The Twelfth Man 2019

Mick Lindley helped by Oliver: The Derek Moxon Award John Ambler , still coaching at 81. He was the first award winner in 1955, being presented with an engraved glass and a book on cricket grounds. Along with Jimmy O’Brian of Darfield he was invited to attended the Yorkshire CCC nets at Headingley in April 1955 ANOTHER WINTER OF JUNIOR COACHING Darren Crossland, our Coaching Co-ordinator reviews another season of the Wombwell junior coaching programme and introduces the Jack Sokell Coaching Awards 2019 Review I’ll start by saying a few words about Brian Workman, the Co-ordinator before me who sadly passed away recent- ly. Brian was a valued member of the coaching team be - fore being in charge and did great work for the Society and will be sadly missed. It has been a rewarding year and the young lads have benefitted from some excellent coaching. It is great to see Brian Marsh and John Ambler continuing every year to coach the next generation of young cricketers and to see a young coach come along, so thank you, Oliver. Thanks also to Mick, Skip, and Dean for giving up their time without financial gain to help the youngsters. The Society should be very proud that they are giving chil- dren valuable coaching which is very affordable and open to all, so long may this continue. I want also to ex- press special gratitude to Beryl Ambler for keeping me on my toes again; she has been very patient and under- standing, so much appreciated. I hope all of you have a successful season and enjoy yourselves - and always respect the umpire’s decision because without them no games would be undertaken. In my net with the U9s it was tremendous to look across the gymnasium seeing how good a standard of cricket was coming from these junior players and just how good a show the Wombwell Cricket Lovers’ Society has put on once again. I would like to praise the veteran coach, eighty-one year-old  John Ambler and his good wife Ber- yl for her input in making this junior cricket programme happen. John still reminds us of names like Jack Sokell, Arthur Johnson etc and the Sir George’s Arms, where the Society held their meetings back in 1951; how sad that Jack, Arthur and the Sir George’s Arms are no longer with us. Good memories; and to see young children and young adults from all walks of life enjoying the simple game of cricket is what it’s all about. It’s never easy making the decision to pick this year’s awards from my group but I have chosen two young- sters who took a very short time to learn to bowl cor- rectly. It is said that the bowling action is a series of diffi- cult movements. Well, to these two young people it was not and after bowling badly both players listened and put into practice a good basic bowling action in a matter of minutes. The runner-up goes to a mighty seven year-old who has cricket running through his veins, absolutely loves the game and learned to bowl in a matter of minutes. Bat- ting technique is good, he gets onto the front foot with a wide V and a leading shoulder opening up on the on- side, gets across to the ball on the offside and all with good foot movement. All very promising; this year’s run- ner up goes to William Metcalf . The winner of the Derek Moxon Award was bowling and hitting the wickets four and five times every week and twice very nearly taking two hat tricks. Alignment was faultless and as she gets older and stronger who knows how far she can go playing cricket; the award goes to Elizabeth Fiddler , or Lizzy as she likes to be called.