The Twelfth Man 2020

Class of 2020: Young players and the Coaches from the Winter Coaching Scheme JUNIOR COACHING CONTINUES TO FLOURISH Here Darren Crossland , our Coaching Co-ordinator reports on another year in Wombwell’s proud history of giving youngsters a grounding in cricket I start by saying a few words about the sad loss of Haris Hussain at the young age of 19 who attended the WCLS nets in 2018. Haris was a lovely young man who was a happy, talented and determined cricketer. A wicketkeeper batsman with immense talent and work ethic. He will be missed by all who met him. It has been another rewarding year; the coaching has been ex- cellent and enjoyed by all who have attended. I would like to thank Brian Marsh who undertakes all the warm up sessions and the match games. Thanks also to Alan, John (still coaching at 83), Skip, Oliver and Mick who give up their time and exper- tise without financial gain to coach the next generation of crick- eters. I want to also express my special gratitude to Beryl Ambler, for keeping me in line to ensure that we continue to give coaching sessions and making sure everything runs smoothly. My message to the youngsters is to wish them every success in the future and to remind them always to respect the umpire’s decisions because without them no games would be undertak- en. Hopefully, see you all next year. Now let’s have a few words from each coach. Alan Lockwood took net no. 1:- This was my first year coach- ing at WCLS Winter Nets and I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed it. We are blessed to have so many good young crick- eters in our midst and the younger ones were a joy to coach. Choosing a winner for our awards was a very close thing and I must have changed my mind several times. In net 3 was John Ambler:- This has been a happy and pleas- ant net; the lads have bonded and associated together well, personally I have enjoyed coaching them. As ever, I had the coach’s nightmare of which lads do I choose to award trophies to? In charge of net 4 was Richard (Skip) Skipworth:- We had an abundance of very promising cricketers in net 4 this year.  There have been six regular players that could all have com- fortably laid claim to winning an award. They have all been keen to learn and each one of them has improved.  What has really pleased me is how they play with a smile and I would like to thank them all for their dedication, application and sense of fun. It has been my pleasure to coach them and it has genuine- ly been an incredibly difficult decision to pick the award winner. In net 5 was Brian Marsh:- This year’s net had five from last year and two new students. All through this year’s nets the sev- en lads tried their best, listened to advice and improved their play but unfortunately only two awards can be presented. Sadly, our Coaching Awards Presentation Night on 26 March had to be cancelled as the government’s lockdown came into effect. Our aim will be to reinstate the presentations just as soon as we can, hopefully in the autumn. So this report from the coaching team, which would usually go on to announce the award winners has been drastically curtailed so as to preserve the element of surprise for all the youngsters. Sadly also, the presentations would have included the inaugural giving of the Roger & Doreen Sorby Memorial Award for Endeav- our so that will now have to await the re-arranged occasion. This new award has been given by Jason Sorby, a member now living in Queensland, Australia in memory of his parents who were active in both Wentworth and Cortonwood Cricket Clubs. Jason was himself a graduate of the Wombwell’s coaching. We thank Darren and all his team for their efforts once again in maintaining this important element of the Society’s aims. 42 43