasing and helped to make it a very rewarding year for the coaches. However, this also made it, yet again, a very difficult year in which to pick the award winners. It is a great group and it has been a pleasure to be involved. Congratulations to all who attended and the coaches look forward to hopefully seeing the majority back with us in 2016. WCLS Coaching Awards 2015 Wombwell’s coaching team reflect on the 2015 winter nets and the young cricketers chosen as award winners at the Society’s ‘end-­of-­term’ presentation evening on 26 March